Phillies Thoughts- Ruben Amaro: Great GM or The Greatest GM?

by **Barry Jive** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 09:10:15

they're not going to trade Jimmy Rollins, but if they did I'd be pretty infuriated

by **sydnor** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 09:15:31

JFLNYC wrote:Darin Ruf now has a 1.0 WAR this year in 105 PA. In 317 PA, Ryan Howard's WAR is 0.4.

P.S. Ruf's OPS vs. RHP is 1.025

[Place obligatory SSS disclaimer here]

#DecimatedByInjuries

by **RichmondPhilsFan** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 09:53:45

Still don't get the Rollins hate. He's 13th in fWAR among ML shortstops, 6th in the NL. There are only two SS in the entire ML with an OPS above .800. There are only EIGHT with an OPS above .700.

Shortstop is a terrible offensive position right now. Rollins is middle of the pack and his contract is far from crippling.

by **sydnor** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:04:26

No hate whatsoever. He's not overpaid BUT he's taking up resources. Legitimate question of seeing whether you can replace most of his value with Galvis and then spend the 11 million somewhere else. If Rollins was producing at a level that was only worth 4 or 5 million and yet was paid that,I wouldn't want to trade him. But so much of our roster is not flexible right now that it's worth seeing who we could trade to open more flexibility. Same general idea as Papelbon except he's annoying and might not quite be worth his money but not dead money.

I don't want to trade Utley, Hamels or Lee because I think they're capable of earning more than they're making. I can't trade Howard/Adams due to injuries/sucking. That leaves Paps and Rollins as guys making lots of money that could be freed up without having to eat contract.

Would you rather have McCann/Galvis making 15.5 million or Ruiz/Rollins making 16 million next year*?

* - Not sure if McCann gets 15 million next year (Molina signed for 5/75) nor am I sure that Ruiz is getting 5 million after his terrible year but close enough.

by **RichmondPhilsFan** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:27:11

I wasn't necessarily talking about you. I agree that I'd be willing to swap him for value and reallocate those resources, although I'm pretty skeptical about Galvis as an anything more than a utility guy. But there's been a whole lot of "Rollins sucks and his contract is terrible" comments on here lately. The contract will likely end up being a slight overpay and the easy vesting option is a problem, but that doesn't justify the extreme comments.

by **Grotewold** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:27:30

The other consideration is those guys you're signing for $10-15M are probably gonna get long-term deals. If you're talking two or three reliable bullpen guys, great, but it looks to me like we could afford that anyway.

I think a lot of people -- not here necessarily -- just want to "get young" and slash payroll for the fuck of it; the high amount of Utley-extension criticism really surprised me. I think 6org of all people was much more reasonable in saying that while the core is old and expensive, it makes little sense to surround them with rushed prospects. As long as we are not blocking/trading the Francos and Biddles (and maybe even Dugans) of the world and carelessly losing draft picks, I have no problem whatsoever with complementing the core with shorter-term, higher-floor, higher-ceiling (for 2014-15) type guys

by **RichmondPhilsFan** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:35:55

BTW, I'm also pretty skeptical about giving Brian McCann something like 4/$60MM or 5/$70MM. And he might very well get more than that. He hasn't played more than 128 games since 2010, and there's a good chance he won't even crack 100 this season (70 GP through 115 team games).

Yeah, he's a 2 or 3 win player at a position where wins are a premium. But he's in his 9th season, he's got over 1000 games under his belt, and the Phils would likely have to pay for his age 33 and 34 seasons. No thanks.

by **Grotewold** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:40:00

I can understand the temptation, but he's also a terrible fit for the lineup. I know the too many lefties thing is overblown, but Ruf and a weak-RHB Rollins isn't enough late in games

by **sydnor** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:43:10

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:BTW, I'm also pretty skeptical about giving Brian McCann something like 4/$60MM or 5/$70MM. And he might very well get more than that. He hasn't played more than 128 games since 2010, and there's a good chance he won't even crack 100 this season (70 GP through 115 team games).

Yeah, he's a 2 or 3 win player at a position where wins are a premium. But he's in his 9th season, he's got over 1000 games under his belt, and the Phils would likely have to pay for his age 33 and 34 seasons. No thanks.

understood. i'm not too worried about more than 5/70 and I think 4/60 is a steal (would love to convince him that he wants 3/48 or even 3/50). I think the way Molina is revered in the industry, he's the absolute cap.

Who knows though, I saw that as an absolute 3 or 4 win gain but fangraphs tells me that Phillies catchers have been worth 1.5ish wins. RF seems like the place where you might be able to pick up a full 3 or 4 wins, but is there a player good enough to do that on the free agent market?

by **sydnor** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:46:13

Grotewold wrote:I can understand the temptation, but he's also a terrible fit for the lineup. I know the too many lefties thing is overblown, but Ruf and a weak-RHB Rollins isn't enough late in games

If you're a ruthless manager, it's overblown. If you are cool with constantly embarrassing Ryan Howard by lifting him for a pinch hitter (which you should be) and then Frandsen for Asche, you'll be fine.

Brown and Utley hit lefties fine.

by **Rev_Beezer** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:10:02

http://network.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/14238278?widget=true

WE DID IT! WFC PART 2 IN RETROSPECT!

by **ReadingPhilly** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:16:11

i'd offer mccann and choo 5/75 each. choo's real bad against lefties, but murders rhp. he'd give us something at the top of the lineup we haven't had in a long time. mccann hits lefties fine and he'd need days off anyway so kratz would get his action. think that lineup gives us the best chance of doing something worthwhile if they're going to stick with the majority of the team they have.

by **RichmondPhilsFan** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:27:13

sydnor wrote:RF seems like the place where you might be able to pick up a full 3 or 4 wins, but is there a player good enough to do that on the free agent market?

RF is worth -1.7 WAR. It's not like a 1 or 2 WAR corner OF is difficult to find. Plug that in for 155 games, and that's a 3-4 win gain right there.

Hell, if you sign Choo to a reasonable deal, then move Revere over to RF. That's a two-win gain in RF and a two, maybe three-win gain in CF.

by **ReadingPhilly** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:28:48

choo is better in right. revere in cf and choo in rf would be the best.

by **TenuredVulture** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:32:32

I don't think I sign anyone over 30.

by **RichmondPhilsFan** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:33:21

You're right. I hadn't looked at his defensive numbers until now, and I've seen him play so rarely that I have no idea about his defense.

by **TenuredVulture** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:33:45

Rev_Beezer wrote:http://network.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/14238278?widget=true

WE DID IT! WFC PART 2 IN RETROSPECT!

Thinking about linking this on facebook.

by **Woody** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:40:44

"Maybe I'm delusional..." the Phillies general manager said

"The team is under .500 for a variety of reasons," Amaro said. "One is we just didn't get production of the players who are sitting on the DL right now. That hurt us. I believe we were a contending-level team if we had Ryan Howard and he was on the field. And then we lost Domonic [Brown] at a pretty critical time for us. I still believe we are a contending team with those guys on the field."

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phi ... p1PuKtF.99

by **Roger Dorn** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:44:36

Injuries was the excuse last year too... Maybe it has something to do with relying on an aging core to magically produce to their 2007 levels. Rube seems to have this fixation that good baseball players will always be good, gotta look at those numbers on the back of a baseball card

by **RichmondPhilsFan** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:59:38

Not to mention that most teams suffer critical injuries at some point during a 162-game season.

There's also something to be said about the offense actually getting better by replacing Howard with Ruf. But hey.

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