Woody wrote:

"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

Grotewold wrote:But what's he supposed to say?

JFLNYC wrote:

Grotewold wrote:But what's he supposed to say?

Well, rather than just saying he thinks this roster, if healthy, is a contender, he could say: "I still think we're close to be a contending team, but we need to get healthy and it will be up to me to upgrade the roster to get us there for next year."

JFLNYC wrote:

Grotewold wrote:But what's he supposed to say?

Well, rather than just saying he thinks this roster, if healthy, is a contender, he could say: "I still think we're close to be a contending team, but we need to get healthy and it will be up to me to upgrade the roster to get us there for next year."

jerseyhoya wrote:I don't care what he says. The question is if he believes what he's saying or not. If he really thinks this team would be contending if Ryan and Dom had been healthy all season, then that's not OK.

Bill McNeal wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:

Grotewold wrote:But what's he supposed to say?

Well, rather than just saying he thinks this roster, if healthy, is a contender, he could say: "I still think we're close to be a contending team, but we need to get healthy and it will be up to me to upgrade the roster to get us there for next year."

How is that different than what he actually said? You've basically just wordsmithed his statement to make it less confident.

Grotewold wrote:p.s. Those of you who don't care about the Yankees can feel free to ignore this. But following up on our discussion earlier this month, the Yankees have crossed the vaunted threshold of 7 back in the wild card race.

Where are the "blow up the Yankees" and Cashman hit pieces? Since injuries are no excuse.

phdave wrote:I'd like a pony.

Shore wrote:I have no idea what the offseason holds for either team, but I'd put money on them winning more games than us in both 2013 and 2014.

Grotewold wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:I don't care what he says. The question is if he believes what he's saying or not. If he really thinks this team would be contending if Ryan and Dom had been healthy all season, then that's not OK.

Agreed. Guessing he also meant Halladay and Adams (who was risky) and Ruiz/Kratz, Revere, etc.

Grotewold wrote:

Shore wrote:I have no idea what the offseason holds for either team, but I'd put money on them winning more games than us in both 2013 and 2014.

According to what the Yankees have said publicly, there's will consist of somehow retaining Cano -- while cutting payroll by at least $14M. And, presumably, doctoring Sabathia's PED tests.

It's not about the last 20 years or which is the better franchise. It's about two high-payroll teams in very very similar situations being analyzed very differently. I'm not obsessed with it, I just find it interesting, especially since the media used to be really tough on the Yankees or at least hold them to high standards.

Shore wrote:Howard and Halladay and Utley and Rollins and Young and Ruiz are all risks, risks that he chose to take. When they blow up, as many of them have, you don't get to excuse away the risk.

Shore wrote:Amaro says something we don't like, it's a smokescreen. Cashman says something that works for you, it's gospel.

Cool.

Grotewold wrote:I'm on the record that if Amaro's actions moving forward confirm JFLY's suspicions, I'll be upset.