All Things Baseball

From today's Philly Inquirer:

"General manager Ed Wade understands the perception that the Phillies have taken a step backward, although he doesn't agree with it. "It's the nature of our game that people view it a certain way," Wade said."

Okay, I'm gonna put my new-found optimism aside for a moment. Don't worry, I'll be returning to my 92-70 optimistic ways later. But come on, Ed Wade. That's the best you can do? That's the most inspirational you can get?

John Schuerholz goes and shores up his rotation. Successful? Many say yes, I say no, but we all can agree that he did everything he could and that he made the right decisions in bringing in Tim Hudson.

Omar Minaya goes to visit and ultimately sign Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran to patch up some glaring holes in his team. Successful? Many say yes, I still say no, but we all can agree that the Mets had one of the better offseasons given their expectations and low fan turnouts (I've been to Shea a couple times the last few years, and I can tell you it's a desolate desolate place).

The Florida Marlins bring in Al Leiter to complement their already young and good rotation, are trying to bring in Carlos Delgado, and were able to keep their thirdbaseman Mike Lowell in the fold. Successful? People say they'll be better than the Phillies, I say probably not, but they're also making the best moves they can.

The Phillies? Well, the year that one of the best CF's ever was on the market, the year that several great young pitchers were on the market, the year that the Athletics were selling 2 of their vaunted Big Three, the year that the 3B who ties Schmidt's HR record for a right handed 3Bman is a free agent, what did we end up with?

Kenny Lofton, Age 39 (or so).
Jon Lieber, Age 34 (or so), with a recovering ligament.
Terry Adams, who cares how old he is.
Cory Lidle
Placido Polanco at the low low price of 4 million.

YES we took a step back. NO it's not b/c of the nature of the game making ppl take different perspectives. YES the Phillies could have done a LOT more.

But fine. Enough complaining. Go Phillies.