All Things Baseball

So it looks like the Shawn Green to Arizona deal may not happen, which quite honestly surprises me. But let's put LA (the REAL Los Angeles) aside and see what else could happen, should an enterprising GM, say... Ed Wade, take advantage of this.

The D-Backs now have TWO players that the Phillies could use, and as luck should have it, the D-Backs are willing to trade both players! Serendipity!

The Phillies need a better starting pitcher. Enter Javier Vazquez.
The Phillies also need a new young catcher to groom. Enter Dioner Navarro.

Hello Ed Wade, go trade for Vazquez and Navarro. Now. Right now. Right now while the D-Back's disappointment is fresh.

After the deal fell through, the D-Backs started looking into Jeromy Burnitz to replace Shawn Green. Well, I think the Phillies have something to offer.

Several names should immediately be thrown in by Wade: Randy Wolf, Brett Myers, Marlon Byrd, Placido Polanco, David Bell, Ryan Howard.

Somehow, some way, a combination of several of these players should get the Phillies Vazquez and Navarro.

How about Wolf, Myers and Howard? Too much you say? I don't.
Or maybe Myers, Byrd, and Howard? That might sound better to most.
Perhaps Wolf, Byrd, and Howard. Or Wolf, Polanco, Howard?

In any case, Byrd may be hard to trade, but maybe not... he's young, still has some talent somewhere buried in him. I'm surprised at his major step back last year.. I think he should still be in our lineup over Lofton. But that's just me. Howard is intriguing, yes, but in reality he's 25, strikes out a ton, and has no position outside 1B. So to the Phillies, he's useless. (I like Thome, I like his star appeal, and while he's expensive, I'd rather the Phillies keep him, unless they go get Beltran). Myers is the best of the names above, I believe... b/c of his age, skill, and mentality. He's been inconsistent, but so was Schilling, Unit, and others who became pretty great. Myers won't be THAT great in the end, but it's still not too late for him to become a terrific number 2 or 3.

If you can get Navarro and Vazquez, none of the players are worth enough to make them untouchable.

The MLB recently put out the 2004 figures for team salaries, and when compared with the figures over the past 4 years (back to 2000), there are some interesting things to note. Primarily, the Phillies are a weak organization (and it pains me to say it).

The top 10 teams in terms of salaries for 2004:

1. NY Yankees (187,918,394)
2. Boston (130, 395, 386)
3. Anaheim (115,608,812)
4. NY Mets (103,199,231)
5. LA Dodgers (101,682,464)
6. Chicago Cubs (100,653,389)
7. PHILLIES (97,380,476)
8. St. Louis (92,816,050)
9. San Francisco (82,404,615)
10. Houston (81,903,157)

Some quick thoughts:
- Where is Atlanta??? They're number 12 at 79,445,468. That's right, nearly 20 million less than the Phillies, 25 million less than the Mets. And that's not a team of nobodies: Smoltz, the Joneses, Marcus Giles, and now Tim Hudson... that's just a well run team.
- Obviously, the Mets are an even worse-run team than the Phillies, and their signing of Pedro for 4 yrs and pursuit of Beltran at 18 mil/yr simply confirm their short-sighted way of spending dollars.
- You can see why the Giants failed to make the playoffs... even with Barry Bonds on their payroll, their salary was "only" 82 million, meaning that they had no talent around Mr. Sherman Tank, aka Barry ".900 slg" Bonds.
- The Phillies spent more money than St. Louis (NL Champs), Houston (NL Runner-ups), and Atlanta. Nothing to show for it.

A closer look at Philly's history:
2000: 45.7 million
2001: 47 million
2002: 61.5 million
2003: 71.5 million
2004: 97.4 million

That's a steady increase in dollars spent for sure. And if anyone remembers, 2000 and 2001 were pretty dark years. As was just about all of the 1990's, save 1993. So I guess a lot of the criticism surrounding the Phillies that they're not spending the money or are acting like a small market team is misguided. They ARE spending money! But there's been nothing to show for it, not even a playoff appearance in this wild-card era. And perhaps that means that they've spent their money on the wrong players.

It's hard to criticize the last few free agent moves/trades that they've made though. Jim Thome was a heady signing... exciting times for this starved baseball team. At the time, David Bell was a hot commodity, being the clubhouse "winner" that lots of teams seek. Perhaps he was overpaid, but that's what bad teams need to do to get the players. Billy Wagner was a coup, given that Brandon Duckworth was pretty worthless. But here's the thing.... this club, in 2004, underproduced. They underproduced terribly.

When a team underproduces that poorly, lots of GM's take that as a sign that they need to fix things, take bold steps. It sure seems like, however, that Ed Wade's response is: "I have faith in our players. They're good players. Just wait till next year. These guys will win." In the mean time, Mulder changes teams. Hudson changes teams. Matt Clement is available. Odalis Perez is out there. Beltre is a free agent. Beltran is out there. Wade Miller signs for 1.5 million. Carl Pavano signs. These are big time names, exciting players. And who gets them? St Louis, Atlanta, Boston, Yankees, Seattle. Big time teams. Getting the big time players.

Bottom line: Just spending money doesn't make you a big time franchise. Actually getting the players is what does it. And unless we manage to get Vazquez, this offseason will rank as one of the worst in terms of opportunities lost. Even that won't fully save it anyway.

With Randy Johnson reportedly on his way to the Yankees for Javier Vazquez et al., and with Shawn Green reportedly on his way to Arizona for, well, NOT for Javier Vazquez, an interesting situation arises. Vazquez apparently wishes to stay on the East coast. The Phillies are rumored to be interested in trading Randy Wolf for Javier Vazquez.

With the moves that the rest of the NL East has made (Tim Hudson to the Braves, Pedro Martinez to the Mets, Al Leiter to the Marlins), and with the under-production of the pitching staff last year (goodbye Millwood), there is something to the argument that the Phillies desperately need a top-line young ace to build around.

Cole Hamels is a long ways away. Gavin Floyd is closer, but Brett Myers is becoming a cautionary tale. Ryan Madson was great last year, but only in a relief role. As a starter, Madson was decidedly less impressive. Padilla was better than his record indicates, but Wolf had injury issues, Lieber IS an injury issue, and Cory Lidle won't scare anyone who's not a Phillie fan.

For these reasons, a trade of Randy Wolf for Javier Vazquez would be terrific. There are caveats: (1) It would leave the Phillies without a LHP in their rotation. I'm not so worried about this... I feel that having lefties in the bullpen is much more important than in the starting rotation... that's where the matchups really come into play in any significant way. (2) Vazquez was terrible last season, but I'm not worried - he obviously didn't like the AL, and something tells me he's kinda angry about the press he's received out of New York.

He's in his 20's. He's put up crazy numbers in the past. He's got the ubiquitous "nasty stuff". And he wants to stay on the East Coast. The Yankees envisioned him as their ace for years to come.... he may have failed in NY, but he just might be great in Philly.

Go get him Ed Wade!