Philadelphia Baseball History

The news at the end of Friday was that the Phillies had avoided arbitration with five of the six players eligible this year. That one player with whom the Phillies have not reached an agreement is Aaron Nola. News reports indicate that Nola seeks $6.75 from the arbitrator, while the Phillies want the aribitrator to award $4.5 million. Many Phillies fans are incensed over this. Nola has been the Phillies’ most consistent starting pitcher over the last three years. Last year, he finished third in the voting for the NL Cy Young Award, with a record of 17-6 and an ERA of 2.37. Surely Nola has been the Phillies’ most promising prospect in the latest rebuilding process.  How can the Phillies be so greedy as to let Nola slip into an embarrassing and potentially damaging process of arbitration over two million dollars?  This is especial egregious given that the Phillies May be poised to conclude long-term $300 million contracts with not one, but two free agents, neither of whom are ...

This year's off-season has been marked by big name free agent ball players remaining unsigned through the beginning of Spring Training. The situation has left some players and their agents crying foul against the owners. In addition, the union has found itself in conflict with the Commissioner over proposed rule changes allegedly intended to enhance the pace of play.  The emergence of these issues raises the question of whether a labor dispute is brewing for baseball. Starting with the issue of unsigned free agents, this is a problem with two root causes.  The first is the way baseball's economic and salary rules operate.  The second is how teams currently value players. From the point of view of the ball player, if he shows his abilities and talents on the field, he expects to be rewarded.  In particular, baseball's rules can keep a player tied to one team for up to six years after being drafted.  Initially, the player has three years to earn a spot on th...

            Tanking.             Really?             Let me get this straight.   The Phillies front office neglected its minor league system to a point where it was one of the worst in baseball.   The skill and talent from the team that once dominated the National League East got old, got injured, and the talent pool from the minor leagues was not able to replace it.   And now that the Phillies are doing what they can to fix their minor league system, they get lumped into a discussion about tanking?             Let’s take a step back and talk about tanking.   It is an allegation that a team is not working to put together a staff that could be competitive on the major league level specifically for the purpose of taking advantage of highe...