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 ...

With the 2018 season behind us and the Winter Meetings about to open, it seems like a perfect time for some hot stove discussion on the Phillies.  Watching this team contend for most of the season, and remain in first place until August, was certainly a thrill. But the late season collapse laid bare the Phils’ inadequacies. Young pitching, led by Aaron Nola, kept the team competitive. Poor hitting and defense, however, doomed the Phillies’ early success. Indeed, I felt less confident at the end of this season than I did at the end of last season, where an August and September surge led by the young players gave me hope.  What is clear is that this team needs more than just one player. While I may be pleased should the Phillies acquire Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, that would simply not be enough to address the most serious of holes in this roster.  Starting with the biggest concern, the Phillies’ defense was just horrible. Much of that has been blamed on play...

Let the whining begin! I just read an article by Jon Tayler casting aspersions on the Phillies for taking advantage of the market to sign Jake Arrieta to a team-friendly deal, and thereby becoming one step closer to making the play-offs. Tayler accuses the Phillies of engaging in that new dirty word in baseball, “tanking.” The word “tanking” has some seriously negative connotations to it. It creates the notion that a team is essentially throwing games in order to play the rules to get high draft picks and more pool money.  But before getting judgmental, consider who this nomenclature helps. It is designed specifically to arouse fans’ emotions, to push their teams to sign high-priced free agents. That’s right, if you are not signing high-priced, then according to certain sportswriters you are tanking. And who does signing high-priced free agents help?  Sports agents. Sports agents negotiate the deals for the players, and take a cut of the salary as their fee. The ...

For the Philadelphia sports fan it is easy to be romantic about the Athletics. After all, their five world championships surpass those of all of the professional sports teams that play in Philadelphia today. But let’s not kid ourselves. The A’s we’re not always that good. In fact, during the time between the two major dynasties, and after 1931, the A’s were downright horrible. A lot of that had to do with the way baseball teams were recruited. While Connie Mack was good at recruiting baseball teams in the early 20th century, he proved unable to adapt to modern methods of recruitment. And thus the Philadelphia A’s wallowed in or near the cellar for a good portion of their existence. In 1901, when Ban Johnson was forming the American League to be a competitor to the National League, he courted Connie Mack, then manager of the Milwaukee Brewers of the western league, because of his talent in putting together baseball teams.  Mack could assemble talented teams b...

Last week, Phillies fans acting in disbelief upon hearing a report that the team was considering Ruben Amaro, Jr. for the open Manager's position.  Amaro, currently serving at the First Base Coach of the Boston Red Sox, was drummed out of Philadelphia which much fanfare towards the end of the 2015.  During Amaro's reign with the Phillies as General Manager, the team saw itself go from a feared powerhouse in the National League East, to a perennial last place team.  Amaro largely shouldered the blame. Certainly, during his tenure Amaro was responsible for a number of transactions which were either unpopular at the time, or in retrospect were not beneficial to the team.  For example, Amaro was responsible for tying the Phillies' hands financially with a number of high-priced, long-term contracts, such as those for Ryan Howard and Jonathan Papelbon.  Amaro traded away popular players at questionable times, raising the ire of many fans.  Amaro trade Cli...

            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...