Archive for March 9th, 2010

Ruben's smitten!

This is the final installment of a series in which I attempt to objectively evaluate Ruben Amaro’s performance as general manager. Part I can be found here, and Part II here.

I concluded Part II with a paragraph that I probably should have saved for the end of this post. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “edit” function on this blog, or a “delete” key on my keyboard, so my slight error will live on in infamy. Still, when you examine Ruben’s dealings with other ballclubs, as I will today, it remains apparent that he is capable of alternating strokes of genius and mediocrity. The trades, and accompanying analysis, after the jump.

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Obviously a fascist

In an online forum, the purpose of a moderator is to keep everything from going to shit.  What that should mean is squelching the trolls and dumbass kids who fail to contribute even a modicum of positive influence on the forum.  A good forum will have many good users who weed out the bad by constantly making them look foolish.  A person can be made to look dumb only so many times before he/she goes elsewhere.  I like to think that Chris, Ruckus, Liney, and I are that type of user on our particular forum.  We do a lot of good in our forum teaching others how to think critically about baseball and the Phillies.

Which brings me to why I’m annoyed.  I created a thread explicitly to contain our blog’s thoughts.  The idea was to keep things in one place.  We get the benefit of a little promotion while the forum gets the benefit of not having our crap spread around 10 different threads. 100% less “I can answer your question but I’m just going to link you to my blog article” is a good thing.  And of course, because this post has happened, you probably have figured out that thread has been closed.  I don’t blame the particular mod in question for blindly following the rules, what I’m bothered by is people applying arbitrary rules that they have no stake in.  It doesn’t matter to this particular mod if the Phillies forum has a thread that promotes a blog.  He doesn’t use the Phillies forum.  Shouldn’t it be up to the discretion of the Phillies moderator to close threads in the Phillies forum?  I sent this to the mod who closed the thread.

The express purpose of the thread was to make the forum better. A number of PSD Phillies forum users are followers of the blog and like to remain updated. By allowing us use of a thread, we’re able to keep other threads uncluttered. Otherwise our work would be linked into whatever thread was appropriate and discussed there. I see this as detracting from the forum because it changes our post behavior. By keeping updates in one place, we the bloggers can continue to post in other threads as we usually would and the forum goers have the option of following our blog or not.

Further, for those users that do like to follow us, an updates thread provides a richer PSD experience. There hasn’t been any negative feedback in the thread from the Phillies forum goers.

I ask that you reconsider your decision to close the thread. A dedicated thread keeps things much neater and tidier. Further, it keeps everyone involved happy. Please consider re-opening it.

His response:

A thread specifically dedicated to a blog is not what we allow. If the thread is about a Philly related topic and refers to blog it is fine. But threads referring to the blog specifically are not what we want.

sigh I don’t understand.  I try to make things as simple as possible and they want it done the hard way.  I guess the forum will now become an extension of our blog.  Hello Prospects Thread.  Allow me to introduce you to The A Team’s Top 10 Prospects…

Douche of the Day: Billy Wagner

On the day he is scheduled to pitch against us in a spring training exhibition, lets all take a step back and reflect on just how much of a douche he really is.

Google is pretty awesome isn’t it?  Attached is a spreadsheet of the Phillies payroll commitments as noted by Jeff Euston at Cots Contracts.  I will be updating the data as the season goes along, the spreadsheet is intended to provide everyone a quick snap shot of the Phillies commitment to the 25 man roster.  Keep in mind there are plenty of minor leaguers also making serious coin and some of the players have performance incentives that may scale up the value of their contracts by the end of the season.  Option buyouts are not indicated in the spreadsheet.  Most options have buyouts, you can look those up at Cots.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArCib-AD2n2VdHRfdDBrMGdrdVdIRkRhTEVUN2dIOWc&hl=en

A number of simple observations should jump out.  First, the Phillies are heavily committed to 2011.  Only 4 players are set to come off the books in Moyer (8m), Werth (7m), Durbin (2.15m), and Dobbs (1.35m).  Pay raises are set to eliminate those savings.  An additional 4.95 mil could come off the books if options to J.C. Romero (4.5m/.25m buyout) and Juan Castro (.75m/.05m buyout) are declined.  With only about 2-7 million to spend on four to six roster spots, 2011 looks like it will be a very boring offseason to be a Phillies fan.  Hopefully the club will make it a shorter and sweeter offseason with a Championship.  Looking ahead, you’ll probably notice that things open up a bit in 2012.  This will be looked at more in depth tomorrow.

For those of you hoping to retain Jayson Werth, the 2011 payroll certainly bodes ill.  This is especially concerning since Ruben and Montgomery have publicly hinted at a firm payroll ceiling around 140 mil for opening day rosters.  Creative options to retaining Werth will be explored in a few days.