Phillies receive poor grades from Sports Illustrated
Those of us with far less optmistic worldviews had our fears confirmed when Sports Illustrated released the team's off-season report card.
Phillies receive poor grades from Sports Illustrated
Justin Klugh, Assistant Sports Producer
Some people have convinced themselves that Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Roy Halladay will bounce back and have healthy, productive years; that Michael and Delmon Young will provide cheap, adequate power in the middle of the order; that somehow, through a combination of willful ignorance and changing the channel, the Phillies' defense will work itself out.
Those of us with far less optmistic worldviews had our fears confirmed when Sports Illustrated released the team's off-season report card and saw a big red "D."
"Though the trade for Revere gives the Phillies a cost-controlled centerfielder to grow on, they’ve taken steps backward with most of their other moves," the article states. "[The Phillies] are more likely to repeat last year’s middling showing than contend in a division where the Nationals and Braves have upgraded in impressive fashion."
Sure, this was just one media outlet's opinion. But by using "information" and "facts" to back their arguments, SI painted an inarguably hideous picture of Amaro's winter tinkering.
On Delmon Young: "The money is inconsequential enough, but it looks like an overpay for a player who hit .267/.296/.411 with 18 homers last year with a −0.9 Wins Above Replacement Player mark even while being limited to just 31 games in the field, all of them in left."
On Michael Young: "He’ll take over third base in place of Polanco, who to be fair is a year older and about half as durable, but at least able to do something besides imitate a matador at the hot corner."
On Ben Revere: "Amaro did actually acquire some youth in the form of speedy 24-year-old center fielder Ben Revere, who stole 40 bases last year but hit a thin .294/.333/.342 with just 19 extra-base hits..."
Grim stuff.
Perhaps there are others in the media who took a more sympathetic angle, or were at least not paying as much attention.
"[The Phillies' defense] Could be comically bad. Howard? Michael Young? Delmon? Domonic Brown? My lord." [David Schoenfield, ESPN]
"I get why the Phillies think they can still compete. I don't get why they're punting half of their defense and adding more offensive question marks to a growing pile." [Grant Brisbee, Baseball Nation]
"Amaro might have been wise to pass up on overpaying for an outfielder, but unless Young bounces back into the player who led the American League in hits and finished eighth in MVP voting in 2011, a sizable hole remains in the middle of the lineup." [Ryan Lawrence, The Daily News]
"It has been a different kind of offseason for the Phillies, and it's impossible to say that they caught the Nationals and Braves based on where the teams finished last season and what they've done this offseason." [Bob Brookover, Inquirer]
"On paper, it seems the Phillies will once again be unable to contend with the two teams they finished behind in the standings last season. While the Braves and Nationals got better, it’s hard to argue that the Phils did the same." [Phillies Nation]
At least one man has both faith in the Phillies and the means to share his opinion with a large audience.
"I better not say a whole lot about it, but at the same time I know Ruben is really working hard and trying to improve our ballclub, and anything that goes down I think will help us." [Charlie Manuel]
Of course, that was back around Christmas. According to Sports Illustrated, the Phillies' GPA has taken a few hits since then.
responded to your stupidiy about Papelbum beforer --here it is again:
ryanrockzzz: "What exactly was wrong with Papelbon last year? He had a solid season" --morons who don't follow games shouldn't be posting...
Papelbum's Greatest Hits 2012 (plus many more in which he gave up runs):
5/7 vs. Mets 3 ER, Loss;
6/4 vs. LA 1 ER, Loss;
6/23 vs TB 2 ER, Blown save;
7/5 vs. Mets 2 ER, BLown save, Loss;
7/18 vs. LA 2 ER, Papelbon Blown save leading to loss;
7/21 vs SF 1 ER, Papelbon Loss;
8/21 vs Cinc. 1 er, Papelbon Loss;
9/2 vs. Atl, up 7-3 with 2 outs to go; 2 inherited runs score, 3 more earned runs, Blown save, Loss..season over
Papelbon was the worst signing of last winter, despite padding his stats with non-clutch saves againt poor hitting teams -- he had 6 devastating losses and 4 blown saves that were as bone-crushing and season-detroying as anything else that wrecked the Phils season -- no worse reliever to see on the mound in an important spot past few years than this one-dimensinal loser-- after his pitch count exceeds 15 (which good teams can quickly get him to) opposing hitters hit way over .300 against him - he's not "elite" he's an annoying unreliable loser who will prevent the Phils from ever winning anything meaningful until his contract expires in 2016— warbiscuit- advantasux: "rather than debate every move for the good and bad of it, why can't the readers and posters here (and especially Amaro's defenders) take a holistic look at the roster situations present at the start of 2010 and the start of 2013? ...position by position...are somewhere between worse and much, much worse....Yet, our payroll has ranked at the top of the NL for each season ....Rubens A. Moron, Jr. has ruined this team"
Congratulations on the irrebuttable synopsis— warbiscuit - Irrefutable synopsis indeed. The only thing he/she left out is that the farm system (the future) is also in dire straits thanks to Ruin Tomorrow Jr. — Copper34
- morons like ryanrockjazz just show your ignorance and parochial naivete if you think there are just a couple of posters who rip Amaro's awful destruction of this franchise over past few years and realize that Rube is incompetent -- go "enlighten" yourself if you dare and read SI, ESPN, crashburnalley, cbs, SBNation , the goodphight, etc etc instead of wallowing in your self-delusion— warbiscuit
- clear good moves by Rube in 4 years: 1.acquired Lee from Cleveland,
2. signed Hamels to long-term contract so as to not lose him...2 good moves vs. over 40 bad ones— warbiscuit - SI is just grading the offseason moves. How could anyone expect them to give good grades for the moves made? SI doesn't base their report card on the hopes of a fan.
Every fan should go into the season with their eyes open, even if you are hoping for a lot of things to fall in our favor.
Michael Young has been considered a defensive liability by almost everyone for years now. He's spent almost half his playing time the past two years being a DH. There is a definite defensive drop-off there over Polanco. What you pin any realistic hopes on with M. Young is that his hitting can rebound. He may show some defensive improvement playing 3B regularly but the fact is very few guys get better defensively as they get older. Delmon Young is a really low OBP guy and an absolutely horrid fielder. That's what he's been. They're not going to grade him on something he could be or something the fans hope he becomes. Revere offers good defense and speed but a weak arm, no offensive power at all, and little ability to draw walks. He's got ceiling being young but you can't look at our middle defense and think that somehow compensates for the total defensive question marks elsewhere. If it did we should have been fine last year. Rollins, Galvis/Utley, Victorino is somehow way worse than Rolllins, Utley, Revere? It's about a wash there in my opinion.— s - Well said s ... Regardless of what you think the Phillies will do come April, the offseason moves were atrocious. The Revere trade reeked of desperation. They got two more American League DHs to play in the National League. Amaro still hasn't addressed the things that Amaro said needed to be addressed after the Playoff loss to the Cardinals -- namely the fact that they swing for the fences, refuse to be disciplined at the plate, and eschew the base on balls. Their offense is flawed - not because their players stink, but because their GM is incompetent. @warbiscuit -- you have to count the Halladay trade among Amaro's good moves. While it may be true that he simply gave TOR more quality prospects than any other GM was willing to give, he deserves credit for "choosing" the right prospects to ship off to Canada. — Copper34
- apologists should go attack the "haters" on espn yesterday too for having the umbrage to say this: "Grading the Phillies' Core: C.... a lot of older big name players who don't produce like they once did... Even Halladay ... showed some serious wear and tear..." C is about right for mediocre team that finshed .500 last yr— warbiscuit
- correction: the quotes above are from cbssports— warbiscuit
- Going to be hard to battle the Upton Bro's and the squad Washinton has put together with lots of youth but thats why they play 162 games. Rube has made some questionable moves to say the least but anyone who's a longtime Phillies fan would be in love wtih a GM who brought in the following; Lee 2x, Halladay, Papps and Pence. Those all stars and Cy Youngs. Did it lead to WS parade, no but guess how many we wont the previous 150 years, 2. And what players did we miss so badly on? What players that we gave up have amounted to anything? Gio Gonzales?? PED and probablyl gonig to miss 50 games of 2013 anything else? I like adding Young to 3rd and I live Revere at Center ONLY IF HE HITS LEADOFF. If Rollins still leads off then this team is cooked. Cholly RFD is the real problem, just look at how we lost in the playoffs in 2009 and 2010. Phils had the talent to win multiple WS and Manuel prevented it. Not Rube.— JuanSamuel4prez
- Manuel is employed by Amaro, who should have hired a different manager 2 years ago. — Copper34
- I like your thoughts here and agree on the D fense. I do however think Michael Young will be a nice addition but is gonig to need some rest every 15 games or so. That shoud get Frandsen or Galvis some playing time. The Betencourt aquistion makes me wonder is Galvis is ready to go this year— JuanSamuel4prez
- @copper34 - taken in a vacuum, I of course would generally agree that Halladay was a "good" move --and indeed above called it "value for value" and did not list it among the 40 "bad" moves... but it was NOT in a vacuum, it entailed giving away Lee who was roughly Halladay's equal at the time of the deal (and was the better clutch and post-game performer) and entailed giving away 3 top prospects (including D'Arnaud who may end up being an AllStar cathcer -- and nobody knew that Drabeck would blow out his arm)... bottom line, as i've said before, is that a "win now" strategy is fine if the g.m. truly stocks up and does try to win now, but in giving away Lee, rube gave away with his left hand what he got wiht his right habd and was too incompetent and arrogant to ever get the right mix and missing pieces (bench, bullpen, depth, balance) to succeed in the post-season so all he accomplished is that he sold out the future for some regular -season success that they likley would have had anyway and failed in the post-season... and bottom line is that they only got 2 good yrs out of Halladay (who now looks washed-up) at a cost of $80 million and 3 top prospects so that deal was certainly not a "steal"— warbiscuit
- Juan - I agree on resting guys. I don't see Charlie doing it but, to me, the ideal is to carry both Frandsen and Galvis and get them in regularly both as starters and late game replacements. Utley is a guy I really worry about Charlie using too much. His history shows a guy who's always worse in the second half and now he has a degenerative knee condition on top of that. We'll all be excited if Utley shows up ready to go in spring training and April but not so happy if he's missing games in July or August. I'd also give Ruf some innings at 1B. But I don't think any of that is likely to happen. One of Charlie's faults is he rides his veterans even if it's not a good move for the long run of the season.
With Atlanta, look at the net. They lost Prado, Chipper Jones and Bourn. All three have hit the Phillies very well in the past. Justin Upton has good numbers against us. BJ does not. So, for us, Atlanta's moves may help. I don't think the moves hurt Atlanta overall though. I'd be very surprised if they weren't in the mix the whole season.
I don't see Charlie letting Revere lead off. Revere is probably best starting off as a #2 hitter really then maybe to #1 once he shows what he has. But on a Charlie team he may not even make the top of the order. I'd be very surprised if Rollins isn't #1 to start. And Charlie wants Utley at the top and wants a RH bat like Young in there to split Utley and Howard which isn't a bad idea. Unless Utley or Rollins go to the bottom of the order or Charlie decides to go all LH at the top, I think Revere is seeing the bottom of the order to start the season.— s - 2010 Halladay won Cy Young, but Lee carried his team to World Series (ALCS MVP) while Hallady lost crucial NLCS game 1 to Giants in a dud.. 2011 both Halladay and Lee were top 4 in Cy Young balloting... 2012 Lee still top 10 in era and still elite pitcher despite deceptive W-L record, while Halladay had one of the worst era's among all NL qualifying starters (had he enough innings to qualify)... thus long-term when Lee for Halladay swap was made, Lee was the slightly younger and better pitcher than Halladay --certainly not worth 3 top prospects that Rube paid to make the swap..and not worth the additional 3 prospects that Rube then had to pay to get 2 good months of Oswalt becuase he still needed another starter— warbiscuit
