Remember Ruben Amaro Jr.'s role as the Phils continue to improve

Ruben Amaro Jr. was 1,125.4 miles away from Citizens Bank Park when Tommy Joseph hit his first major league home run Tuesday night.

A thousand miles away, a few seasons too late for his liking, another reminder that roofers get to bask in the sun only after the bricklayers get covered in mud.

It was that way for Ed Wade once, as it is again, watching from another team's office, or in Amaro's case, another team's uniform, watching finally as a few of your bets pay off, far too late to shake the label of a loser.

Wade endured 100-loss seasons as the Astros GM as he accumulated the draft picks and talent that at least ignited their current era. As the Phillies' GM, he helped build the Phillies teams that created the era Amaro was charged to maintain.

It wasn't an impossible task, given the resources at his disposal, given the quick rebuilds that have taken place in other high-revenue outposts, including his current one. But there, players came quick, and came in numbers.

For Amaro, now a first base coach with the Red Sox, not so much. Three consecutive playoff appearances marked his first three seasons, but the price was stripping an already thinned out farm system bare. Attempts to recharge and re-stick were hounded by bad talent assessment and bad luck.

Domonic Brown and Cody Asche are examples of the former. Joseph is the poster boy for the latter. We will never know if Hunter Pence would have righted himself in Philadelphia as he did in San Francisco, helping the Giants to a World Series championship in 2012.

What became crystal clear rather quickly was that Joseph, the key player of three that came in return, wasn't going to make Amaro look good. Multiple concussions and a wrist injury limited even his opportunity to do so, ultimately forcing a position switch from catcher to first base halfway through last summer.

There was no look-see at the major league camp this spring as there was for Andrew Knapp and Jorge Alfaro, the Phillies' two current catchers of the future. Joseph said he almost expected to be thrown ``to the curb'' after last season.

Instead, he is the latest in an early season of feel-good stories surrounding his team. Vince Velasquez, the fireballer from out of the blue. Jeanmar Gomez, the unlikely 28-year-old saves leader. The long-overlooked 65-year-old manager making a lot of the GMs in his past look pretty stupid with this stunning, overachieving start.

I gave too much credit to Matt Klentak for too much of this recently and a few of you called me on it. Amaro's fingerprints are all over the surprising bullpen. He signed Maikel Franco as a free agent, plucked Odubel Herrera from the Rangers in the 2014 Rule 5 draft. Many of the prospects that excite fans – J.P. Crawford, Nick Williams, Knapp and Alfaro – were made on his watch, too.

He was just too covered in mud to survive long enough to see it through, to take any bows, to enjoy the ovation Joseph received when, at age 24, he finally got his first major league hit Monday and rewarded new-found faith in him with a home run as a cleanup hitter Tuesday night.

It looks like it's going to be exciting again around here over the next few years, as more beams go up and construction continues. As his old boss Wade can tell you, and his replacement as well, roofers get to have all the fun.