Belated thoughts from one beat writer
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Belated thoughts from one beat writer
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
While making dinner plans last week with a friend who lives in San Jose, Costa Rica, he asked an innocent question.
"Hey, did you see what the Phillies did?"
I had no Internet or phone connections during my week-long vacation in Costa Rica, so there was no possible way.
"They signed Cliff Lee," he said.
So this is how I found out, about 15 hours after the rest of the world knew. The next day, I found a copy of of alDía, a Costa Rican newspaper, and flipped to the sports section. The headline read: "FILIS GANARON A LOS YANQUIS."
And that's a good way to start dissecting the ramifications of this signing, beyond the basic fact that the Phillies have possibly assembled the greatest rotation of all time.
This signing cuts deeper than that, though. Adding Lee to ensure a payroll above $160 million in 2011 and at even higher levels in 2012 and beyond officially makes the Phillies a big-market franchise.
And yes, I know you'll say this: But Matt, the Phillies play in the sixth largest market in the country. That doesn't mean they've operated like a big-market baseball franchise. There are differences.
Boston is the ninth largest media market in the country. But we describe them, in baseball terms, as one of the elite big-market franchises because they spend -- and spend freely.
On Dec. 15, when Lee was formally signed and re-introduced, the Phillies became a big-market franchise. They, as the Costa Rican newspaper made sure to point out, beat the Yankees for Lee.
The Phillies broke their guidelines of going beyond three years to a pitcher. They moved the payroll to lengths never before dreamed in Philadelphia.
In 2001, the Phillies' payroll was $41.66 million, ranking 24th in the majors, according to USA Today's salary database. That same season, the Yankees' payroll was $112.29 million -- the first time any team crossed the $100-million mark. Boston's was $109.68 million. Los Angeles was $109.11 million.
In 2007, the Phillies' payroll was $89.43 million, ranking 13th in the majors. They made the postseason for the first time since 1993 that year.
And yes, I know you'll say this: But Matt, the Phillies had the fourth largest payroll in 2010, behind just New York, Boston and Chicago. They were already a big-market team before now. To that, I'll say this: If the Yankees or Red Sox had the chance last off-season to hold both Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, would they have done it?
Now, Ruben Amaro Jr. has corrected that mistake, and with the blessing of ownership, has proven the Phillies are indeed in the pantheon of the Yankees and Red Sox. They are an elite big-market team. They have sold out 123 consecutive regular-season games at Citizens Bank Park. They are reaching revenue totals they could have never dreamed of.
Lee turning down more than $20 million extra from the Yankees is a fantastic Philadelphia story. But the more shocking and important story is the revolution of how the Phillies organization is run has taken the biggest step yet.
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Yes, there are actual on-field ramifications to discuss too. We'll tackle some of them here this week and next. Among those topics:
-- How does a 10-man pitching staff sound? OK, fine, 11.
-- Why staying inside for the lefthanded reliever wouldn't be the worst thing ever.
-- Which Phillies free-agent-to-be has had a wonderful off-season? (Hint: He is a reliever and represented by Scott Boras.)
-- The Cole Hamels question: When to sign?
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Because we're in the giving spirit: There will be a Phillies chat with yours truly on Tuesday at 2 p.m. here at The Phillies Zone. Come one, come all. Bring your Christmas lists.
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Just 56 days until pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater, Fla.
Yo Matt, get it right. We're the fourth largest media/TV market in the country. Not sixth. Houston and Phoenix are allegedly more populous cities but our entire area is larger.— JLH- I would say the Phillies are temporarily a big-market team. The Yanks and Sox both have TV deals that bring in a steady revenue stream and allow them to keep their payroll at those levels. The Phils don't have such a deal in place so it's only a matter of time before the payroll cycles back down from meteoric levels.
- Yes the Phillies don't have their own TV station yet. Yet being the key word as there current deal is up in 2015 i believe. That is what the Phillies are looking too because right now the Phillies are the highest watched team for any city. They are Hoping that by the time they get to 2015 they will have won at least 1 more world series and will be able to turn that success into a tv station that will make them a superpower like new york and boston. So as fans we need to keep supporting the phis so they can get to that superpower point. — eagle fan in texas
- All TV deals don't have to be the same to work. The Phillies currently run far more free-to-air games than most teams (45), get summertime ratings for those games that blow ALL of the TV competition out of the water, and its my understanding they keep all or most of the ad sales for those games. Add that to their deal with Comcast and I'm not so sure running their own cable channel is desirable in the market they are in. — jtj06
- Forget cable. The free-to-air station currently airing games has no affiliation with a network and is prime to be acquired by the Phillies. Their ratings over-the-air are a full point above cable and by owning the station they would keep ALL the revenue. Nothing like watching baseball on an HDTV with an antenna. The only thing left for them to do is to get a play-by-play TV announcer commensurate with their position in the NL. — bigdaddyjimbo
- JLH is right; Philly is #4. Matt I'm not sure you can say that Ruben made a mistake last year in trading Lee; if he had kept him it may have been a more difficult negotiations and Lee would not have had to "leave" to long for a return. In addition we picked Oswalt - which has we kept Lee that probably would not have happened.— Northcountry
- it was a mistake to trade lee but ownership wasn't willing to dole out a huge contract for 7 years to a pitcher at tat time. Though we lost a year of lee we added Oswalt and lee took a discount. So in the long term it works out better because now we have cliff. — eagle fan in texas
- The Phillies need to continue to grow the organization so that they have the revenue streams to continue to compete as a large market team like NY and Boston ... so that it isn't temporary.— DPL
- off the topic a bit but I just saw a list of MLB stories on cnnsi.com and couldn't help but hope...
here's the list: check out the 2nd entry.
1. Padres trade for Rays' Bartlett, near Hudson deal
2. FanHouse: Red Sox agree to deal with Wheeler
3. Behind The Mic: Barkley's Series prediction
4. Bonds' attorneys seek to stop players' testimony
5. Source: Feliciano moving from Mets to Yankees
Briefly got my hopes up before I realized it was a different Wheeler they were talking about— advantasux - Agree that the Phillies need to address a long term revenue plan. The Phils sell out every game, and you can only raise ticket prices so much before losing the real fans.— Vote for Dickie
- Within the next few years the Phillies- and most of the league- will be using demand-based, dynamic ticket pricing which should be a big revenue generator for them given their popularity. If "the real fans" are those who want to pay Iron Pig prices for the Phillies product, they will be stuck with Tuesdays in April vs. the Pirates for their live Phillies fixes. They can watch the rest of the games on TV or on MLB.com. All fans will be welcome to the parades. — jtj06
- A couple sensible comments in this post, which has been a rarity on Philly.com. Gelb mentions r-e-v-e-n-u-e. The Phillies aren't going to lose money in this market as long as they keep making sure the product on the field is strong. Gelb mentions an old-school, 10 man pitching staff. That's a huge part of this move. The Phillies could conceivably carry an extra couple position players and see who emerges as the best replacement for Werth the same way Werth emerged as the Phillies every day right fielder.— jtj06
We're going to need a bigger boat (more seats at CBP).— gho_matt
It's about time.— dexter55
Philly is the 4th largest market in the country, and the 9th largest market in the world by GDP. We're kind of a big deal. It's good to see the Phillies acting like it.— Pelti
