Will there be Phillies action in Music City?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It's December 3 and Phillies fans are antsy. Perhaps it's the byproduct of a city's morose football team, or that two division rivals have upgraded at a position where the Phillies crave improvement.
Will there be Phillies action in Music City?
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It's December 3 and Phillies fans are antsy. Perhaps it's the byproduct of a city's morose football team, or that two division rivals have upgraded at a position where the Phillies crave improvement.
Ruben Amaro Jr. has sobering news for you.
"We may be waiting until January or February or March to fill all our needs," Amaro said this weekend. "I'm good to take as long as it takes. I'll keep looking for things as long as we feel it is the right thing to do for our club in the short term and the long term."
That is the public face Amaro has adopted, and generally he has swayed from it.
Maybe, though, it's time for a history lesson. Amaro is known as an aggressive shopper. But, you know, it's only Dec. 3. Here is Amaro's activity in previous winters before Dec. 3:
2011: Jim Thome (Nov. 4), Jonathan Papelbon (Nov. 14), Brian Schneider (Nov. 17), Ty Wigginton (Nov. 20 trade)
2010: Jose Contreras (Nov. 15)
2009: Juan Castro (Nov. 24), Brian Schneider (Dec. 1)
This winter, which has thus far featured the re-signing of Kevin Frandsen, does not greatly differ. Amaro was especially quick last winter, when he locked up Papelbon to the richest deal ever signed by a reliever. The others? Not so much.
It's interesting to see Amaro bemoaned for a lack of activity. Sure, it's understandable fans are restless because of the Phillies' needs. (And there are many.) Here's guessing some of them have criticized Amaro for overspending instead of allowing the market to form. (Papelbon, Raul Ibanez, Ryan Howard come to mind.)
Amaro has preached patience from the start of this offseason. It was difficult to take at face value because of his history. Maybe there are fireworks here in Nashville. Maybe not.
Either way, someone will be upset.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
Comments (27)
empty suit, clueless imbecile— warbiscuit- how's that Pence acquisition looking? how about that awesome trade of Pence to Giants for Schierhotz? cluless imbecile methods are to overpay in money and prospects by 200 to 500% of actual value for any "name" acquired or re-signed, and to acquire only useless trash in any disposition ..follows the Barack method for how to detroy a franchise/country/etc— warbiscuit
- 4 more games of Reid, alas another 4 yrs at $25 mil/yr for Howard, another 3 yrs at 12.5/yr of loser Papelbum, another 1 yr of Forrest Gump Manuel, how many more years of Clueless Rube?— warbiscuit
- Warbiscuit, if only he could use the Bush method of running a franchise. Then the Phillies could blame the Kansas City Royals for beating them in the 2009 World Series, attack, and raid them of all valuable assets. Unfortunately, this would drive Phillies ticket prices through the roof, but you could probably blame Obama for that too.— Edward Creed
- I going to blame Obama for warbiscuit's existence.— Malachy
- another 4 yrs of blame Eisenhower or some other Rebublican from years ago for the worst recovery of a recession in history and on the brink on another recession becuase alas imitating Greece isn't good road to economic propserity ..morons who call for Andy Reid's head because continuing proven failing methods is a recipe for failure show their own idiocy in voting for 4 more years of failing methods to destroy the country..enjoy many more years of awful football, awful baseball, and the end of American prosperity— warbiscuit
- Philadelphia sports ride on the fortune of our economy...oh no! — Romus
- Unfortunately, warbiscuit is right. Rube-the-Boob is a clueless imbecile. Need proof? Look at the roster; notice that we don't have a 3B or any starting-quality OFers? Look at the deals he has made; notice that he bid against himself to sign JStroll, Pap and Howard. Look at the Pence and Oswalt trades. Look at what he got in return for Cliff Lee vs what he gave up for Cliff Lee. For goodness sake - look at Dom Brown. He is the one young player guy whom Rube absolutely refused to part. I could go on and on (signing Wigginton, Nix and Thome for instance -- when he could have signed Aramis Ramirez, Cuddyer, Willingham instead ... the Michael Martinez experiment ... Chad Quals ...). The Phils are now a laughingstock. Hard to imagine a GM doing a worse job after being handed a Championship-level team. Owners are a joke too. Continuing to employ Rube-the-Boob and Uncle Charlie is, in all seriousness, like a joke ... or, for this Phillies fan, a bad dream.— Copper34
- Can someone please explain to me how Charlie Manual has done such a horrible job with the Phillies?
— Phillycb21 - Herndon, Cantreous (don't know how to spell his name,
Qualls, Martinez. Charlie, knowing these guys stink, kept using them. Not resting Howard and Utley when he should have. All of this has led to more games in the lost column. It is my opinion that a better manager cud
have gotten at least one more WS ring with the team
before they got injured or too old.— associate - Seems like you love using Hindsight. Almost all the moves RAJ has made people have liked at the time. Last year he signed Wiggington for depth, but injuries forced his hand.
The point about Howard is just not true. At the time, he wanted to sign Ryan to a long term deal before he could risk him testing the market. Remember, this is back when he was lock for 40HR's 130 RBI's. That move was good at the time, and if he allowed Howard to get to free agency we may be paying him even more. Also, if you had Ramirez, Cuddyer and Willingham (who are all well into thier 30's) on the team, it would be going completely in the wrong direction 2 years from now. One of them makes sense, and that's where Rube screwed up. He overestimated his offense last year, and should have signed one of those guys, but you can't have all of them.
The second thing is this team was young once, and the core is aging. The Phillies have made bold moves (Halladay, Lee, Pence) to keep this team in contention, which has cost them prospects. Because of that, and also some poor drafting, they are handicapped with depth. However this is just a common cycle for any team after being good over multiple seasons.— ryanrockzzz - Everybody calm down. I'm just relieved RAJ didn't sign that dog Upton. A trade for one of Texas' infield studs and maybe platooning with bits and pieces in the outfield works for me. No one in the division is that great that you have to make a "splash" move...look at Miami last offseason for god's sake...— RAJ-a-holic
- Doesn't matter, dogbiscuit is still a schmuck.— PhillySubsMac
- Hey. After watching the Eagles train wreck this season a little hot stove whining is welcome relief...— Grazman
- God I wish Obama was the GM for the phillies. Then we could spend an unlimited amount of money, have no regard for ticket sales or merch profit and when the whole things implodes we can blame Ed Wade for all of it. Get Hamilton and let it ride for 2013-14 then blow this thing up and start over.— JuanSamuel4prez
- Can't for the life of me figure out why Gelb took the time to write or post this "column"!!— cuyatm
- Juan, perhaps we could take the GOP approach to running the Phillies, in which we cut all spending on the minor leagues, promise to lower ticket prices to 50 cents, give RAJ a huge bonus and reduce player salaries, tell the players they have to pay for medical treatment themselves, invest only in defense, and ultimately send the team to Mexico where players will take the field for a fraction of the price.— Edward Creed
- let's face it the party is over. Their offense is terrible and its not going to get better without a major move. No more patches like Wigginton and Nix. Utley and Howard may never be what they were again, no third baseman and an outfield depending on a guy with 37 ML abs in lf a failed pospect in rf and a question in cf. Our only tradeable commodities are Lee and Papelbon. A lot of fans don't want to trade Lee but with this offense we are not going to contend and there is no big hitting prospect in the minors. Amaro says he might wait means he wants to see what garbage he can pick up cheap. A lineup of Howard Utley Rollins Frandsen or Galvis Ruiz Ruf Mayberry and Brown is not going to do it— T Schick
- Who cars...Reuben was the one who brought in all those bullpen flops and who traded away the outfield and over paid Lee and Coles....so until he goes it does not matter....He took a WS Team to this level....as he overpaid Ryan and allowed Chase to dictate his situation....That is not call leadership......duh, maybe he can trade away Lee and then re-acquire him at a higher price like he did befor....REUBEN MUST GO...— nuggett
- Is tough being a Philadelphian fan these days. Now I know how Cleveland fans feel.— Romus
- Eagles are beyond bad, Penn State's season is over, there's no hockey and the Sixers don't have a chance, really. At least Amaro should field 25 warm bodies who won't mutiny against Manuel & Sandberg. Come on, spring training.— eman
- Pagan off the board now. Amaro still spinning his wheels. Earn your paycheck, ya b*m.— ghost of callison
- Maybe he learned a lesson last year?— Ssteve115
- it is amazing how clueless some posters here are. Pence was traded for the Joseph (the catcher who will replace Ruiz in 2014) and whatever the 15 million he would have made this year buys us on the FA market (that 3rd baseman, CF, or Corner guy we all want.
Give the prices paid so far for A) Pagen -who was traded straight up for Torres a year ago and has one good season in his life, and B) Upton who has yet to have a season where he didn't strike out a trillion times or hit above 250, RAJ is doing fine. Money not wasted is money to spend on a certain guy in Texas, or elsewhere. Judge this offseason when we get to Clearwater and we can see what we have.— jeff gross - This is so typical of Philly sports teams. Bad trades, overpaid FA and poor drafting and we, the fans, have to suffer through this year after year. Instead of paying tons of money (thanks to the Philly fans years of devotion and $$$) let's hire real sports GMs and scouts who know how to draft and evaluate talent. Who knows, we might become a perennial winner?— walt1
- Stupid people say stupid things. Let things play out. Btw we traded stiffs for cliff lee and have 2 players close to major league level, Gillies and Aumont. Remember Jason Donald and Lou Marson. Tearing up the league aren't they? Knapp? 20 game winner yet? And we got cliff lee back! Sheesh are some people stupid!— skolman
- Stupid people say stupid things. Let things play out. Btw we traded stiffs for cliff lee and have 2 players close to major league level, Gillies and Aumont. Remember Jason Donald and Lou Marson. Tearing up the league aren't they? Knapp? 20 game winner yet? And we got cliff lee back! Sheesh are some people stupid!— skolman
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The Phillies Zone is the place for up-to-the-minute Phillies coverage from the Inquirer.
Matt Gelb
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