Amaro's delicate position
It's rare for Ruben Amaro Jr. to acknowledge a rumor, no matter how baseless it is. The recent reports of the Phillies general manager calling other teams for an idea how much Cole Hamels et al. are worth were not baseless.
Amaro's delicate position
Matt Gelb
ON A TRAIN — It's rare for Ruben Amaro Jr. to acknowledge a rumor, no matter how baseless it is. The recent reports of the Phillies general manager calling other teams for an idea how much Cole Hamels et al. are worth were not baseless.
They were true; invariably, an executive from a team Amaro phoned leaked details to a national writer and a story is born.
Amaro, in turn, went on the offensive Monday by seeking forums in local media to spread his message: We're not waving the white flag. And he's probably not lying. Just because the Phillies called other teams hardly means a trade is imminent.
I don't believe Amaro has decided to sell yet. He is, of course, considering it — no matter what he says.
"A lot of these rumors are products of the timing and way we're playing," Amaro said. "This is what happens in July. You have a team that's not playing very well, and we have very good players. We are going to get these types of rumors out there. I just want to make sure people understand where we stand."
Where they stand is on the brink. No decision to sell must be made today, tomorrow, or next week. Part of the decision to sell will be dependent on what the Phillies can receive for said trade chips. Thus, the phone calls were made.
Part of the problem is this: The national reports were hardly wrong. But the fan reaction was.
Trades develop over weeks, sometimes months. Usually, the first step is to ask around to see what Player X could possibly net. Then the front office assesses and determines the next course of action.
"Shopping" and "trading" are two totally different steps.
Amaro and the rest of the organization — from Charlie Manuel to his players — speak with optimism. They believe a postseason berth is attainable, partially because there are now two Wild Cards, but mostly because Ryan Howard and Roy Halladay will return sometime in July.
So the GM wants the focus to be his team, right now, on the field. It's hard not to blame others for shifting their attention elsewhere.
***
There are plenty of factors, most of them undetermined, that will go into Hamels' value on the trade market.
Bob Ford delves into the many layers of the Hamels situation and sees the lefthander ultimately leaving.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
what happened to David Murphy after he dared place the blame on Amaro?— warbiscuit- while Amaro has brought zero young talent to Phils in 3 1/2 years he's so utterly incabable of judging talent that he gives away the accidentally good players that come his way: see what Brandon Moss, Grilli, Vogelsong are doing for other teams this year --he gave them away for free because they didn't have a "name" so Rube would rather sign Kendrick and Schneider— warbiscuit
- Brandon Moss --on the Phils last yr but given away for free- would rank 3rd on team in hrs -not only hasn't rube acquired a single good young player in 3 1/2 years, but he has let go the accidentally good players that have fallen in his lap: Grilli, Vogelsong, Moss --amaro has absolutely zero ability to assess players or talent - no other g.m in history would have given $7.6 million to a completely talentless Kendrick— warbiscuit
- WB - is Kendrick's deal finished after this season or after next season? — coloradoeagle
- What you fail to mention about Brandon Moss is that he has only played in 22 games this year with a .247 BA. Yeah, he would be a huge help for the Phils.
— TexColorado - Amaro is incompetent. He has no business being a GM in baseball. None. Why don't we let Rube and Howie exchange jobs? The results would probably not differ too greatly at all.— coloradoeagle
- Sportswriting in this town is horrific. Stop focusing on the players who we don't have, and instead evaluate the performance of those who have been taking the field day-to-day. With the exception of Ruiz, from day one of this season, the players have been playing sloppy, uninspired baseball. The issues go beyond the injured list, and none of you so-called journalists are writing about any of that. You should be ashamed that fans have to turn to national media rather than local media to get any real stories or information.— DameB
- A real GM would see that the manager has lost touch with his players. I remember a time when Charlie would bench J-Pop for not running out a ground ball or pop up. If a typical fan can see that a change needs to be made than what is the so called GM thinking? This team even with all the injuries should not even be close to being 10 games below .500!!! If I was one of the owners of this team I would hold RAJ and Charlie accountable instantmatically! Ryno deserves a shot at the ML level and bring in Jimmy Williams to help him out as his bench coach. Trade Polanco and Victorino and then see what happens the rest of this year. At least we as fans can see you are trying to do anything to get this team to show some life!!! Hope the Mets sweep these dead men walking...then maybe it will force RAJ or anyone in the Phillies ownership to do something!!!— tralala
- If people want to focus on something productive, ask what's wrong with Bastardo and can it be fixed. He's lost control and velocity, which could mean many things. He's also lost a number of games for the Phillies, and the team cannot afford any more.— JayW
- Kendrick was eligible for arbitration last winter and Amaro was so "concerned" about keeping this marginal "talent" that he not only first agreed to binding arbitration but he then agreed to settle and pay Kendrick's submitted high number for 2 years (so he is paying close to 3.8 mil for each of this year and next)... note that this is less than pitchers like Capuano got on the free market; even if Amaro wanted to keep Kendrick as "insurance" he could have retained him for 2012 and the arbitrator would have simply picked either kendrick's or the team's number.. in short, this was plain idiocy and not hindsight as observers like crashburnalley on espn (and me) were dumbfounded that the g.m. could be so clueless both on evaluating the "talent" and on the business end...now because Amaro would be forced to admit a $7.6 million mistake, expect kendrick to remain on team at least until mid-2013 when there will only be half a year of wasted salary left, much like Rube did with Baez who was awful for 3 years BEFORE gave him a 2-year deal, and he then remained on Phils team losing games for 1 1/2 yrs before Amro was finally willing to let go that obvious mistake— warbiscuit
- Why do you hate on Kendrick so much? He's having a bad year this year, I agree. But is he the only one? For his career he is 45-38 with a 4.51 ERA. Coming into this year, he was 43-30 with a 4.41 ERA. That's not bad for a 4th or 5th starter. And $3.8 mil/year is not crazy money for a 4th or 5th starter either. And maybe his stats would be better if he had a real pitching coach to work with.
— TexColorado - I'm amazed at all the Benedict Arnolds out there, now turning on RAJ. Way to go phans. If I'm not mistaken, the confetti was flying when he traded for Halladay, then resigned Lee. Corks were flying off bottles when he traded for Roy Oswalt mid 2010. Rose pedals were being tossed his way when Hunter Pense was acquired last year. He didn't succumb to Boris' power play and overpay for Jayson Werth, intstead took a fly on Hunter Pense (better number, less money, thats what good GM's do). His goal and ours as fans was to remain hightly competative during this window of opportunity. It wasn't his fault that Utley pulled the wool over all our eyes in February. It wasn't his fault that Howard's physcian's were not on top of the issue with a chronic surgical infection 4 months post-surgery. It wasn't his fault that that 1/2 his bullpen were out for the season (Stutes, Herndon, and Contreras). Qualls was signed to be the last piece of the pen, NOT to be the 8th inning guy. Put someone in a position they are not accustomed to, they will fail. RAJ didn't know Halladay would be hurt and miss 2 months of the season. RAJ didn't know Vance Worley would be out a month with bone chips in his pitching elbow. Lance Nix, Ty Wiggington, Jim Thome and Juan Pierre were not signed to be everyday players. Again, put people in positions they are not accustomed to, they fail. Utley was supposed to be ready by April...remember that folks? A healthy rotation of Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Worley, and Blanton would have kept us high in the standings. Howard's return by June 1 would have meant the team would be back at full strength with 4 months to go. In fact, check out the standings as of June 1, 2012, even w/o Utley and Nix and Halladay. The plan was there. In the end, the team is a victim of circumstances not even Nostradamus could have predicted. And this of course, is RAJ's fault. NOT.— drhoffman
- Although there is truth in what you say, there must always be a fall guy when things go wrong. In sports, wrath is usually laid at the feet of the manager or the GM. In this case, it's a tossup as to who is more of a lightening rod for this team's season- Amaro or Manuel. One of them needs to be roasted. Since Manuel won a WS on his watch and Amaro hasn't, it's only fair that RAJ is the main target. The Rollins signing wasn't very bright (with Galvis in the wings) and the Pence trade looks lopsided now, but other than these two questionable moves Amaro has pretty much done what any one of us would have done if in his shoes. But, as I said, there is always a fall guy when things to wrong. It's human nature that can't be argued away logically.
— Sam Crow - For this Phillies squad to have any shrd of hope of making the playoffs, then they must start playing each and every game as if the playoffs have already begun...period!— doug1834
- @drhoffman: You know better than to arrive at these boards with logic.— drbob1
