2012 - Philadelphia Phillies, At Least Cole is Staying

[ice grillin you]

no one is close to being on yankees level certainly not the phillies...but what sperates the phillies from the other big boys like boston is they dont have rich owners...they also dont have a regional tv network like nesn or yes (yes being national)....but the difference is the amount of available cash beyond revenue the phillies have to pull from...a billionaire owner makes a big difference and the phils dont have that....which is why they cant do things like go way over the luxury tax

this is why the nationals are so scary....their revenue streams are pathetic yet they can give ridiculous contracts to jayson werth because their owners have bottomless pockets...when the nats start selling out consistently and get a real tv deal look out...angels are another good example of this...second class citizens in their own city...not huge reven streams but insanely rich owner....in other words until the phillies are sold to someone with deep pockets they can never be considered on a level with these other teams

but even with unlimited money expensive retooling doesnt really work...what you need to do is add big FA piece here or there AND fill positions with your own young players to an already existing foundation of homegrown guys...the phillies have an entire roster all getting old at once because they havent added a quality homegrown guy in like six or seven years...granted a lot of this is because they had an amazing streak of homegrown talent work out but where have they been able to fill a spot here or there with legit young talent...it hasnt happened...if galvis and dom pan out then those will be the first...but there isnt much behind them

not even the yankees could build an entire roster off FA and really this is the main difference when talking about the current phillies....its literally an entire roster full of 33 year olds with a few garbage young players...the one exception being heidi

[SunMo]

middleton is a billionaire, but i'm sure he can't just throw extra money at something whether he wants to or not.

[ice grillin you]

you also cant just have money....you have to be willing to spend it

[SunMo]

from all accounts he is. i think his hands are tied by the group as a whole.  i think if the other coots offered to sell their shares to him he'd gobble it up. 

but i agree when you say you can't just add FA every year and expect to have a great team.  2006 - 2010 they were good because they had homegrown talent in most positions and supplemented with FA.

the lee to seattle trade and the hunter pence trade are both trades that will haunt them for years because of the lack of farm system they now have

[PhillyPhreak54]

Disgusting farging losers.

Thanks to Juan Samuel too - sent Fontenot for no reason

yeah it definitely wasnt the highest paid closer in mlb historys fault

small picture: i said it the day it farging happened and no one would listen...just an embarrassingly bad deal smug gave him...romey actually steadfastly defended it...in one sense not surprising because every time a philly team signs someone its a great move and eveytime they lose someone the other team overpaid but still to defend this deal is just stupifying

big picture: last night will always be the night that the torch was officially passed from the phils to the nationals....nats score two in the bottom of the 9th to win and the phillies give up two in the bottom of the ninth to lose

Oh don't get me wrong - Johnny Paps owns that one. Giving up the leadoff double to Ike Davis who couldn't hit off a goddamn tee and then nibbling around something called a Jordanny Valdespin because dude did yardwork on him last month was PATHETIC

[BigEd76]

Shane hitting 2nd tonight and Pierre 7th.  Makes sense...

[MDS]

do you ever see the yankees or red sox sell?

the phillies are in the same position money wise, especially with their tv deal coming up soon.  they need to start acting like a big money team and retool, not rebuild.

how can they retool? they have nothing to retool on.

cesar hernandez? sebastion valle? dom brown? lol

last i checked they traded all their good AA and AAA prospects away to win a world series they never won. they lost draft picks to sign cliff lee, papelbon and raul ibanez to win a world series they never won.

what little talent they do have is in A ball and those might or might not pan out and regardless are years away from doing so. they are old, slow, broken down and signing a few 29 or 30 year olds for big money isnt going to do anything about that.

i know you all are in love with this team but you have to see they are an old horse that needs to be put down

[Rome]

The owners aren't rich.  Except the billionaire.

Classic

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Would have been fun to have been there for Howard's double. Since then pretty glad these losers are only on TV.

[PhillyPhreak54]

basticho is the new arsonist.

Goddamn bum.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Bwahahahaha

and after walking in the first run after having Chipper down to 2 strikes....

Grand Slam given up to McCann.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[PhillyPhreak54]

With each bullpen farg up they should hook jumper cables up to Amaro's farging nuts and shock the shtein out of him.

farg you Ruben Amaro Jr.

[MDS]

just wait until utley and howard get back

[PhillyPhreak54]

lol

just wait for Kruk and Daulton to get back!

[MDS]

so since the savior chase utley has been back (over a week) the phillies have won exactly 1 game

and on the night the guy who made the last out in the last two playoff series returns they score 0 runs

maybe...and im just spitballing here...maybe they suck?