There is a tendency among people who read reports by Marcus Hayes of the Daily News, or watch him on Comcast's Daily News Live, or exchange emails with him, to say that he is full of it. But his filing in yesterday's Daily News was full of it -- "it" being information, rather than the usual "it".
Reading that report leaves you with the distinct impression that there is not a single, solitary person in the Phillies front office that can find their ass with two hands. Really, I'm not sure where to begin...
Let's start with Vicente Padilla. In the past two offseasons, the Phillies asked Vicente Padilla to not pitch in winter ball in his native Chinandega, Nicaragua, due to the strain it puts on his arm, which has been very prone to tendinitis over the last couple of years. But this offseason, according to Ruben Amaro, Jr., de-facto GM, the Phillies don't know whether he is pitching in winter ball this year or not, and even if he is, they "don't have a problem with it." When I read that, I thought, "I guess Padilla really won't be back next year." But later, Hayes quoted Amaro as saying that he does not foresee the Phillies cutting ties with him. So in other words, we can expect another injury-riddled and inconsistent season from Padilla, costing the team several million dollars and the fans what little patience with the organization.
But it doesn't stop there. Hayes also reports that the Phillies have approached former Cincinnati Reds and current Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden about the Phillies' vacancy. You must be kidding me.
There is a very good chance Bowden is the worst general manager in baseball, certainly in the bottom five. Last offseason, he signed Vinny Castilla (2 years, $6.2 million) and Christian Guzman (4 years, $16.8 million) to deals as free-agents, two of the worst deals of the entire baseball offseason. Everyone knew it at the time, except Bowden, and sure enough, as the season unfolded, it came to be true.
PA HR RBI OPS+ WSAB
Castilla 549 12 66 94 1
Guzman 492 4 31 55 -6
OPS+ is a normalized version of OPS (on-base plus slugging) where 100 is average -- think of it as the equivalent of batting I.Q. That makes Castilla just a tad below average, a C- student, and Guzman, well, a batting moron. But a very wealthy batting moron.
And as I said, we all knew this was coming. Guzman has averaged a 73 OPS+ over his career, and Castilla has averaged 96. That's a whole lotta money marked for a very below average left side of the Nationals infield for the next few years.
Yet the Phillies are interested in talking to this man for their GM opening? What in the world for? Mark my words, the day Jim Bowden is hired as the Phillies GM is the day I declare my allegiances with the Devil Rays.
