If the World Series victory by the St. Louis Cardinals illustrated anything, it underscored the absolute importance of making the playoffs.
The Cardinals backed into the postseason tournament, winning only 83 games and barely winning their division. During the regular season, their offense scored just ten more runs than the average total in the National League, and the ERA of their pitchers was 4.54, .05 worse than the league average.
But once they got into the playoffs, the Cardinals played like a team that actually deserved to be there. Their starting pitchers pitched to a 2.79 ERA throughout the playoffs and in the World Series, held the Detroit Tigers, a team that batted .274 in the regular season to a .199 average.
The Morals of the Story: first, make sure you get into the playoffs as you never know what may happen. Second, never trade Scott Rolen.
The Philadelphia Phillies, who won two more regular season games in 2006 than the Cardinals, have not reached the playoffs since 1993. For much of the 1990's, the team rarely assembled the proper amount of talent to even compete for a playoff berth. Ricky Otero? Mark Lewis? Kevin Jordan? Please.
As the century turned over, the Phils began to assemble a modicum of talent. One of the most talented of these players was Scott Rolen, who is now, ironically, the thirdbaseman for the aforementioned World Champion Cardinals. While being hampered for much of the season and postseason with a shoulder injury, Rolen managed to get hot at the right time, accumulating eight hits in the five-game World Series.
Rolen debuted with the Phillies in 1996 and while in a Phillies uniform, he would never post an OPS+ less than 21% better than the league average and played stellar defense. For whatever combination of reasons -- and there were many, including Rolen's dislike for Philadelphia, his distrust for the Phillies organization, as well as Dallas Green's and Larry Bowa's dislike for Rolen -- Rolen forced a trade in 2002.
In return for Rolen, the Phillies received Placido Polanco, Mike Timlin, and Bud Smith from the Cardinals. Hardly a windfall, it's interesting to consider what may have happened to the Phillies over the last few years if Rolen was not traded. But first, what actually happened...
Already viewed as incompetent, cheap, and less concerned with winning than the bottom line of their financial statements, the bungling of the Rolen era did not do much to help image of the Phillies front office.
In an effort to reverse this image, the team, led by general manager Ed Wade, a public relations intern with the team in his formative years, began doling out large and long contracts over the next few years to players from inside and outside the organization.
These contracts included Pat Burrell, David Bell, Bobby Abreu, Mike Lieberthal, Jim Thome and Randy Wolf. All were four years long or more, lucrative to the player, and in one form or another limited the Phillies ability to trade the player or contract.
To be fair to Wade and the Phillies, there was a trend in baseball at the time to build a new stadium and then lock up core players in order to minimize future costs and insure roster continuity. Also, this was around the time Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez signed their gigantic contracts, so at the time, many of the deals Wade negotiated seemed like bargains and were applauded by many.
But the problem with this strategy was that it allowed little to no flexibility to adjust the roster as needs arised. For instance, heading into the offseason, the Phillies biggest needs are bullpen help, a fifth starting pitcher, a right handed hitter who can protect Ryan Howard in the lineup and a third baseman.
While Rolen can't pitch, he could certainly fill the last two needs. You could just gag on the irony.
No one can say for sure what would have happened to the Phillies had Rolen and the front office been able to make amends, but we can certainly guess. Awash with cash from the newly built Citizens Bank Park, long, lucrative, and rigid contracts would still have likely been issued to several players by the Phillies, but it's likely there wouldn't have been as many, nor as long, nor as lucrative, nor as rigid. And we'd have someone to protect Ryan Howard in the lineup.
There is no way one can say that would have made a difference in the fortunes of the team, but there is no doubt the organization would have been better off had Rolen stayed.
With just under a year under his belt as the Phillies general manager, Pat Gillick, Wade's replacement, is still dealing with the ramifications of a trade made in 2002.
