Why does Amaro refuse to spend on offense?

[Ruthian]

Also, Hamilton is one of major streaks and major slumps. Last year is an example of that where he had 22 homers and 60 RBI in April may but June and July he hit .223/.177 respectively. Had a good August hitting .310 then slumped back down to .259. If not for extraordinarily flashy first two months, we wouldn't be looking at him the way we are. I think something this lineup lacks is consistency and if Howard and Hamiltpn were to be in a slump together....eek

[The A Team]

Consistency is a bit of a straw man in baseball. It's extremely rare for a player to be consistent on a month to month basis and those players are rarely above average. Great players tend to be inconsistent.

Now there is certainly a difference between Joey Votto's inconsistency and Josh Hamilton's, but they're both still very inconsistent from a statistical perspective.

[Fred]

Holy Crap...this again? We were kind of due...it has been 38 days since we last spoke of him!

MTM - you are grounded! I know you are good with computers so you must set up a filter on your browser that blacks out any pages that have the words "Howard' an "Ribeys!"

Once you figure out how to write the program, send it to Sexi (if he is ever allowed back out to play on PSD) and to Ender ( you may have to go to Cape May and install it on his Commodore 64 for him though).

post of the day!

[toisdabest81]

Werth-Before letting him hit free agency
Dunn-not Howard
Beltre-not Polly

I hope your not saying Beltre isnt as good as Polanco...his bat is better and his fielding is pretty damn good too. I agree 100% with this guy. Everything is lost cost, low risk, cheap cheap cheap. Hamilton would have obviously made this team better and the favorites in the NL east and he balks at 5 years and loses him to the Angels who last year acquired the top offensive player in Pujols. The angels werent good last year so he tried to improve again. Every time theres an offensive player out there he must be cheap. Im not saying go out and be reckless but once and awhile you have to go outside your comfort zone to make something happen. Amaro takes the fans, and all the sell outs for granted. WE won the division 5 straight years and then last year we werent even close losing out to the Nats and the Braves. And then the Braves get Upton, the Nats get Haren and are still a great team. So you would think Amaro would do whatever it takes to bring in Hamilton to solidify our OF and he gives an offer he knew wouldnt get it done and now theres only Swisher out there who is any good for corner outfield(Cody Ross is weak) and word is that they dont want to pay him what he wants. If they go into the year right now they would not realistically be a division contender, and with barely anyone left it looks like thats what we're going to do. Not to mention we need bullpen help bad! I know you dont want to overpay every high priced FA that comes out that may be a fit, but in this case he dropped the ball big time. With the corner OF looking the way it is, I dont know how they didnt make sure they signed him or Swisher. Im sick of other teams fans always having exciting splashes to look forward to going into the year while we just hope one of our cheap low risk options pans out. And as I been listening to WIP the past week I come to find that most of them think the same thing. Rant/

[The A Team]

Look at what the Phillies spent on offensive players last year compared to the rest of the league. Where does that rank?

Maybe Ruben has spent more time and money on pitching because the group he inherited was Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and parts.

[More-Than-Most]

Look at what the Phillies spent on offensive players last year compared to the rest of the league. Where does that rank?

Maybe Ruben has spent more time and money on pitching because the group he inherited was Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and parts.

Yea but how smart was some of that money that we spent on offense? Amaro goes over the top for pitching and offense but at least when he gets pitching its great pitching. He tossed a stupid contract at Howard quickly to out smart the market and got burned because he was afraid of all the first basemen that were going to be out there. He then throws quick money at Polly so out smart the market because he thought people would run up the price but yet Beltre was left with a 1 year deal lol. Oh yea and then he runs and grabs Pence and gives everything we had left in the farm.....That is 3 guys he paid to much for in terms of cash and prospects on the offensive side......Rollins was a very good deal...We over paid again for a CF this year in terms of prospects to save on cash because of how he has spent in the past. This guy is great at getting pitching but just bad at getting back prospects or Offensive players in trade or free agency. Its amazing honestly

[TheRuckus]

Holy Crap...this again? We were kind of due...it has been 38 days since we last spoke of him!

MTM - you are grounded! I know you are good with computers so you must set up a filter on your browser that blacks out any pages that have the words "Howard' an "Ribeys!"

Once you figure out how to write the program, send it to Sexi (if he is ever allowed back out to play on PSD) and to Ender ( you may have to go to Cape May and install it on his Commodore 64 for him though).

[The A Team]

Polly was a really good contract. He earned all of it in year 1. Hard to fault him for the guy falling apart so completely.

It's also not fair to suggest that Beltre could have been had by us. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time about what he was offensively and we clearly wanted a multi-season solution. Beltre seemed set on a 1 year deal to re-establish value.

[Philsforever]

point is that while Amaro isnt afraid to overpay for pitching (Paps is great but was overpaid) He wont take a shot at offensive players because of 1 thing or another (Hamilton, Aramis Ramierez, Carlos Beltran, Beltre)

And before anyone brings up defensive stats (Amaro just traded for Young who has been considered a butcher at 3B)

Just dont understand why they play in a home run hitting park yet refuse to acquire power hitters. Seems to make more sense to load up with power hitters to utilize the park to your advantage.

[Ender]

Holy Crap...this again? We were kind of due...it has been 38 days since we last spoke of him!

MTM - you are grounded! I know you are good with computers so you must set up a filter on your browser that blacks out any pages that have the words "Howard' an "Ribeys!"

Once you figure out how to write the program, send it to Sexi (if he is ever allowed back out to play on PSD) and to Ender ( you may have to go to Cape May and install it on his Commodore 64 for him though).

It's actually an Atari 800XL.

[TheRuckus]

Polly was a really good contract. He earned all of it in year 1. Hard to fault him for the guy falling apart so completely.

It's also not fair to suggest that Beltre could have been had by us. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time about what he was offensively and we clearly wanted a multi-season solution. Beltre seemed set on a 1 year deal to re-establish value.

I disagree. Just because Amaro preferred a multi-season solution doesn't mean it's unfair to suggest we could have signed Beltre. Not that Polanco was a bad signing; as you pointed out, he earned his deal and then some.

If the budget at the time precluded it, that's one thing. But Beltre, even though he was coming off a rough year in Seattle, was a perfect fit for what we needed, even for only the one season.

[Philsforever]

But Beltre, even though he was coming off a rough year in Seattle, was a perfect fit for what we needed, even for only the one season.

[Ruthian]

Lets also be realistic, Beltre was no sure thing either. He had the one Big year in LA but was nothing special. He was a risk, Polanco was a sure thing. Ruben could have also been a genius if Beltre wasn't as good, and maybe he wouldn't have rebounded here, so questioning that point is null in my opinion.


Philly fans REALLY love the Hindsight bias.

[Philsforever]

Amaro once again proves my point. 6mil a year for a setup guy and a total of 7.5mil on 3b, LF,CF,RF.

[k_dol50]

Amaro once again proves my point. 6mil a year for a setup guy and a total of 7.5mil on 3b, LF,CF,RF.

To be fair, what cost us more games last year: the bullpen or lack of offensive production at 3B and outfield? Yes, it's probably closer than it seems on its face, but it has to be the pen, doesn't it?