Well, there was no World Series for the first 20 years of that stretch, but still.

A big d'oh for me... But on the other hand they finished as high as 2nd once in those 20 years. I think coming in under 97 years is a worthy target for the 'Stros. :)

EDIT: Spelling corrected.

Random comments on other posts:
Millwood for a backup catcher.. Ahem, that wasn't Todd Pratt or somebody of that ilk, it was Johnny Estrada, who has had a useful career as a starting catcher.

Still an extremely one-sided trade. Estrada's been useful? Millwood won an ERA title and tossed a no-hitter.

Also, Millwood, Wagner, Milton and Lidle were all in the last year of their contracts, IIRC, so those trades must be viewed in that context.

True. Heck, Lidle was only a two-month rental. All were still very good trades. Heck, having Milton for only one year arguably makes it an even better trade.

Wade is the GM definition of meh. There is a little overreaction here

The first 40 posts consisted almost exclusively of people calling him the worst GM in baseball. That's definately overreaction.

A big d'oh for me... But on the other hand they finished as high as 2nd once in those 20 years.

Yeah, they've been a bad franchise for most of their history, including the pre-WS era. And as a Cub fan, I enjoy pointing out that even the Cubs' 99-year title drought hasn't been long enough for the Phils to catch them in total world series titles. (Hey--how many teams can we even arguably look down on in those terms?)

At some point in the 2002 season, the Phillies offered Rolen a $140M/10 extension, and he turned it down, which really forced Wade's hands. The Cardinals ended up signing him to an 8-year deal at $90M (with $10M deferred).

Who do you think is happy now?

Rolen left around $50M on the table.

The Cardinals have Rolen through 2010 at $12M per, and he's put up two pretty poor offensive seasons out of the last three.

The Phillies have never found an adequate replacement at 3B.

The disastrous Turk Wendell trade alone cost the Phillies a division title in 2002.

This was the quintessential Ed Wade trade.

Wendell's ERA+'s for the previous 5 1/2 years: 150, 97, 143, 144, 121, 117. Phils get him ... 57 ERA+ in 15 2/3 innings.
Cook's ERA+'s for the previous 7 1/2 years: 132, 103, 123, 104, 176, 114, 82, 96. Phils get him ... 77 ERA+ in 9.7 innings.

The main knocks on Wade are: (1) mediocre middle reliever fetish, (2) doesn't help his team at the trade deadline, and (3) his teams never made the playoffs. At the time, this trade (in which they gave up nothing of value), on paper, looked like it could have debunked all three of those complaints. But Wendell and Cook pitched like ####, so instead, it fed them.

Still an extremely one-sided trade. Estrada's been useful? Millwood won an ERA title and tossed a no-hitter.

I didn't realize how bad Estrada's been this year. Even so, I'll see your ERA title and no-hitter and raise you a Silver Slugger and an All-Star!
No doubt, Millwood > Estrada. But not by all that much. The Phils had Estrada at ~300K and in this trade, picked up 1 innings-eating year of Millwood for 9.9M. This was a little pricey a couple of years ago. Then the Phils got stuck with arb the next year so all in all they netted 360 innings of high 90s ERA+ for 20.9M.

Millwood won an ERA title

In Cleveland, two years after his reserve rights expired. So now you're down to "he was expensive and totally 'blah' for a year, but he had that one great game."

At some point in the 2002 season, the Phillies offered Rolen a $140M/10 extension, and he turned it down, which really forced Wade's hands. The Cardinals ended up signing him to an 8-year deal at $90M (with $10M deferred).

Obviously Wade should have offered 8/$90M. Dumb Wade. :)

How complicit were the GMs in the ballpark extortion scheme? Rolen became disillusioned with the Phils partially because of their non-commitment to winning -- keeping the payroll low so they could sing the blues about needing a new ballpark to compete, yada, yada, yada. Having to sign Rolen for 14M a year would bolster their claim in a bizarre way.

FWIW, here's Sean Forman boxing Ed Wade.

Damn, I should've read the first page first.

not just the standard "He sucks because he's an idiot!" stuff.

christ, man; if you used that standard, you'd eliminate 90% of BTF posts

Words to live by.

The $140M/10 year extension was mostly smoke and mirrors by Wade, it was a 6-year, $72 million offer with 4 team options, which is nowhere near the same as $140 million guaranteed.

Speaking of J.D. Drew, I'm now recalling all the people who made fun of the Cubs for giving Soriano a megadeal when "superior player" J.D. Drew was available for less.

Funny, but whenever I think of J.D. Drew and the Cubs, I'm reminded of Draft Day 1998, when the Cubs passed on Drew and his demands for some HS centerfielder by the name of Patterson. I remember posting in USENET that in my mind the two will be forever linked.

I'd say he is Allard Baird with a bigger budget.

Sean followed up his manager in a box a couple years later with this comment. I'd say that's right on. (Use EWK's link)

The $140M/10 year extension was mostly smoke and mirrors by Wade, it was a 6-year, $72 million offer with 4 team options, which is nowhere near the same as $140 million guaranteed.

As the Family Circus would say, "Thanks for the remembery, Dan." The Phils have successfully implanted in peoples' minds (Grrr, including mine) that Rolen turned down the bigger contract. I'm kind of guessing based on the way things have played out, the Phils would not have exercised their options.

Rolen turned down the bigger contract

I meant to say, Rolen turned down the bigger contract as though all the money was guaranteed.

In Cleveland, two years after his reserve rights expired. So now you're down to "he was expensive and totally 'blah' for a year, but he had that one great game."

And again, whose team happened to have Milwood the one year he has a high BABIP and has his only below average (and decidedly below average, at that) ERA+? Ed Wade's. Plus he does it in his walk year, so the Phillies are scared off from getting draft pick compensation for a guy who's been a reliable average or better starting pitcher for every other year in his career except that one.

The irony of Ed Wade's career as a GM is amazing. He was drawn to the CW low-risk kind of deals -- getting what looked to be pretty good veteran pitchers. How so many of those deals blew up in his face is remarkable. The guy had such a run of "bad luck".
I'm becoming more and more convinced other than maybe 50 or 100 pitchers, trying to figure out which pitcher will return value for cost is a crap shoot. Might as well stockpile a$$-kickin' young cheap arms and rotate through them, keeping the effective ones. The performance isn't likely any different than using established pitchers.
For instance on the Phils roster right now, I only feel confident that I have a rough idea of what Myers, Hamels and Madson(Bullpen only) will give me. Well, I'm confident that Eaton and Mesa will suck but you know what I mean. The other guys may give me 60-120 ERA+. And you never know about injuries.

Maybe I missed it, but shouldn't Wade get a little credit here at BTF for saying on the record that Schilling is a horse one day out of every 5 and a horse's ass the other four?

He was drawn to the CW low-risk kind of deals -- getting what looked to be pretty good veteran pitchers. How so many of those deals blew up in his face is remarkable.

Which is why you'd think any human being with cognitive skills would learn from that mistake and correct it in his second go-round. I'm telling you ... everyone hates Wade for loving veteran middle relievers and not making deadline deals. Well, unless he's learning disabled, he should correct the middle reliever thing, and, hell, since the Kazmir trade, NOBODY makes deadline deals anymore.