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Monday, March 29, 2010

Brookover: Former GM Wade set Phils in motion

I knew genius before and after it was Ed Wade.

Wade’s biggest contribution to the Phillies’ current status may be what he didn’t do.

Deals can help, and hurt

“I told people I could have gotten Barry Zito from Oakland in his prime,” Wade said. “All it would have taken was Chase Utley, Ryan Madson, and Michael Bourn, and people would have been ecstatic at that point in time because we would have gotten one of the top lefthanded pitchers in baseball. But you wouldn’t have had a parade down Broad Street in 2008, if we made that deal.”

Good fortune also was needed, and that’s what Wade had when he tried to trade Howard because the young first baseman wasn’t going to play ahead of a healthy Thome.

“I actually made an offer to another club for a good, young player who would have filled another position for us,” Wade said. “The GM on the other club rejected it because all of Ryan’s home runs were in the minor leagues at the time. He made a reference to Sam Horn.”

Repoz Posted: March 29, 2010 at 11:34 AM | 7 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: astros, phillies

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1. Crashburn Alley Posted: March 29, 2010 at 12:00 PM (#3487788)

I think this may speak more to poor talent evaluation on Wade's part and outstanding talent evaluation on the part of the Phillies scouts. But maybe that's just me.

2. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: March 29, 2010 at 01:51 PM (#3487829)

I like articles like this. I'm always curious about the "what-if" trades. We need more writers asking more former GMs about their days in the front office.

3. Bad Doctor Posted: March 29, 2010 at 05:26 PM (#3487981)

Don't know enough about where the line was drawn between Wade and Arbuckle to know how much credit Wade gets for the championship teams, but he should definitely get some. Even his middle reliever fetish didn't cost them many minor leaguers of import, as best I can recall. And in his defense, he definitely ran into some crappy luck in not getting the team back to the playoffs earlier ... that first year with Millwood, they looked terrific on paper, and then the starting rotation just fell apart.

I want to say the proposed Howard trade was to the Pirates for Kip Wells. Does that ring a bell with anyone else? At any rate, good on Wade for being honest here. I love hearing, for example, from Jerry Glanville and every other former member of the Atlanta Falcons' brain trust from the early 90s that he was the guy that knew how special Brett Favre was and fought tooth and nail against trading him away.

4. ValueArbitrageur Posted: March 29, 2010 at 07:40 PM (#3488139)

I could have gotten Barry Zito from Oakland in his prime,” Wade said. “All it would have taken was Chase Utley, Ryan Madson, and Michael Bourn, but my damn owner killed the deal

FHQ

5. Dan Szymborski

Posted: March 29, 2010 at 07:55 PM (#3488146)

Like Logan White through a number of GMs, Mike Arbuckle pretty much had his own little fiefdom.

The Phillies have generally worked this way for the last 30 years since Giles bought the team from Ruly Carpenter. Giles treated the GM job as a "department head" type of job for major league personnel, with player development generally handling everything to do with scouting and the minors, with the GM's contribution being very broad and limited.

6. Shock Posted: March 29, 2010 at 08:28 PM (#3488182)

By this logic, every GM ever is a great GM, because for every GM you can make up some hypothetical trade that he didn't make.

7. Infinite Yost (Voxter)

Posted: March 29, 2010 at 08:58 PM (#3488219)

Bill Bavasi never traded Felix Hernandez for Neifi Perez and a box of Fruit Loops, it's true.

Not to say that he didn't try.

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Monday, March 29, 2010

Brookover: Former GM Wade set Phils in motion

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