Oh, Ruben.

"He can’t bare to watch much of it."

And I can't bear to watch bad grammar. But we all have our crosses to bare, I suppose.

And I can't bear to watch bad grammar. But we all have our crosses to bare, I suppose.

You misunderstand. Ruben regularly watches the series au naturel. He's been too sad to strip this year.

On the one hand, it's good the GM has this kind of perspective and isn't going to freak out and blow up a good team. On the other hand, not 100% classy, even if it may be true.

Oh, Ruben.

The guy pulled rabbits out of his hat (Lee, Pence) and has decimated the farm system and still went out in a weak performance by his team. He's a disappointed boy, big time and is still somewhere in the vicinity of denial.

his 'denial' (your word) embraces Beane's reality about playoff baseball. I think he's right on.

is there really anyone who would contest that the phillies were the best team in baseball this year?


also, somewhat related to this, the phillies declined the options on both brad lidge and roy oswalt. lidge isn't worth anything more than the league minimum, but the phillies are paying lipservice to the idea of bringing him back at something less than $15 million a year.


as for oswalt, i want him back, but considering that the phillies have blanton, kendrick, and worley for the 4/5 slots, i don't think it'd make sense to actually do it.

Sounds like Ruben Amaro has been smoking the objective pipe.

is there really anyone who would contest that the phillies were the best team in baseball this year?

Yankees fans.

On the other hand, not 100% classy, even if it may be true.

I don't think there is anything unclassy (?) about Amaro's comments. It's not like he sought out a radio station in Texas or St. Louis and said "these teams suck" or something like that. He was on the radio in Philadelphia speaking presumably to an audience of about 99.9% Phillie fans who are looking for an honest assessment of their team and what they can expect in the off-season.

I still think we’re the best team in baseball.

And that plus two bucks will entitle any Phillies player to a scenic ride on SEPTA.

considering that the phillies have blanton, kendrick, and worley for the 4/5 slots, i don't think it'd make sense to actually do it.

Blanton's coming off a lost/injured year; I don't see how you can count on anything other than to be pleasantly surprised if by June you're not still weeping every two weeks when you sign his check.

Kendrick seems like a perfectly acceptable 5th starter. I didn't realize he earned $2.45 million this year and will no doubt get a small bump up from that. He's due for a bit of regression (owing to his .265 BABIP for 2011), but really--this is just the sort of guy you want as a 5th starter: relatively cheap and a decent bet to be league-average.

Worley moves up to the 4 slot if you don't bring back Oswalt. On most teams, he'd be a perfectly fine 4th starter (hell, I would have killed for Vance Worley to have been the 4th starter for the Red Sox in September). The BABIP was .290, so not much there to regress to for 2012, the K/9 rate seems decent. Given the ballpark, maybe the 0.7 HR/9 rate goes up a bit for 2012, but again, even if that goes up a bit, he'd still turn out to be a damn good 4th starter (and damn cheap).

I guess I'm not seeing where the $16 million they're saving on Oswalt wouldn't be better off getting spent on offense (as opposed to loading up again on starters). Sure, "3 Aces" isn't as fun as "4 Aces," but if the spare $ can get you a big bat to replace Ibanez or to upgrade at 3B/SS, I think that's a better place to spend it than Oswalt.

Oswalt's a pretty interesting FA. Given the history, you probably could get him for a 2-3 year deal (granted at a high AAV). I'd worry about him making the jump to the AL, but I could certainly see the Yankees kicking the tires on him.

Over the entire season, the Phillies were certainly among the best teams in baseball, and at times were clearly "best" (whatever that means). In September, resoundingly not. 16-14 in September, with only 14 more runs scored than runs allowed, is not going to do it. And a league-average OPS+ overall--takes a heck of a pitching staff to deliver 102 wins with that kind of offense.

Anyhow, while it would be great to bring back Oswalt, Ruben's focus really needs to be on figuring out how to score more runs, especially with the potential absence of Ryan Howard for part of next season. I wonder if the Phillies can get in on Beltran?

Hey, I've seen Turn-On at the Paley Center in NYC. Two episodes of the show, in fact.

Yankees fans.

I don't think the Yankees were the best team in baseball.

is there really anyone who would contest that the phillies were the best team in baseball this year?

Some methods (including BP) had the Rangers as the best team this year. I think any of the Yankees, Rangers, and Phillies are plausible.

When does Roy Halladay start to show his age? 2015?

It's been, what, more than two weeks since the Cardinals game and Ryan Howard STILL hasn't touched first base!

I think any of the Yankees, Rangers, and Phillies are plausible.

Agree. It's pretty clear they were the best NL team.

is there really anyone who would contest that the phillies were the best team in baseball

see what I did there? I cut off your full statement to make my very weak end point argument of...

Well starting from game 13 until August 31st(about 125 games), the Red Sox were the best team in baseball.

Pissweak argument over.

Amaro's statements are fine. Phillies were the best team in NL without argument and have a case for best in all of MLB.

16-14 in September, with only 14 more runs scored than runs allowed

The Phillies clinched a playoff spot on 9/14. A cursory look at the boxscores shows that they rested 1-3 starters every day down the stretch, until the last series, where they swept Atlanta. They were obviously the best team in baseball this year.

I still think we’re the best team in baseball.

And that plus two bucks will entitle any Phillies player to a scenic ride on SEPTA.

I can see how putting together arguably the best team in the majors, only to be knocked out by something like the 9th or 10th best team, would frustrate him.

The Phillies clinched a playoff spot on 9/14. A cursory look at the boxscores shows that they rested 1-3 starters every day down the stretch, until the last series, where they swept Atlanta. They were obviously the best team in baseball this year.


Then why were advanced metrics that incorporated run differential and league adjustments, among others, showing that Texas and New York were both as good or better all year long.

He's a disappointed boy, big time and is still somewhere in the vicinity of denial.

Is that anything like being in the same zip code as denial?

I don't have any problem with what Amaro said, and I don't have problem with Cardinals fans sending him an iPod pre-loaded with this video in response.

I think the Phillies were indeed the best team in baseball this year. However, they were a team that can run into some crappy hitting slumps where pretty much everybody stops hitting. Unfortunately, that happened in a 5 game series in which Cliff Lee decided to stop being unhittable in the playoffs, and Roy Oswalt is not who he once was.

But the Phils are a super team now, and they will once again be the NL favorites next year, IMO.

I don't see anything wrong with the claim... going into the post season I thought the two best teams in baseball were the Yankees and Phillies... I don't think the playoffs change any of that....except for the fact that they didn't win the second season.

as for oswalt, i want him back, but considering that the phillies have blanton, kendrick, and worley for the 4/5 slots, i don't think it'd make sense to actually do it.
   8. Best Regards, La

how in the #### does Blanton enter into the same sentence as Oswalt, we are talking about a guy who is basically Jason Marquis, except Phillie fans are retards and like to imagine him in his 8 or so games a year where he doesn't ####### suck.... blanton makes suppan look like roy halladay in comparison(except his 8 or so games a year where he doesn't ####### suck)

Anyhow, while it would be great to bring back Oswalt, Ruben's focus really needs to be on figuring out how to score more runs, especially with the potential absence of Ryan Howard for part of next season. I wonder if the Phillies can get in on Beltran?

exactly, we are dealing with a front office that signed Howard to a ####### ass ridiculous contract, who clearly thinks rbi is actually a predicitive stat and worth spending money on.

they don't understand offense, it's clear to anyone who understands baseball.

I can see how putting together arguably the best team in the majors, only to be knocked out by something like the 9th or 10th best team, would frustrate him.

and if that happened...well it doesn't matter. The Cardinals were predicted by pretty much everybody to walk away with the division. It didn't happen, half way through the season, the team fixed their weakness's and used that to become a better team, a team that happened to win multiple post season series..

if the argument is that the Cardinals of 2011 was one of the 10th best teams overall, then that is a possibility, but again, playoff baseball is a ####### different animal. You use one less pitcher, you manipulate the rosters, etc... I seriously doubt the Brewers in the post season were better than the Cardinals, I'm not sure that any of the AL teams who were eliminated(except the Yankees) were better than the Cardinals going into the post season.

Quite possible the Phillies will lose to the World Series Champions three years in a row.

I never thought the Brewers were a good team. I mean they were a good team this year but I never thought they were a great team. I doubt they beat the Phillies if they played each other in a series and the Cards beating them isn't a surprise to me. Out of all the teams that made the playoffs in the NL only the Phillies really stood out as a great team. The rest just looked like your typical every season playoff teams. So whomever had the luck and hot streaks on their side would go the farthest.

How can anyone have an issue with what he said? He didn't say that the Phillies were the best team, or anything else definitively. He just stated his opinion, and presented it as an opinion. When people start sentences with 'I think...' or 'I believe...' I tend to give them much more leeway. It's when people present their opinions as facts ("That movie sucks.") that I will give them ####.

is there really anyone who would contest that the phillies were the best team in baseball this year?

The Rangers have a little something to say about that.

I know the Phils had a rotation for the ages, but their hitting was not nearly as good this year as Texas'. And while the Texas SPs aren't in the class of the Phils', I thought that the Rangers would get past the Phils in 6 if it came down to those teams in this WS.

Now We'll never know.

I can understand Amaro's frustration. But the Rangers have a right to be offended by his remarks.

I still think we’re the best team in baseball.

And that plus two bucks will entitle any Phillies player to a scenic ride on SEPTA.

I can see how putting together arguably the best team in the majors, only to be knocked out by something like the 9th or 10th best team, would frustrate him.

Still no reason to ride Septa.

Why doesn't some enterprising Met writer find Sarge Matthews and ask him if those are crybaby comments?