Now I know what its like to be a Yankee fan. High payroll, high expectations, everyone rooting for you to fail. It doesn’t seem right.
Everything feels different now. In 2007 we made a historic comeback to capture our first division in years and it seems everyone was behind us. In 2008 the feeling was the same as we ran through the playoffs in route to the ultimate prize. We weren’t supposed to get out of the first round that year. 2009 we appeared to be going for a dynasty as we acquired Lee and attempted to take down the mighty Yankees. Everyone is an underdog to the Yankees. We took a step back in 2010 as we lost to a team of destiny. And this year it stings the most. We take our best team ever into the playoffs and lose in the NLDS. And everyone seems happy about it. We are now the Yankees of the NL.
There is plenty of blame to go around for our failure. And that is where we trump Yankee fans. Philly will be on fire scapegoating Manuel, Howard and anyone else who had a bad series. But really, what’s the point? It just makes us look bad as a fan base. There is no stopping it though, its what we do. We really should be congratulating the Cardinals on a fine series. They outplayed us, period.
The real question is how to fix it. Ruben Amaro Jr will have his work cut out for him this time. We have collected a bunch of aging players with big contracts that are untradeable. We have a hole at ss that is going to be so tough to fill via free agency. We need a closer. We have a clean up hitter who will be on crutches for the foreseeable future. Our prize prospect looks like a bust.
Its hard to begin to speculate at this point what Rube will do. But a few things are possible. Sign reyes and hope he pumps new blood into our offense (saying these words makes me cringe). Sign a leftfielder and let Mayberry fill in at first. Sign a firstbaseman for a year. Trade Vance for a bat. And the mother of them all, trade Cole Hamels.
I would really hate to see Cole go. He is the youngest of our aces and is our World Series MVP and the main reason we had a parade. The facts are there though. He has 1 more year of arbitration left. He is going to get a ton of money, more than Jeff Weaver just got. We need to get younger in the lineup. He would bring a ton in return. People in Philly wouldn’t care as they think Cole is “soft.” But could Rube really pull the trigger on such a trade? I am sure he could. That is why he is our GM. He isn’t scared. Personally, I couldn’t. I would back the money truck right up to his door and keep him forever. Its the safe move. Trading young aces in their prime is what gets GMs fired.
There will be plenty of time to talk about all that in the next 6 months though. For now its time to step away and let the sting wear off. Its going to take a while this time I fear.
We can be thankful that we saw the best regular season team that has ever donned the blood stripes. 102 wins, a club record. Charlie sets the all time record for wins by a phillies manager. We saw one of the best pitching staffs ever assembled. CBP was the place to be every time the Phils were playing.
We will get um next year. And we better, our window is shrinking fast.
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