The Phillies are a team that was once built for a major championship run. High payroll. Star veterans.
But in life, nothing is certain.
We knew the Phils would collapse at some point. That point is now.
Ryne Sandberg got the managerial job on the basis he would be good with young players (based on his minor league record). He inherited an aging ball club, with stubborn veterans on the career slide. A total house cleaning is in order.
But the Phils will be hamstruck by two large dead money deals. Ryan Howard and elbow tender Cliff Lee each make $25 million. Fifty million dollars of the payroll is gone to waste.
The Phils have tried to trade Cole Hamels, but the asking price has been outrageously high. The Phils need to trade whatever assets they have in order to get younger, quicker. But the rest of the league does not play ball that way.
Teams tend to keep their top prospects for control and payroll savings purposes. As the top stars continue to elicit hundred million dollar deals, owners need to balance that risk with a deep minor league system.
But you can't always get a winner on draft choice flyers, like the Phils did with Hamels.
The Phils are getting crushed by top prospects flaming out early.
The local media reports that after three minor league seasons, the team's 2011 first-round draft pick will not report to spring training. Larry Greene Jr., 22, the No. 39 overall pick and the selection the
Phillies received as compensation for losing Jayson Werth via free
agency, has not reported to minor league camp in Clearwater, Fla. and
reportedly has retired.
Greene gave up a full-ride to play linebacker for Alabama in order to
join the Phillies’ minor league system for a $1 million signing bonus.
Out of Nashville, Ga., Greene impressed the Phillies with his raw power
and football players’ physique. He hit .562 with 19 homers as a senior
at Berrien County High School in Georgia.
He was rated the best power hitter in the Phillies’ system after the
2011 season by Baseball America, but Greene’s hitting fizzled after he
left high school. In 70 games for low-A Williamsport in 2012, Greene hit
two homers and batted .272 with 78 strikeouts. Those numbers dipped in
2013, when he hit .213 with four homers and 163 strikeouts in 111 games.
Last season Greene slumped even further, batting just .183 with two homers and 60 strikeouts in 60 games for low-A Lakewood.
Meanwhile, Greene isn’t the Phillies only first-round flameout over
the last year. Anthony Hewitt, the team’s first-round pick (No. 24
overall) in 2008, was released after playing just 34 games for Double-A
Reading last summer.
The No. 27 overall pick, Jesse Biddle, came to camp this season
looking to bounce back after a rough second season at Double-A Reading
during which he suffered a concussion and went 3-10 with a 5.05 ERA.
The Phillies have a lot of work to do to avoid a 100-loss season in 2015. Adding cast-off veterans like Jordan Danks and Jerome Williams to oft injured veterans like Grady Sizemore or Chase Utley casts a long shadow for this season.
