After watching last night’s pathetic 3-hit performance by the Phillies, I couldn’t help but wonder who’s responsible for half the lineup being triple-A caliber players. Greg Dobbs, Ross Gload, Wilson Valdez. In fairness, this team is dealing with some injuries right now but watching the likes of Dane Sardinia is becoming hard to impossible.

While a decimated farm system may be adding to the Phils’ inability to replace Utley, Polanco and Ruiz, it is the GM of the team that has made the minor league system the bare cupboard it is. He’s also the one responsible for the fact that the best pitcher in the American League is no longer a Phillie. And he’s the one saddling the team with Raul Ibanez’s absurd contract for an octogenarian hitting under .250. He’s the guy responsible for Ryan Howard’s wildly over-market contract and its impact on the team’s impending unwillingness to resign Jayson Werth. Ruben Amaro is responsible for the Phillies’ awful bullpen, choosing to leverage the future of the team on Roy Halladay’s right shoulder while doing nothing to address an aging bullpen that trots out Mike Zagurski in extra innings. So other than the signing of Placido Polanco as a tally in the “good move” column, I ask: what has Amaro done for this team and if he were the GM of the Red Sox or Yankees, is there any way he’d still have a job?

The Phils had a scout in attendance when Lee throttled the Yankees last week, and also there Sunday when Lee dismantled the Tigers. The question is of course, why? The Phils have no chance of signing Lee. None. The Mariners front office won’t give him up for 3 pathetic minor leaguers. They are looking for big guns, and the Phils have nothing to give except Domonic Brown, who they are not giving up. So what are they doing at these games? Are they also looking at Lee’s facebook status to see if he’s in a new relationship? Are they calling his house and then hanging up the phone when he answers? Because there is no other explanation for why they are doing this other than that they miss him and want him to know that they haven’t forgotten about him. Right?

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Phillies are interested in Lee, and Amaro is not scared off by the fact that he made one of the worst deals in sports history last year. Here’s what Rosenthal says.

The Mariners, in any discussions with the Phillies about Lee, almost certainly would ask for Triple-A outfielder Domonic Brown, the Phils’ top prospect. Such a move would be difficult for the Phillies to make unless they were confident of signing Lee long-term — and Amaro traded Lee last December in part because he was discouraged by a conversation with Lee’s agent, Darek Braunecker, about that prospect…Trading right fielder Jayson Werth – who, like Lee, is eligible for free agency at the end of the season – would be one possibility for the Phillies to consider…Werth, however, is the Phillies’ biggest right-handed threat, leading the team with a .919 OPS. The team already is down one right-handed bat with the loss of Polanco. Brown bats left-handed, as do several of the Phillies’ most prominent hitters – Utley, Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez.

Lee Russakoff thinks the Phils should have traded Werth in the first place.

Amaro could have figured that out and still kept Cliff Lee. He could have traded Joe Blanton and Jayson Werth for a comparable package to what he got for Lee, used the money he saved by trading that twosome to sign Lee long-term and then had the best rotation in baseball for a half decade.Amaro could have figured that out and still kept Cliff Lee. He could have traded Joe Blanton and Jayson Werth for a comparable package to what he got for Lee, used the money he saved by trading that twosome to sign Lee long-term and then had the best rotation in baseball for a half decade.

Fun Cliff Lee stat: He struck out 11 and walked one on Sunday. It was his 89th strikeout on the season, and his 6th walk given up in 13 starts.

The 5.5-game deficit the Phillies currently enjoy is a direct result of their front office’s business-first approach to baseball. And it’s your fault, too. With an eye toward the 2010 season, this organization correctly leveraged your blind faith against their coffers and they’ve come out on top. They figured they didn’t need to overspend because they knew they’d fill their seats and that your closet would always have room for another maroon and white t-shirt.

After realizing there was no rational way to euphemize the destruction of their farm system, the botching of Cliff Lee and the forced departure of Chan Ho Park, Ruben Amaro wagered the future of this team on a ridiculous contract to Ryan Howard. Why? For the same reason they do everything else the way they do it: as a p.r. move. In the offseason they did nothing to improve their awful bullpen or their shaky starting rotation other than off the remaining prospects in their farm system in order for Ruben Amaro to demonstrate that he had big enough onions to finalize the acquisition of Roy Halladay. And for as good as Halladay is his occupancy of the #1 spot is, at best, a negligible improvement over what they already had.

Fast forward to a few weeks into the season, and you’ll see another marketing move that had to be made once they realized their rest-on-our-laurels approach to personnel wasn’t translating to success on the field. So Amaro pulled his pants down again and made it rain for Ryan Howard. So far this mismanagement of the team has landed them three games over .500 approaching the halfway point of the season.

At this point the Phillies know something the Eagles have known for years: they’ve got you by your balls. The Eagles have left mouths agape for years by refusing to make even the most obvious personnel moves when they’ve needed to and yet you’re still at all their games. Now the Phillies are doing the same thing. Like football, baseball is a show that’s dependent on you buying a ticket. And once the house has punched your stub, it doesn’t matter much to them how good the product on the stage is.

Things could not be any worse for the Phillies’ bullpen than they already were coming into the season. Their closer, Brad Lidge, was coming off an historically-bad 2009. J.C. Romero has been in some kind of interminable injury limbo. And the best Ruben Amaro could offer in the offseason was the acquisitions of Danys Baez and Jose Contreras. Fast forward to now: Brad Lidge has returned and shown himself to be as questionable as ever. In 1.1 innings pitched this season, Lidge has compiled a 2.25 WHIP and an ERA of 6.75.

No matter. Amaro and the Phillies’ pitching-challenged brain trust have had their backup plan in the works for a while. No, we’re not talking about an aggressive free agent signing during the winter. We’re talking about Ryan Madson, a guy who’s appeared in 9 games this season and has (yes, this is possible) a worse ERA than Lidge: 7.00. Madson’s season highlight is blowing a 3-run, 9th inning lead against Atlanta and in the process spoiling a desperately-need great start from Kyle Kendrick. The silver lining in all this is that Inquirer writer, Matt Gelb, is reporting that Madson will miss “significant” time due to a broken right toe sustained when he kicked a chair out of frustration in the San Francisco visitors’ locker room. As a result Jose Contreras will assume the closing duties.

The blame for the bullpen’s amateurish incompetence rests solely on the shoulders of Ruben Amaro. He has known all along that even with a competent bullpen like the one the Phillies fielded in 2008, his manager is incapable of using them properly. The only reason the Phils weren’t exposed during that stretch was the unworldly perfection of Brad Lidge at the back end. But with questions of age and declining talent going forward, the Phillies have done nothing to improve the part of their team that is as glaring as a strawberry-sized lip herpe.

While Amaro has spent the better part of the last calendar year pulling his pants down to show the world what a potentate he is, his two big deals have done nothing to improve this team. Roy Halladay is a great pitcher, but the role that he occupies on this team is something they already had covered in the person of Cliff Lee. And Ryan Howard would have been here anyway had he not been resigned to a mammoth contract.

So when the Phillies line up tonight against the N.L’s. best team, Amaro can reflect on the fact that the team they’ll face has a combined ERA of 2.52, good for best in the league. While names like Jaime Garcia (the rookie who stoned the Phillies last night) may not shake down the thunder, the Phillies may take notice of Adam Wainwright, who will start tonight with his 2.13 ERA. Wainwright has recorded quality starts in 23 of his last 24 outings and the Cardinals as a team have gone 12 starts where their starters have gone at least six innings and not recorded more than 3 earned runs.

That mastery of the starting rotation means the Cards’ bullpen is less of a factor, something that gives them a decided advantage over their opponents (they’ve won 8 of their last 9). With yet another question mark taking the hill for the Phillies tonight in Cole Hamels, the tipping point of the bullpen’s entry into the game is likely to be earlier than later. And that, Mr. Amaro, is not a good thing.

The schedule is sure toughening-up for the Phillies. After an opening 3 games against High-A Washington, they’ll turn their attention this evening to Double-A Houston before returning to the Aruban Winter League to face the Nationals for three more next week. With competition like this it kind of makes you feel like Cliff Lee won’t be missed.

Actually, of course, there will be 4 or 5 series this season where the Phillies will have to show up. Most of those series will be against AL teams, which is good because that will give us some insight as to whether this team can win a series with a Lee-less rotation. Before we take a look at how the Phils match up without Lee, let’s just be perfectly honest about one thing: Cliff Lee’s absence will have no bearing on the outcome of the N.L. East race; the Phillies will win this division.

Where Lee’s absence will matter is in the playoffs. I see 4 potential playoff opponents whose top-3 starters are clearly superior to the Phillies (Halladay, Hamels and Blaton) and they are (in no particular order):

• Yankees with Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte
• Red Sox with Beckett, Lester and Lackey (adjust for Dice-K and Bucholtz if needed)
• San Francisco with Lincecum, Cain and Zito
• St. Louis with Carpenter, Wainwright and Lohse

Now, before you get all homer on me and argue that Kyle Lohse and Barry Zito are no better than Joe Blanton (which they may or may not be) keep in mind that Matt Cain and Adam Wainwright are demonstrably better than Cole Hamels. In the case of the Yankees, their top-3 have already proven themselves superior. And in Boston’s case, you could anchor the 3-spot with 3 different guys. But in both NL teams’ cases, it really comes down to the #2 guys making the difference. That is where Cliff Lee would have come in.

A lot can happen between Game #4 and Game #163. Cole Hamels could have a career year, Matt Cain could tear his ACL…who knows. But as it stands, let’s not worry too much any more about the obvious mistake Amaro made by trading Cliff Lee until the impact of that trade will really be felt. In the meantime, enjoy the season.

On the Dan Patrick show yesterday, Jimmy Rollins essentially ripped Phils management for making a deal that still has many Philadelphians seeing red. When asked why the Phils traded Lee, J-Roll responded: “I have no idea. I’m sure we could afford him (Lee). We turned nearly four million people through the turnstiles last year. I don’t know. You should have Ruben on here…When the trade happened, I actually got a text from Jayson Werth and he was like, ‘What are we doing?’ And I was like, ‘Didn’t we get Halladay?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, but we traded Lee.’ And my mouth dropped like, ‘That wasn’t part of the deal…”I thought we had enough to keep (Lee),” he said. “I thought we could have done enough to keep him. I guess that’s just a move the Yankees do. … That’s just the truth. The Yankees would have been like, ‘Hey, we got a chance to keep both of them. We’ll pay them both for a year or two and we got a chance to win a championship.’”

Another reason we love J-Roll: he thinks just like we do, an admirable trait in anyone. With the performances of Hamels and Kendrick to open the season, the voices are not getting quieter. Amaro put an astounding amount of pressure on his starting pitchers by trading Cliff Lee. If 2009 Hamels shows up and Kyle Kendrick is as bad as he looked yesterday, the anti-Amaro chorus will get louder.

A far more interesting and telling game than yesterday’s Phillies blowout win over the Nationals will be played tomorrow night. Aside from the fanfare and excitement surrounding opening day and Roy Halladay’s debut, is there anyone out there who really thought that Doc wouldn’t get the win and that the Phils’ offense wouldn’t hammer the hapless Nats? Tomorrow will mark the first start of the season for the one guy upon whom the Phillies championship hopes rest the most: Cole Hamels.

Let’s assume that the Phillies starting pitching breaks into three categories. The first is Roy Halladay’s presumed dominance in the form of a season that should bring at least 18 wins. The second group is Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer. Their collective ability to keep opposing teams’ run totals under what the mighty Phils offense puts up will determine their success. While it’s true that the last 3 spots in the rotation account for 60% of the team’s starts (give or take) and that each win by Moyer counts as much as each win by Halladay, Hamels and Halladay’s starts will begin to count for more as the season progresses. That is, as the season wears on we’ll know whether this team genuinely has the secret to playoff success: top-heavy starting pitching.

And so the third part of the equation is Cole Hamels. If Hamels has a season like 2009, his wins won’t come in droves as they did in ’08. Nor will his value in a playoff-shortened rotation bode well for the Phillies’ pitching matchups in the postseason. Sure, we’re 161 games from October but it’s not too early to start focusing on Hamels’ ability to regain his form and make the 1-2, righty-lefty combo of Halladay and Hamels the wrecking crew that Ruben Amaro banked on when he cut ties with Cliff Lee. We’ll get a first glimpse at this recipe tomorrow evening in Washington.

Usually all Curt Schilling needs to do is open his mouth, and stupid just starts pouring out. But this time he hit the nail on the head. 

“I think trading Cliff Lee was the stupidest thing they’ve ever done, and they didn’t have to. They didn’t have to do it. It was a stupid, stupid move. They could’ve had a World Series berth locked up right now with those two guys at the top of their rotation…Those guys would’ve finished legitimately 1-2 [as] Cy Young candidates on the same staff. You’ve got Cole Hamels in the three slot, which is a dream come true for both. They would’ve been a 110-win team…(Lee’s) coming off a phenomenal run when he came over. He showed them [in] October he was going to be better than everybody else. You don’t know what you’re getting there. Doc’s never pitched in October. I think he’ll be great and be awesome and all that stuff, but he could get to October and not be the guy. Cliff proved that he can pitch in October. That’s a big loss.”

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the Phillies are the slight favorite in a competitive division. Had they kept Lee, they would have the division and probably the National League pennant wrapped up by now. But they threw away a chance to have the best team in their 127 year history so they can be “competitive” in 2014. It’s a travesty and a sham, and Ruben Amaro better hope that the Phils win the division and Cliff Lee has a bad year. Otherwise, Philadelphia will never forgive him for this.  

RELATED: Lee’s Reward for Brilliance? A Swift Kick in the Ass.

Phillies’ left-handed ace, Cliff Lee, was tossed from a spring training game yesterday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Oh wait, Cliff Lee pitches for the Seattle Mariners now. Either way, Lee got the D’Backs’ ire up yesterday by apparently going for the headshot against Chris Snyder, leading to both teams’ benches emptying onto the field.

Mark Reynolds, the D’Backs’ third baseman, called Lee’s maneuvering “bush league.” While pitching at a guy’s head may be off-putting to the latte and canyon golf crowd out west, here in Philly we respect a pitcher who’s got the onions to go inside when the situation warrants. It may take a while for Lee to acclimate to pitching out west, a place where “tough nose” means a bad appointment with the plastic surgeon. What a bunch of sissies out there in the Cactus League. Sorry, Cliff.

It turns out Charlie Manuel would have liked Cliff Lee to stay in Philadelphia. Just like in the case of his wife’s decision to buy expensive furniture, however, Charlie was powerless to stop the front office from shitting its pants. This isn’t exactly a shocking revelation but the fact that he said so publicly is a refreshing piece of honesty, regardless of how obvious that honesty is. It’s like the opposite of the lying nonsense put forth by Manuel’s boss, Ruben Amaro, on the matter. Yes, Ruben, we believe you that given the choice between “replenishing the farm system” and having the N.L.’s best rotation headlined by 2 Yankee killers, the former was a hotter priority. Or that the $9 million they saved by letting Lee go is being put to better use in the form of Shane Victorino and Joe Blanton.

Sure, the manager always wants to keep the star player because that makes his job easier. Charlie doesn’t have to worry about contracts or free agents; he just needs to fill out the lineup card and pat his guys on their butts (and even a circus clown knows that Cliff Lee’s services should have been retained). I would have liked Lee to be back but oh well, I guess I’ll have to settle for Jose Contreras.