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 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.

Last night marked the first time a Mets pitcher has allowed 10 runs and 4 homers in a single outing. On the hill for that disgraceful performance was none other than Mets’ ace, Johan Santana. Placido Polanco, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley homered, Jamie Moyer walked and Shane Victorino hit a grand slam off Santana last night. Sure, this is only one game but it was the rubber match of the series between two bitter rivals. 36 total runs were scored in the series and none of the 3 games was decided by less than a 6-run margin.

It’s early in the season but the Phillies ability to open up a collective offensive salvo after losing 9-1 on Friday was the confidence boost this team needed at the plate. The Phils scored 4-more runs in their last two games than they had in their previous 5 games combined. More importantly, they retook control of the N.L. East standings by winning the series against the Mets.

Up next for the Phils is the St. Louis Cardinals who open a 4-game set at the Park tonight. The Phillies will miss Chris Carpenter during the series, having instead to face Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright, Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse. They’ll then play two at home against Atlanta and then hit the road for a 3-game set in Denver. Including the Mets series, the Phils will have played 13 consecutive games once this brutal stretch is over. Beating the pants off the Mets was certainly the way to kick it off.

A day after signing a contract that could keep him in Philadelphia until 2017, Ryan Howard can comfortably look around and see only Alex Rodriguez in the same room. That’s because A-Rod is the only player in baseball with a contract that pays him more in terms of guaranteed annual salary, on average. As for Ruben Amaro (a GM who seems to relish big-ticket players), he’ll be able to make the claim that this team is serious about winning and serious about its future. But what is serious is the nature of the questions about this signing.

Anyone reading this can rattle off 10 players who are better than Ryan Howard. That is not to say that Howard is not a terrific player, but he’s not Albert Pujols nor is he Mark Teixeira, A-Rod, Hanley Ramirez or Joe Mauer. Most poignantly, he’s not Chase Utley. So why pay so much money for a big-framed 1st baseman that will be locking you down in 2015 to the tune of $25 million? We’ve seen plenty of cases of players like David Ortiz and Mo Vaughn whose big bodies have aged poorly; assuming that happens to Howard, the Phillies will have an untradeable commodity on their hands in a few years.

Furthermore, a front office that admittedly does not use statistical analysis in its decision making process seems to be living in the past with this one. While Ryan Howard’s average has been on a steady decline over his career, his HR and RBI numbers haven’t. And while it’s hard to argue with Howard’s home run totals, RBI is a number that’s the result of hitting in good position on a good offensive team. So why use them to forecast a huge investment in a guy who fits the model for rapid age-related decline?

I’m not going to sit here and argue that Ryan Howard is not a terrific player. But two things come to mind: the first is the fact that he’s going to make $10 million more money than the best player on this team. How does Utley feel about that and how will he feel after his contract expires in 2013? Secondly, why put yourself in a position to be overpaying a 34, 35-year old power hitter who fits the physical mold for mid-30s decline and fits the contractual mold of an untradeable player if that decline does come to pass?

This contract also portends the definitive end of Jayson Werth’s time in Philly. He’ll be looking for Jason Bay money in the offseason and the Phillies will now certainly not be paying him that.

Look, Ryan Howard is an excellent player whom you don’t want to get rid of. But there are very serious questions about how long he will be able to produce like he has been. And with a guy who doesn’t excel defensively (to be fair, he does deserve credit for becoming much better with the glove), you don’t get much for your $25 million if he stops putting 45 home runs over the fence each year. I’m not saying I don’t think Howard should be on this team or that I don’t love the way he hits but experience should tell Amaro that paying the kind of money he’ll be paying Howard in a few seasons is an incredibly risky proposition.

Looking ahead to the Phillies weekend series against the Marlins, I asked myself whether this team would be good enough to win a series (at home) against a real Major League team. Three games and two losses later the answer is a resounding no. Their stud #2, Cole Hamels, showed yet again that he can’t beat a quality team. While the offense looks great against teams like the Astros, Nate Robertson and Ricky Nolasco held the Phils’ bats to 1 run in 2 games. Hell, even in the Friday night win the bullpen did everything it could (but failed, of course) to lose a seemingly insurmountable lead.

This team is a shell of its former self. People in this town like to walk around and pretend their team is a contender. Still drunk off the intoxications of the past two seasons, fans overlook how awful this team really is. Reality check, folks: it’s been six months since this team played in the World Series. And a year and a half since they’ve won one. I don’t know about you but I’m not going to sit around and look at this team with good-ol’-days glasses on and I’m sure as shit not going to trick myself into thinking this playoff pretender of a team has a real shot at it this year.

With no young talent to speak of, the Phillies front office has dug itself into a hole by trading away 200 prospects for one spot in the rotation. And they’re trying to make up for it by marching out dinosaurs like Roy Halladay, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the hopes that fans will keep coming to the park out of some kind of nostalgia. No thank you.

Sure, they’ve won twice as many games as they’ve lost. And sure, they have MLB’s best run differential at +29. But I’m not going to take the bait just because they’re first in the NL in batting average, runs scored, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and ERA. Yeah, that sounds nice, but they’ve only stolen 3 bases all year. Frauds.

So to all you Kool Aid drinkers, enjoy. You can keep riding high off of old glories on the baseball field but some of us refuse to live in the past. We’re now TWO SEASONS removed from a title. And with 2 consecutive losses under their belts, the Phillies are showing what a house of cards really looks like. I’ve had it with these bums.

The gentlemen over at thefightins.com have posted some pictures of various idiots wearing Phils jerseys with misspelled names on them, like the one above featuring the French Canadian version of Cole Hamels’ name. Other bargain-basement, orthographically-challenged jerseys include Shane “Victornio” and Ryan “Howadr.” You can check out even more idiotic replica jersey choices at straightcashhomey.net. Two excellent examples are the guy who actually purchased a Paul Lo Duca Nationals jersey and two Sabres fans standing next to each other wearing Darren Puppa and Christain Ruutu sweaters.

Buster Olney is reporting on a rumor that talks have taken place between the Phillies and Cardinals concerning a potential trade of Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols. Ruben Amaro Jr. has flatly denied that any such conversation has taken place, saying “I don’t know who you’re talking to but that’s a lie.” There really isn’t much of a point in editorializing the details of this potential swap because it’s not going to happen. But as the clocks jumped forward to spring early this morning, so too do our hopeful, daydreaming baseball minds. Much in the same way we long for a winning lottery ticket or the opportunity to do Megan Fox’s laundry.

Much is being made of the fact that Jayson Werth is in the last year of his contract with the Phillies. Werth is due $7.5 million this year, which will make him the 7th-highest player on a team that has a $138 million payroll for the 2010 season. Ruben Amaro has made a lot of noise about the fact that this team is not the New York Yankees, presumably meaning that the Phillies cannot afford to have more than 4 or 5 players making more than $15 million per season. How this relates to their ability to resign Werth is unclear at this point, so let’s take a look at some of the Phillies’ payroll commitments for the near future.

In the short term, the six Phillies who will make more money than Werth this season are Ryan Howard ($19 million), Roy Halladay ($15.75), Chase Utley ($15.29), Raul Ibanez ($12.17), Brad Lidge ($12) and Jimmy Rollins ($8.5). All six of these players are under contract for the 2011 season and only two of them, Howard and Halladay, are due raises in ’11 ($1 million and $4.25, respectively). This means that the Phillies are committed for about $88 million in 2011 for their top players and $133 million altogether.

Going a step further, Raul Ibanez’s advanced age and free agent status makes him a certain subtraction from the Phils’ payroll in 2012. Brad Lidge (who knows what he’ll be like in 2 years) is only due $1.5 million in 2012. Utley and Halladay are both under contract through the 2013 season so Jimmy Rollins will have to be renegotiated (2012 is the last year of his deal). With the bulk of the Phillies minor league talent existing in the form of outfielders, the need for Werth’s services past the 2011 season are questionable, which may make parting ways with him palatable for Amaro and the organization. But that all boils down to how much money Werth can expect from suitors in the free agency market.

Obviously, Ruben Amaro is better in touch with the mechanics of free agency than we are, so let’s just do a cursory look at what Werth, a career .265 hitter, can expect in the form of a raise. Statistically, Werth is coming off his most impressive season. He hit 50% more home runs in 2009 than in his next-most productive season (24 in 2008). He’s never tallied more than 100 RBI (max was 99 last season) and he’s never had an OPS better than .879. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio isn’t good (just about 1 BB for every 2 Ks) and while Werth does have good range in right field, his speed hasn’t translated that well to his stolen base totals: his best seasons were ’08 and ’09 where he stole 20 bases each season. For his career, he steals a base about once in every nine games he plays.

Let’s take Jason Bay’s signing by the Mets as a comparison. Bay’s contract will pay him $54.5 million over the next 4 years, plus a $17 million club option for 2014, meaning he’ll average about $13.63 million in his guaranteed years with the Mets. Considering Werth is making $7.5 million, should he expect a $6 million raise on par with a guy like Bay?

Like Werth, Bay has played 7 Major League seasons. His career average is .280. He hit the same number of home runs as Werth this past season (let’s consider Fenway Park and Citizens Bank Park to be washes in terms of their favorability to power hitters–two of the smallest lots in baseball). Bay has hit twice as many home runs in his career than Werth (185-93). Bay has tallied more than 100 RBI in 4 of his 7 seasons (119 in 2009) and has a career OPS of .896 which is better than Werth’s best single-season OPS. Bay’s SO-BB ratio is about 6% better than Werth’s. While Bay has a career best of 21 stolen bases (exceeding Werth’s best season), that was in 2005 and he only steals a base every 14 games.

We know the Mets are a relatively free-spending team when it comes to free agency. Considering they are spending less than $15 on Jason Bay (who has had a markedly better offensive career than Werth), can we really project that Werth will be able to command a contract that pays him in excess of $15 million per season? And assuming we can’t, how should we take Amaro’s argument that a likely parting with Werth will happen because the Phillies don’t want to overspend, on par with a team like the Yankees?

Jayson Werth is a very good outfielder who is coming off his best season. But it seems unlikely to me that Werth will command the kind of money that will prevent the Phillies from making him a competitive offer in free agency. So if the magic number is $140 million for 2011 and the Phillies are already committed to $133 million (with all the other top players under contract), it will be interesting to see how far over $140 Amaro will be willing to go to resign Werth.

Eyebrows were raised this week when 2-time Cy Young winner, Tim Lincecum, asked for $13 million from the San Francisco Giants in his arbitration filing. The Giants are offering $8 million. Unlike other sports, in baseball arbitration the decision isn’t an arbitrated amount somewhere in the middle; it’s a process that results in either the team’s number or the player’s being awarded. The current record for money awarded through this process is $10 million (Ryan Howard, Francisco Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano) which is probably why there’s so much noise about Lincecum’s request (for the record, Lincecum’s salaries during his two Cy Young seasons were $405,000 and $640,000).

The laugher in this year’s arbitration stakes is that Joe Blanton is asking for $10.25 million. Joe Blanton. $10.25 million. Granted, Blanton is a valuable middle of the rotation starter but this kind of request is about as reasonable as me asking for $50,000 for the work I do on this website. But that’s not even the punch line of the joke: the kicker is that the Phillies are offering $7.5 million.

Now take a moment and think about Ruben Amaro’s approach to the 2011 season with his offer to Joe Blanton in mind: if the Phillies are willing to pay the 3rd or 4th starter in their rotation $7.5 million this season (a guy with a career winning percentage of .538 and an ERA north of 4) why in the holy hell wasn’t Amaro willing to drop $1.5 million more on Cliff Lee?