Gets Worse for Philadelphia Phillies; Lose to College Team in Spring Opener
By Jon Flint
The lineup may have looked more like Triple-A Lehigh Valley’s, but Sunday’s loss to the University of Tampa is proof the worst is still ahead for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Even a squad full of minor league talent has no excuse for posting a mere six hits against college kids
Spring Training optimism seems to be all across Interstate 4 except in Clearwater, where Phillies fans are left to wonder how much longer will Cole Hamels be around? Things hit a new low when the Phillies dropped the first game in all of MLB Spring Training to a Division II school out of Tampa.
Russ Canzler was the highest profile player who took the field for the Phils, but even a squad full of minor league talent has no excuse for posting a mere six hits against college kids with significantly less experience and resources at their disposal.
It wasn’t long ago when the Philadelphia Phillies were kings of the NL East. Fresh off back-to-back pennants in 2008 and 2009, Ruben Amaro Jr. looked like a genius even more when he compiled a pitching rotation that consisted of Hamels, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt in 2011.
The rotation — dubbed “R2C2” — was put together a couple of years too late and aside from a lack of success, the wheeling and dealing depleted a majority of the Phillies’ farm system. At one point Domonic Brown was the organization’s top prospect, but bad choices in his progression from Double-A through to MLB has resulted in a 2.5 career WAR in over 1,400 big league at-bats.
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With a team coming off back-to-back 89 loss seasons and a farm system ranked bottom 10 for 2015, Amaro has to essentially turn water into wine in order to keep his job. This has created a situation in which the Phillies are overrating what trade pieces they have left in hopes of netting a king’s ransom of prospects in any potential deal.
Suitors of Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon and Chase Utley right now aren’t showing much urgency and as the season rolls on, it will become a game of who’s more desperate. Will the Phillies let up on the high asking prices in order to move on sooner? Or does a team such as the Boston Red Sox or San Diego Padres cave in order to beat the rest of the market ahead of the July trade deadline?
Ultimately, the awkward spring ahead will become an extended part of a long season for the Philadelphia Phillies. This is a franchise in complete disarray with no chance to see a successful season while operating in limbo. It shouldn’t take long for ownership to get tired of looking up at the Mets and Marlins in the standings before making the right choice to dismiss Amaro and do what’s best by punching the reset button.