Some Phillies Links for You - April 1, 2010: Schilling Should Shut It, Shots are Bad

Plus, Schilling and RAJ were teammates in the 90s. Mix in Schill’s unpopularity with the early/mid 90s Phillies teams and the Advisory System might hit Code Brown.

What irritates me the most is how so many people (including, apparently, Schilling) seem to view Arizona’s experience with Schilling and Randy Johnson as proof that we would have “had a World Series berth locked up right now with” two aces at the top of our rotation. If anything, it proves exactly the opposite. Schilling and Johnson were together with the Diamondbacks for four seasons.* In those four seasons, they made ONE World Series and they won ONE World Series. And that one World Series win was a squeaker that very nearly went the other way.

If we hadn’t traded Lee, we almost certainly would have had him and Halladay together for only one season. So even if the Schilling/Johnson precedent were a perfect predictor of what would happen for us, that would have meant we would have had a 25% chance of making or winning the World Series if we had kept both guys. Maybe it’s just me, but I for one don’t consider a 25% chance to be a “lock”.

[* Technically, it was three seasons and part of a fourth because the Phillies traded Schilling to Arizona in July 2000. But it makes sense to count the 2000 season because Arizona was leading the NL West at the time they acquired Schilling. They actually collapsed and missed the playoffs after the trade.]

Incidentally, Martino didn’t write that article. I’m pretty sure Martino has already left for New York. Rather, that article was written by Ashley Fox. Whose work covering the Eagles is among the most hackish and obtuse of all the writers at philly.com. Which is really saying something. I hope this is not an indication that she will be writing about the Phillies regularly. She is horrible.

I concur with that statement. Had we kept Lee, it might have been even worse. Can you imagine the ire of this city with Halladay and Lee tossing gems only to see Jose Mesa or some such retread come in with whatever’s left of his arm and blow the game consistently?

Also people keep talking about how Lidge’s absence hurts the bullpen. Based on what? If anything, based on last year’s performance and his results in spring training, it might actually help us. They might be bad without him, but they’d probably only be worse with him.

FM is ready for Opening Day!

He used to be a fringe prospect in the Blue Jays system. I know this only because I used him as an emergency pickup in a fantasy league several few years ago.

1) Travis Lee made it all worthwhile.