Ruben Amaro yet again permitted to speak in public

The Phillies aren't in last place, which should be good enough for a parade given the doomsday outlooks this team was given in the preseason. Despite a brief spurt of wins, most of the season will be spent watching them bottom out, unless you can think of literally anything else to do.

There's not much to hope for on the major league level - maybe Ben Revere will be traded, maybe Freddy Galvis' success could resurface - so some fans have turned to the minor leagues to look for hope. And it's down there, in the forms of Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin, and even Brock Stassi, as well as other youngsters getting their legs under them. So, naturally, those who care and know less about the finesse and patience of the prospect development process, want to put the Nola's and the Eflin's on the big league team in order to fix everything.

This is not something the Phillies should do yet, and they know that. But with it still May and having a fan base to service for the remainder of the summer, the Phillies sent out team ambassador Ruben Amaro to address the chanting hordes:

"They don't understand the game," Amaro said, according to CSN Philadelphia. "They don't understand the process. There's a process. And then they bitch and complain because we don't have a plan. There's a plan in place and we're sticking with the plan. We can't do what's best for the fan. We have to do what's best for the organization so the fan can reap the benefit of it later on. That's the truth."

See how raw of a statement that was? Amaro promoted it out of his mouth before it had undergone the right amount of development, exemplifying the dangers in taking similar shortcuts with young ballplayers. A genius method by a man sitting atop one of baseball's most respected brain trusts.

If there's something Philadelphians are good at, it's incorrectly perceiving an insult. What Ruben has done here is eliminated the possibility that he wasn't openly resenting the fans, thus freeing them from having to perform any mental olympics to be insulted. Think of the headaches this city has been spared!

For a team that has been, and remains, so far behind the times when it comes to building relationships with its fans, as well as general communication, this can only lead to good things. So why not head on down to the old ball yard this summer, and pay some money to watch a bumbling roster try and fail to stay out of last place. Maybe you'll even catch a glimpse of Amaro, and he can tell you how stupid you are, and you can thank him.

Needless to say, the Phillies scrambled to get Amaro back out there and explain to these dumb fans how he didn't insult them:

"I didn't say they don't understand," Amaro told Eskin. "Some fans don't understand it's not all Philadelphia fans. That was not the purpose of it. It is some fans who think that bringing [Zach] Eflin and [Aaron] Nola, for instance, to the major leagues at this time is the right thing for the organization. It's those fans that really quite don't know — or bringing young minor league players to the Major Leagues before it's time for them to really be ready to reap the benefits of being in the Major League. It's those fans that really don't understand."

Again, Amaro is correct on this point; you see, Philadelphia? He wasn't insulting you - he was insulting them, out there - all those other fans, standing behind you!

In regards to Amaro claiming he did not say "they don't understand," we turn you to the opening statement of his previous quote:

"They don't understand the game," Amaro said, according to CSN Philadelphia.