Oswalt is owed $21 million over the next two years. Lee is owed $8 million this year, and will be a free agent afterward (bringing in 2 picks if he's not resigned.) You can't tell me that they couldn't afford to keep Lee, but they can afford to pay Oswalt. It would've been cheaper both monetarily and from an asset standpoint to just keep Lee for one season. They didn't because Amaro (wrongly) thought that Halladay-Hamels-Blanton-Happ-Moyer was good enough to win the division.
It was for the Phillies. It was all part of one trade. http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.co...t_id=7814772&vkey=news_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi
Sure I can. Houston is paying a lot of Oswalt's deal. How about this? Wait and see how much Lee gets this coming offseason and then tell me they could've easily afforded to keep him. The outlay for Oswalt and Lee is not comparable. The Phillies preferred to trade Lee and get Halladay, who they knew they could sign, rather than having Lee for one season and having him walk.
I'm not saying that they could've afforded to sign Lee to an extension, but they definitely could've afforded to pay him $8 million this season. Houston's picking up part of Oswalt's contract, but I'm almost certain they aren't going to pay $13 million just to move him. They traded Lee because they thought that Halladay made their rotation good enough, so they wanted to save a little money and bring in some prospects. But they got a mediocre package in return, their rotation wasn't good enough, they had to give up more assets to get a worse pitcher a few months later, and they're paying him more than they would've had to pay to hang onto Lee and collect draft picks when he walks this summer. Any way you slice it, that is a horrible job by Ruben Amaro Jr.
Of course they could've. But they wanted Halladay for however many years instead of Lee for one year. They felt they didn't have a chance at keeping Lee, so they dealt him. This happens all the time. It's eight figures, I know that much. Philly's budget constraints meant that Houston had to take on a lot of money to trade Oswalt.
But that's kind of bullshit. It's a decision the front office made based on financial constraints. That is very different than whether or not they could have both been on the same team. Lee did not need to be traded to acquire Halladay. It wasn't that the pieces weren't there. The Blue Jays and Phillies could have completed that trade personnel-wise, and still given Halladay his extension, then let Lee walk after this year. They chose to try to get some prospects for him instead. Then backtracked on that idea and traded prospects to get a lesser pitcher. Stoopid.
With teams that aren't contending. That's who trades guys they know they can't afford to keep. They could have handled Lee's salary this year, no matter how many times you say they couldn't. They chose not to. In the end they wound up significantly less talented, and still might not even win the division, even taking on more money via Oswalt. It was about as dumb a series of moves as has been made in baseball this year, maybe even the past few years. Not even a chance. If Cashman even seriously considers it I might have to go punch him in the face myself.
Uh, not what I said. I said they felt they couldn't afford to re-sign Lee. Obviously they could have afforded to keep Lee for one season and let him walk. They preferred to have Halladay, who they could sign long term.
What I am saying is that they could have afforded both this year. Win a title now, lose Lee to free agency in November. Collect the draft pick, collect bragging rights, move on. You were saying that it happens all the time that teams trade players they know they can't re-sign, which I agree with, except with the condition that those teams aren't contenders when they make those trades. The Phillies were coming off a World Series loss with no significant departures, and just brought in Halladay. It doesn't matter how you try to defend their trade of Lee, it was wrong and stupid. I said it when they did it, and I'll continue saying it now. There is absolutely no reason a serious World Series contender in a large city can't make room for two of the most elite pitchers in the sport for one season. I don't even know how you can defend your position with a straight face.
And you do see the difference between saying they preferred having one over the other and saying that they could only have one or the other, right? They could have had both. And obviously they are willing to sacrifice a bit of the future for winning it now if they are going to go out and trade pieces for Oswalt. D-U-M, dum.
I don't know how many times I have to say it. The Phillies were not interested in having Lee walk as a free agent. They wanted a top pitcher they could keep beyond this season. So they dealt Lee in a package that allowed them to net Halladay, who they signed to an extension. Seems pretty logical to me. If it were the Yankees, of course you keep Lee, because there is no foreseeable budget, so what's the downside?
Well, you keep saying it, but you also keep ignoring the main point of contention by saying it. A decision made by the front office based on budget concerns is different than saying they could not have had both. They could have. They chose not to. And then backtracked on that decision and decided to trade for a front-line pitcher of lesser quality. Your initial contention was that they could not have had both Lee and Halladay this year because it was a three way deal. That is incorrect. They could have had both. The Blue Jays and Phils would have made the Halladay trade happen. Pieces from the Seattle side of things were not required to make it work in any way, except financially in the long term for Philly. And then they changed their mind and decided to go for Oswalt. Which is why it's stupid.
Montero just crushed a low breaking ball to right center. Opposite field power at 20 yrs old in AAA. Since June 11th (161 ABs; not counting tonight): .335 / .409 / .602 8 HR / 16 2B / 2 3B / 26 RBI / 20 BB / 34 K / 16% XBH Imagine when, as he develops, those 2Bs and 3Bs start becoming HRs. hmy:
i cant decide whether hes more valuable (to the yankees) as a trade chip or a big league full time dh. his hitting has remarkable ceiling. kind of reminds me of miguel cabrera.
Teams are terrible at trades. They overvalue their players so much. The Jays must have been smoking crack for the demands of their RPs. That being said he has more value playing the Victor Martinez role with us.
3-5 2B 2 RBI today. Since June 11th (169 ABs): .343 / .416 / .621 9 HR / 29 RBI / 17 2B / 2 3B / 21 BB / 35 K / 17% XBH Just gross.
