Gentleman Jim, Ryan's Hope, and the Paper Chase

Buried within Bill Conlin's rambling (even for him) piece marking his return from vacation were two nuggets. Referring to team president Dave Montgomery's recent plea for patience from "the thousands of fans scrambling for the lifeboats on his badly listing team," Conlin writes:

Hey, April didn't go exactly the way we thought it would, but don't give up on us just yet. After all, we got Kenny Lofton to play center and have really improved ourselves there. And we have added starters who can take us deeper into ballgames. Montgomery didn't have the chutzpah -- or imagination -- to ask us again to look at how much better off the Phillies are than 8 years ago. And, at this getting-late-early date, shouldn't we be asking Monty, "Don't you mean to say, 'Look at how much better off than we were 4 years ago'?" The answer to that one is you've been stuck in quicksand since Larry Bowa broke through in 2001 with 86 victories. That was the only season in the Ed Wade Era the Phillies actually contended in the stretch.

Then this:

Can you imagine Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa or Joe Torre putting up with a situation where all they had was two healthy moves off the bench, which was what [Charlie] Manuel was forced to live with while [Jim] Thome and Lofton were in limbo. Maybe Ed Wade doesn't trust Charlie M with more than two moves a game. Meanwhile, a stupefying paralysis of inaction gripped the Phillies' decision-makers.

Last night's 10-3 trampling of Tom Glavine and the Mets notwithstanding, Conlin calls the Phillies a "doomed baseball team," and the news that both Thome and Lofton have landed on the DL doesn't soon good. Ryan Howard will get a chance to show what he's worth; frankly, anything out of him will be an improvement over what Thome has brought to the offense in the first month of the season. Erstwhile stud Marlon Byrd also has been brought up, though Jason Michaels's solid play so far may keep him from seeing too much time.

As for those of us demanding an end to the silly Chase Utley-Placido Polanco platoon at second base, Jayson Stark says it won't happen very soon:

Despite denials on both sides, one team that has been in touch with the Phillies says the Phillies and Cubs got worked up briefly about a deal that would have sent Placido Polanco to the Cubs following Nomar Garciaparra's injury. But the Phillies decided to hang onto Polanco until after June 15, when he can't veto any deals and when he could be packaged with first-base prospect Ryan Howard in a possible blockbuster.

Great. Anybody want to bet that Ed Wade's idea of a blockbuster is using the Phillies' two most tradable players to acquire a pair of 39-year-old middle relievers who will be playing elsewhere next April?

Comments

[gr]

hey, throw in low-level minor league catching prospect that we can turn around next year and deal for a so-so replacement for billy wagner (get jose mesa on the phone) and you got yourself a deal!

[Tom G]

Several things struck me as interesting in the Conlin piece: He uses XM radio, checks the weather on his cellphone, and does research on Google...I never would have guessed it. After reading that, I am willing to bet that he might even try to download donuts onto an iPod.

As for Stark's piece, I took a look at the Cubs roster, and I don't see a lot there that the Phils would want. Hopefully Ed Wade will see that too.