You Can't Avoid Boyd - What a Phucking Nightmare

You Can’t Avoid Boyd

What a Phucking Nightmare

During the MLB off-season this year, the talk of the league was how the NL East might be the toughest division in baseball. You had the Philadelphia Phillies, winner of the last five NL East championships. They were led by the pitching staff of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels and anchored by their new closer, Jonathan Papelbon. You also had the upstart Miami Marlins, as they embraced the city of Miami (dropping the generic Florida from their name) and changing their uniforms, stadium, manager, and spending habits. They dropped $190 million in bringing in big name free agents such as Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Heath Bell. The media was right in anointing the NL East as competitive. Unfortunately, the Marlins and Phillies have nothing to do with it. As of Wednesday morning, both teams were ten games under .500 and trailed the first place Washington Nationals by 17 games. To say both teams underachieved this season would be a huge understatement.

The Marlins season shouldn’t be a complete surprise to anyone. They were a 72 win team last season. They would have needed to improve by at least 18 games to make a run for the division title. While some of their younger players showed their upside in 2011, they were also very inconsistent. Plus, all the big name free agents had their own question marks heading into the season. Reyes is one of the best players in the game, but is injury-prone. Buehrle is a good pitcher being paid to be an ace. Bell had pitched in the best pitcher’s park over the last six years. The team had some flaws heading into the season that were exposed. The Marlins have gone into rebuild mode as they have traded away some of their best players already and have some interesting issues to address in the off-season. The early optimism in South Florida is gone as season ticket holders now get to watch a 70-win overpriced team play in a nice, new stadium.

Despite their failure, you can’t blame the Marlins for using this strategy. It has worked before. In 1997, they threw a dickload of money at several free agents and trade acquisitions and were rewarded with a World Series championship. After the season, their owner dismantled the team, claiming financial losses in this unsustainable business model. Their fire sale saw eight key players traded away in 1998. Adam Carolla once joked, "You can't just go out and buy a championship ring ... well, unless Dwight Gooden runs out of coke." The 1997 Florida Marlins proved that joke wrong.

The Phillies’ struggles are somewhat surprising. Bad luck and injuries are to blame for this lost season. Cliff Lee should not be sitting on two wins at this point of the year. The Phillies starting right side of the infield, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, were out for the first three months of the season. Roy Halladay missed about seven weeks of action. The Phillies metaphorically waved the white flag for the year by trading two of their three starting outfielders at the trade deadline. Fans are hoping that this season is an aberration, but you have to wonder if this is the beginning of the decline.

In 2008, the Phillies shocked the baseball world and won the World Series. Fans couldn’t be any happier after all they had been though. After their last World Series appearance in 1993, the Phillies endured eight losing season in the next nine years. They started to turn things around in 2003, but lost their only playoff series in 2007. Things turned around after the 2008 season. Fans started coming to the ballpark again (they sold out 257 consecutive regular season games before it came to an end last week) and the Phillies were committed into winning another championship. Upper management reviewed their entire organization and realized they had a small window of opportunity. They knew they had the talent to compete for the next few years. Rather than try to rebuild their roster for long-term success, they made several deals operating under the “win-now” mentality. They traded several prospects for Lee and Halladay and committed big money to Lee (when he returned as a free agent) and Ryan Howard. The return on investment has been good, but not great. They lost the 2009 World Series to the New York Yankees, lost to the San Francisco in the 2010 NLCS, and lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2011 NLDS.

Both the Marlins and the Phillies gambled. The Marlins gambled like assholes and lost big. The Phillies were smart about it. Rather than hope that they could catch lightning in a bottle again, they went after it big. While one can’t argue about their success the last five years, critics can point out that all this spending and depletion of prospects has led to one NL pennant, a bloated & inflexible payroll, and no rings.

I asked three Phillies fans for their view as I am just an outsider looking in. All three supported what the Phillies did and regret nothing. They said they got exactly what they wanted, a baseball team that has been competitive. The Phillies have lost in the playoffs to the last three World Series champions. They knew their offense would be tied to Howard and Utley, and no one could have predicted they become injured when they signed their contract extensions. They also believe this year is a blip in the radar. Based on their current roster, they have three great starting pitchers (Cole Hamels was re-signed to the second largest contract ever for a pitcher last month) and a decent offense in 2013. Plus, they may decide to add payroll to improve the team. Both fans admit they won’t be the favorites heading into next year, but they don’t see anything foreseeable that would prevent them from being in the mix.

In sports, that’s all you can ask for, a chance.

             -Written by Marcus Boyd