i can't believe the phillies didn't give aaron rowand what he wanted. he was looking for a long-term deal where he could settle down for awhile. and the phils weren't willing to give it to him, so he moved on.
i think they may have been scared of another pat burrell incident.
burrell was a beast a few years ago... and they gave him a huge contract to keep him in philly. problem was, he started sucking. for three years he became an albatross that the phillies had no choice but to carry, since no other team wanted to pick up a mediocre, over-payed player. it was helpful for the bat of... well, "pat the bat" to pick up again the second half of this past season.
back to rowand. here's a guy who thrives in philadelphia b/c he's a philly-type of guy. he appeals to the blue-collar, gritty south philly crowd b/c he's a gritty-run-into-the-wall-and-break-your-nose kinda guy. that's who we want in philly.
sadly, before rowand, we hadn't had a guy like him since my favorite baseball player of all time, lenny dykstra. coincidentally, also a centerfielder who was covered in dirt after every game. or was it his tobacco juice? ehh... i think it was both.
let's talk about the philadelphia management for a moment. their out loud excuse is that they don't want to pay the money to keep rowand there long-term when they need to spend the money on good pitching.
problem #1: they don't get good pitchers. they get average guys who they say "have a lot of potential." so they don't keep rowand [who, for argument's sake was perhaps a little bit greedy and would have been better off playing three years in a contending city than spending five in san fran, who for all intents and purposes sucks] to save money... and do what with it? THEY SURE DON'T GO AFTER HIGH QUALITY PITCHERS! they're looking at average guys and are willing to give them a shot.
problem #2: there is no shot available to average guys at citizen's bank park. it's a hitter's ball park... and the only way for a pitcher to truly be successful there is to be GREAT... not average.
countless pitchers over the last few years [garcia, eaton, lidle, leiber, etc.] who came in with high hopes sucked.
solution: when your pitching sucks, and there's no hope for having a solid pitching order b/c you're playing most of your games at cbp, it would make the most sense to bulk up your offensive line-up as much as humanly possible and spend the money to bring in ridiculously good pitchers.
this means, keeping your gold-glove, all-star, .300-hitting center fielder.
it means keeping michael bourn, potentially the fastest man in baseball right now.
it means getting rid of two of your four mid-career 3rd basemen to build up some cash or three of your four if you're gonna go after a great corner guy.
it means getting rid of the sucky catcher you paid big bucks for last off season who didn't end up starting after all to find a great 3rd baseman or better yet, some high-quality, sustainable pitching. [which... in looking at their roster, they seemed to have done.]
it means not letting GREAT players leave... like curt schilling all those years ago... who they thought was probably done [though i'll never know why]... but ended up being a hero on what... three world series teams?
the management in philadelphia is insufferable.
so, now they're on a hunt for another outfielder [since they gave up both rowand AND bourn]. they still don't have a great third baseman AND they let iguchi run off with another team, who could have filled that spot.
and alas... they still don't have too much hope beyond cole hamels from the pitcher's mound. we'll see what happens with lidge in the mix... and whatever other scoundrel they pick up.
the philadelphia phillies just dropped down a notch.
you're going backwards, boys... you're supposed to be making your team BETTER... not worse by giving away your great players...
