As a Met fan, what are my gripes about this? Is it the fact that Cole Hamels is now a #3 starter in our division? Is it the fact that this offseason, the Phillies have gotten not only the best pitcher and free agent at a discount, but they avoided overpaying their own free agent? No, it is the Phillies fortunes, for no real reason.
The Phllies traded for Cliff Lee mid-season, he was amazing for them, and then traded him away months later for an inferior package. Why did they do this? The superficial reason is that they needed to restock their farm system from the Roy Halladay trade, but the real reason was that they needed to save money. This, despite the fact that Cliff Lee made a (relatively) paltry $9.5 million last year. What did they need this money for? To overpay Joe Blanton, Raul Ibanez and Placido Polanco, apparently.
So, less that a year after Philadelphia traded away one of the three best pitchers in baseball, he then resigns with them, AT A DISCOUNT. After Roy Halladay had ALREADY signed at a discount for some reason, leaving probably $50,000,000 on the table (although, technically an extension).
What I don't understand is that the Phillies are not an intelligent organization. They have made just as many missteps as the Mets. Just in recent memory, they have overpaid for Blanton, Ibanez and Polanco, traded away Lee, taken away at-bats from Dominic Brown in favor of Ibanez, given Ryan Howard one of the five worst contracts in baseball THAT HASN'T EVEN STARTED YET, and kept a pitcher with an ERA on the wrong side of 6 in the closer's roll.
And their reward for this is that two of the best pitchers in baseball sign there at a discount.
Contrast this with the Mets fortunes.
When they traded for Santana, he gave them no discount at all. When Beltran was a free agent, his agent Scott Boras was calling other teams, offering them a discount so he wouldn't have to play for the Mets. Pedro came because Omar gave him more years than he deserved, and if not for Jayson Werth, Jason Bay might be the most overpaid corner outfielder in the NL East. Where are people sacrificing money to play in Queens?
Now, the Mets have made plenty of organizational mistakes, but no more than the Phillies. Oliver Perez has been SO useless, his contract, although nowhere near the size and length of Howard's, might be worse. Jeff Francouer was probably about as bad as Ibanez is (but was paid less, and ultimately exiled), and Luis Castillo is our albatross underperforming infielder to match Polanco. We even have our own talented rookie, to match Brown, whose growth was stunted last year by overrated and underperforming veterans in Ike Davis!
So why does Philadelphia get the honor of watching Halladay and Lee pitch together for the next five years, at a rate FAR below what they could have commanded? It is obviously not the congenial nature of the fans, nor the competence of the front office. And why don't the Mets ever get similar treatment?
What ever could it be?
