This week for the Philadelphia Phillies was as important to their season as the second “Exile” in my new favorite reality TV show, MTV’s Real World Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat II, where Wes’ alliance took a severe advantage over Kenny’s alliance after Kenny was forced to take out a team from his own alliance during that Exile. Although both events took place very early in their respective seasons, their impact on the result of those seasons and perhaps even future seasons to come is nothing short but HUGE. The alliances within every Road Rules Challenge house always play a key role in whoever wins that season, and players’ contracts on a Major League Baseball team roster collectively need to fit together in order to bring a winning combination into the clubhouse and onto the field.
For the Phillies, many fans and local media have been speculating a major salary issue coming after the 2010-2011 season concludes. First, the front office was supposed to set their sights on locking up their rising star right fielder, Jasyon Werth, to a long-term deal. Next, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. was supposed to try and keep Centerfielder Shane Victorino in town. But Amaro Jr. set his sights on a bigger target: keeping the heavy fan favorite and RBI machine, first baseman, Ryan Howard in red pinstripes… forever! As you probably know by now, Howard signed for 5 more years with the team and $125 million more for his pocket. Let’s just say that his extension has sparked a little bit of controversy and drama in the baseball world. If Ryan Howard “deserves” $20 million a year, how much does Albert Pujols “deserve”. How much the Milwaukee Brewers pay Prince Fielder to keep him in Beer City? How much should a guy like Carlos Pena expect to receive? But forget about all of baseball for a second and focus specifically on the hometown relevance to this news story.
What does this mean for the future of the franchise? I can sit here and preach about how great a move it is and how important it is to lock up a talent such as Howard and then finish a column. But I have to talk about the negatives as well. For example, one of my main arguments of why the Eagles needed to deal Donavon McNabb this offseason was because of an ever-looming contract issue. I didn’t want to pay a top-10 talented quarterback the money a top-5 quarterback who has either won a Super Bowl, contends for a Super Bowl every year, or has won a championship and has made it back to the title game since winning (see Manning, Peyton). And the age issue completely comes into factor with Howard too. However, Ryan was a key part of a nucleus that has made back-to-back World Series appearances and has won a ring as well. Plain and simple, I love the idea of locking the big man up until most likely the end of his career, but it is absolutely ridiculous the amount of money he signed for. That being said, he has done practically everything the team has asked him to do.
Coming into the season, Howard was in the best shape of his life, and still is. Either he pulled a Lindsey Lohan and went anorexic for 2 months, or hit the gym hard for the entire offseason with the passion, drive, hunger and the bad tasted left in his mouth that all professional athletes have after getting so close to winning it all and ultimately coming home with nothing. But it wasn’t only his physical shape that has improved; his patience and poise at the plate have also been extremely impressive. During the team’s season opening series in Washington, I texted my buddy Andrew, who is the biggest Phillies fan I know besides myself, and said something along the lines of “Howard is playing with an 18-year-old rookie’s body and a 36-year-old veteran’s brain”. At the start of the season, I didn’t want to admit publicly how excited I was for the guy this year. I mean why not? He had lost 300 pounds, was hitting 137% more balls for opposite field singles than last year and grew out a nice little beard that kinda reminded me of Roy Halladay (Ok I friggen love that beast of a man). But the reality is, as much as I love him when he’s hitting 8th inning homers to tie up ball games, he seems to always have the mid-season month-long slump with a strikeout a game and a 20-point dip in his batting average.
To get to the point, a $20 million-a-year player does it all. Alex Rodriguez, (as much as I love to hate him), Mark Texiera (immense respect for him even though he’s a Yankee), and Joe Maur all hit for a great average with power, RBI’s, OPS, you name it, AND they get the job done on defense as well. Howard’s gotten better defensively and has improved is average. I’m pulling for him, I really am. But the amount they signed him for is waaaaaaay too much if we expect to keep Werth, Victorino and even Jimmy Rollins until, let’s just say, 2013. The fact might be that as Phils fans we are flat out spoiled. The way this team is constantly winning and contending year after year, maybe I am just not ready to accept that what’s best for the organization is to stick with a nucleus of four guys for two more years and then rebuild a little. Or, Locking up Howard means the front office is confident that we can keep that core of four or five players and keep finding and substituting guys in other positions, such as Placido Polanco.
That being said, I am not a MLB front office executive. But, I am extremely connected to the team and have a pretty educated opinion. I love the idea of keeping Howard happy, but at the end of the day if that keeps us from signing Jayson Werth, Amaro might see his job go bye-bye. Just like in a Real World alliance, teammates need to stick together. That’s been a winning philosophy for the Phillies organization for the past three seasons. I hope that doesn’t change now.
Educated my ass
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