I agree that letting Lohse go elsewhere was a huge mistake.

Typhoon: Those guys were all on my radar during the off-season as well. Riske, in particular, was a guy I’d like to have seen Gillick sign.

Per Cot’s Contracts, here’s what the relievers you mentioned signed for:

David Riske: 08:$4M, 09:$4.25M, 10:$4.5M, 11:$4.75M club option ($0.25M buyout); $17M total
Ron Mahay: 08:$4M, 09:$4M; $8M total
Latroy Hawkins: 1 year/$3.75M (2008)
Octavio Dotel: 08:$5M, 09:$6M; $11M total
Ron Villone: 1 year/$0.6M (2008)

Lidge: 1 year/$6.35M (2008) (also cost the Phillies Michael Bourn, Geoff Geary, and Mike Costanzo)

Lidge is easily the most expensive of the bunch just for 2008. Depending on how you look at it, the fact that he’s a free agent at the end of the season either helps or hurts the Phillies. It can help in the sense that they’re not tied up to him, and it can hurt in the sense that the Phillies will have to go out and find another reliever anyway if he decides not to re-sign.

It’s risky signing Riske to the contract the Brewers gave him since relief pitchers are so unreliable from year to year, but he’s been very consistent since 2003 so it’s probably worth the $17M total he’ll be getting in the next four years.

And then … Santana … I want to vomit

Should they have offered a nice package to the Twins before they signed Joe Nathan long-term?

After trading for Lidge, should the Phillies have tried to acquire another closer-type that would push Gordon to the 7th inning? Who, specifically? Eric Gagne (who is getting $10 million)?

The fact is that many teams, not just the Phillies, have bullpen issues. There’s not a lot out there. I was scratching my head when the Phillies passed on Aaron Fultz, but that’s one of very few players that would have both filled a glaring need in the bullpen and would have done so at an adequate level.

The reason I ask you all what they should have done is that people often complain but rarely have a better alternative.

Mets Win.

Phillies Lose. HahAhahaha.

i Enjoyed every minute of opening day, you phools. Told ya your 2nd best.

Mets in first, phils in last

I was at the game yesterday. What bothers me the most is how infrequently the Phils fans get rewarded for their optimism (seriously). The place, despite the crappy weather, was rocking, and ready to errupt. A win would have really jump started the fans and the team.

Why did Madson come in the 6th inning? Shouldnt that have been Durbins spot?

meanwhile, Bill Giles & Dave Montgomery, will shrug and pat their checkbooks. what i wouldn’t do for five minutes with those bozos.

And I get it. Lidge will be 12. When Rosario is healthy, he’ll replace either Lahey or Condrey.

But the fact that we’re tap-dancing around with moves like that during games that matter is the problem. Management failed. They said they were focused on pitching during the off-season. There is no way to characterize the Eaton/Gordon/Condrey/Lahey/12th-man-to-be-named-later/closer-on-DL aspect of this pitching staff as anything but an abject failure.

Look at this: supposing Flash had held up in the 9th, and the game went to 10 innings. Who would have pitched the 10th?

**crickets, crickets**

You really can’t depend on all of the chips falling their way for half a month again.

They need to set the bar, not aim for it in September.

I can’t blame Gillick for spurning Wagner, even though he’s been pretty good with the Mets. At the time, his contract was well above market value and it didn’t make sense to lock up up for 4 years at around $12-14 million per year. The Phillies offered him something like 3/$30M I believe.

Gillick’s genius is in-season, unfortunately. Very few of his in-season moves have hurt the team in any meaningful way (for example, I wouldn’t say Jeff Conine hurt the Phillies even though he wasn’t good).

The Freddy Garcia acquistion is good if you look at it in a vacuum. The Phillies, however, knew of his injury concerns and neglected to require a physical from him.