Time Is Not On Gillick’s Side
Based on some previous comments, it seems I have been misinterpreted. I am completely willing to give Pat Gillick a chance. With his experience he certainly deserves it, especially since he’s here to help out our club has made a habit of only treading water.
I’m not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I like the move to hire Gillcik; though I also would have been pleased with Hunsicker. You can’t go wrong with either of them. Or can you?
Of course it’s too early to evaluate Gillick’s contribution as a GM, but when can we? The Phils have a decent core group of players and it’s not like Pat will need a few rebuilding years. To his credit, he realizes this and has repeatedly said the Phils only need a handful of more wins to make the playoffs – that is, as long as they don’t regress any. So then I ask: what kind of leeway should we give this guy? One year? Two years? Phillie fans over at the Sports Boards message boards seem to believe two years is the limit. It’s easy to put a short leash on Gillick when we have two trainee GMs waiting in the wings, but they’re not just going to wait around for his demise. The Boston Globe reports Amaro and Arbuckle as potential candidates for the Red Sox GM opening. Personally, I would say give Gillick 1 year to make the playoffs but I realize that’s pretty aggressive. I’m terrified though that the handful of games we shoulda lost last year we will actually lose next year. The Phils were not as good as their 88 win record showed and I think it will be very hard to maintain that standard let alone improve upon it.
The road will be especially difficult if ‘Country Boy’ Billy Wagner thinks the Mets are more likely to make the playoffs and signs with them instead. Newsday claims, “The Mets are ready to beat any offer for Billy Wagner,” and are considering offering the closer 4 years, $10 million per. Wagner’s hurt he wasn’t resigned during the season and in turn he’s out to stick it to the Phils either by making them overpay him or signing elsewhere. That kinda stuff is annoying and combined with Wagner’s abrasive personality it makes me strongly dislike the guy. It’s like there are two T.O.s in South Philly and both are hurting their respective clubs.
Some good news coming out of the off season is that Minnesota has confirmed rumors that talks over Thome have taken place. Keep talking guys.
