Epitaph

Phillies fans: when Larry Bowa was fired a year ago, I wrote a couple entries on this here blog about how scapegoating the skipper would have no effect on the Phillies; I remain convinced that almost everybody over-attributes baseball success and failure to managerial performance.

I also believed that blaming Bowa would only allow the organization to leave its flaws unmended for another year. Never mind that our $15M fat slugger was already showing signs of decline in 2004; or that our catcher was a drain in both halves of the inning; or that we failed to effectively arbitrage your infield surplus; or that we were overspending on bullpen mediocrity and failing to making sufficient headway in improving the rotation through trades or organizational development. Lord how I prayed all off-season that he would trade David Bell and keep Polanco, knowing full well that Polanco was bound to be the odd man out.

I propose that my assessment of Ed Wade last year should now be his epitaph:
Perfectly consistent. Staggeringly uncreative.