Philadelphia Phillies might sell as trade deadline approaches – MLB Feature
Finally the stage has reached where the decisions about whether to sell or buy will be made. Extent to which the wait could be made has been allowed to the players.
As the month of June is ending, teams that did their work well are rising to the glory and those that are fearful of making through to the play-offs are doing their calculations for trades.
Amidst all this, dilemma of whether to go for one more attempt or forget about the current season and focus on the future is putting the Philadelphia Phillies' management into serious deliberations.
For a Division Championship winner, for the last five years, giving up the chase is never an easy time. Dominating National League East in the past, it hurts when the crown is slipping away; more so, when the club itself is letting it off and not trying
to go for it.
Withdrawing the troops from the battlefield while being assured of the fate, the Phillies are left with no other option.
One will be right in establishing the contention that Phillies should invest more faith in the players but only when it was not the end of June. When the General Manager shrugged off the possibility of selling one month back, he had a reason to say so. But
now? When bottom of the table has become a permanent territory for the club, when there is no hope in the line, when a stream of players is waiting for free agency extravaganza after the season?
He is probably thinking on it seriously and rightly so.
Sooner plans for reconstructing the club are made, the better it will be. Therefore, selecting the candidates to be traded and looking upon new prospects should be an area of the focus now.
With mammoth salary being paid to pitchers like Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee, in the face of poor results, the same money can be spent on other areas.
Their bullpen presented a hopeless picture in the season. Against the backdrop of quality starters, it was like plugging one corner of the pipe while letting the water leak from other end. It was for the same reason whatever effort starters made to restrict
batters was nullified when relievers assumed the mound.
This lop-sided version of their pitching staff has proven so fatal to their fate that every chance they can give to the current lot to bring out better results is bound to be doomed.
It is not the time to repent as it is now time to rebuild the team.
A facade of having the most reliable players on roster should be built on rather credible basis, now.
Minor League Farms are the ultimate source of sustenance for a club, but the Phillies, before entering the season, completely ignored this aspect. Depletion of the farm-system was overlooked thoroughly. Instead, proud of having the players who lifted them
for the last half of a decade on the roster prevailed more in their ranks.
Regardless of this however, the peak which the line was enjoying on the graph was bound to take a down-ward trend one day. As a natural rule of an economic cycle, boom was to be followed by a decline. For Phillies, this season is a perfect reflection of
it. While they may have failed to comprehend it in the first place, they should be disillusioned now.
Before attempting to fix it, caution must be maintained. They must bear one thing in mind that a simple bail-out package will not work.
A stimulus that the European Union has used over the years has time-and-again proven only a short-term healer of the malaise, while the actual problem has never been resolved. Similarly, by selling few players and inducting new faces from the farms of other
teams will never be the long-term solution for the Phillies.
Instead, fundamental changes must be brought in the Minor-League system. Reasons of why local talent is not coming out should be explored. Along with this, there can be number of new steps that can be taken to put the Minor Leagues in a better position to
produce the required talent.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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