Ed Wade Hired as Astros GM

True, but usually when you trade away strong players like Schilling or Rolen, you want to get top prospects back in return. You usually don't get enamored with Omar Daal and Bud Smith just to name a few. Wade COULD have built a really solid farm system with the trades that he DID make, namely Rolen and Schilling. But he chose to go after players that he thought were a good fit for the Phillies at the time, not in the long run.

 

First, it's eight, not 10.

Second, they were competitive almost each year.

I'd say Wade's worst moves were sticking with Bowa for one season too long and hiring Manuel in the first place.

 

I will say that Polanco was an underrated infielder.

 

Second baseman and the occasional hot corner, but if he played shortstop, then he would be underrated there too. (edit: good catch Wicked)

The thing is that they had Utley coming up, so Wade planned on trading Polanco, and getting David Bell to play third base. A rather good move would have been keeping Polanco and moving him to third and moving Utley up. He also kept Howard in the minors a tad too long with the Thome signing, but that is all in hindsight.

He is not a horrible GM. He is not the worst in the history of baseball. He made a bunch of dumb moves that hurt the Phillies in the long run.

 

Yeah, the Phils are fucked having Utley and Howard on the right side for the next 15 years.

 

And he made enough good moves that they are contenders every year.

You guys make it sound like he walked into a contending team and ran it into the ground.

 

No, his name is not Ted Simmons or Cam Bonifay.

 

15 years...that's a really long career by both Utley and Howard. It's now up to Gillick and whoever follow him to make sure they stay around. They have a solid right side of the infield plus half of the left side. If they kept Polanco, it would be a damn good infield. It is now, but could be better with hindsight. Like a lot of things.

 

How do you complain about Wade trading Polanco for NOTHING if Polanco was only part of the NOTHING the Phillies got for Rolen?

 

If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.

It could be better but it's better than what it was, yes? They're in a division race. They're battling for the Wild Card. And it was a team put together by Ed Wade.

 

Antonio Alfonseca, Adam Eaton, Tom Gordon, Kyle Loshe, Jose Mesa (second reincarnation with the Phillies), J.C. Romero, Francisco Rosario, Pete LaForest, Jamie Moyer, Rod Barajas, Greg Dobbs, Wes Helms, Tadahito Iguchi, Aaron Rowand, and Jason Werth are all Pat Gillick's acquisitions.

 

I see five names I wouldn't want associated with mine if I were a GM.