Bill Conlin: Phillies should study how Eagles do business Posted on August 25th
WHEN SHORTSTOP Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson left their Double A seasons with last place Reading to play for Team USA in Beijing, they were already considered the Phillies’ best position prospects. Or maybe not.
Donald sealed the bronze medal for manager Davey Johnson’s overachievers, drilling a two-run homer in the 8-4, come-from-behind victory over a Japan team composed of elite stars. Donald led Team USA with a .381 average after enduring an 0-16 collar in four pre-Olympic exhibitions. He drove in five runs despite batting near the bottom of the order.
Injuries made Marson the No. 1 catcher and the Eastern League All-Star batted .308, displaying outstanding leadership while starting the final four games and appearing in five.
You’re excited, right? Can’t wait to see these outstanding kids when the Phillies expand their roster in September? Well, curb your enthusiasm and don’t hold your breath.
Thirty days hath September. But the Phils figure to get through all 30 of them without Donald and Marson.
Oh, Ruben Gillbuckle will concoct plausible reasons why they probably will not be added to a roster battling to win a division title: We don’t want the kids up here just to pinch-hit . . . We need to go with the catchers who know the pitchers best . . . No room for on-the-job training in the crucible of a pennant race.
Time was, you called your future stars up in September just so they could get the feel of what playing in the big leagues is all about.
Rich Allen had his taste of The Show in September of 1963. He had 24 at-bats in 10 games.
The Phils couldn’t wait to get Greg Luzinski some exposure in 1970. Their trophy Bull got only 12 at-bats, but said being around first baseman Deron Johnson was like going to baseball college.
Mike Schmidt had 34 at-bats during his 1972 callup to a wretched team.
That was a different time, with the key word being time, as in “service time.”
The Phillies have a history of holding onto players too long. They become emotionally attached to them, which does not make a lot of sense in an era when the only names that command the loyalty of players are Franklin, McKinley and Cleveland. Those are the guys on the $100, $500 and $1,000 bills. The Big Three.
What Dave Montgomery needs to do is take a cruise each September and bring in Joe Banner and Andy Reid to keep his roster young and functional.
And with no salary cap concerns to fetter them, imagine the job the Birds’ brains could do keeping the roster young, relatively cheap and much more athletic.
Jimmy Rollins is unhappy here? How about dealing him to the Giants, a last place club going nowhere with elderly Hall of Fame lock Omar Vizquel at shortstop. How about a certain centerfielder coming back and bringing righthander Matt Cain with him?
Ryan Howard’s financial team stalking a score too rich for the Teflonics watery blue blood? There has to be an American League team that wouldn’t mind turning the No. 4 hole over to a slugger who not only would provide 45-140 numbers but would air-condition the ballpark with his hurricane-force hacks.
Pat Burrell is having a career season. But as much as he loves it here, he’s not going to settle for a year-to-year deal. You can just see Monty, wallowing in appreciation for the way Pat has battled through adversity and actually earned his $14 million this year. Here, big guy. Here are 3 more years - $30 million, OK?
After a magical 1993 season, the grateful Phillies locked up stars Darren Daulton and Lenny Dykstra with expensive, long-term deals. But Dutch was a physical wreck by ‘94 and the spinal stenosis that prematurely ended Lenny’s career made him a disabled-list fixture. In ‘94 through ‘96, he played in 186 games - and earned $27 million - $145,161.29 a game. He earned the final $12 million of the deal in ‘97 and ‘98, after his career-ending back surgery, then collected a $500,000 buyout when the Phils failed to exercise their option.
Nails recently told me: “The best line I ever read from you was about me. This was after the glory days in 1993. When we were all beat up, Dutch [Daulton], Inky [Pete Incaviglia], Head [Dave Hollins], me, we had no chance. You knew it, anyone who had a clue about baseball knew it. The column was in the middle of spring training. You wrote, ‘And the Phillies will have Lenny Dykstra masquerading in centerfield one more year.’ For some reason, that made me laugh so hard - because you were so right.”
It was the kind of right you hope you never are because it is never easy to see great players fighting off the dying of the light.
Joe Banner and Andy Reid sure as hell would have seen it. They would have given Dutch and Nails a laurel and hearty handshake after ‘93 and wished them a great life.
Meanwhile, word from the usual unreliable sources is that the Phillies’ crack talent evaluators don’t think Jason Donald will be much more than a big-league utility player and Lou Marson needs more time learning to call games and handle pitchers. *
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