Their manager Hall of Fame? Not to me. Their team great? Not to me. Their staff the best? Nope. The whole organization was gutless and over rated. Greatness wins championships.

Fire RAJ.

I’d guess that won’t happen and that things get better before 2013.

I don’t think you can blame Amaro for either ’10 or ’11 post-season (or ’09).

He definitely inherited a great team. I don’t think we should say because that’s the case Gillick should get credit for everything that happened 2009-11. The Phillies won more games in each of the seasons after Gillick left (09-11) than they did in any of the seasons that he was here.

The Halladay deal was a good deal for the Phillies. Trading for Cliff Lee was a good deal for the Phillies.

I agree that Amaro has had an ugly year in 2012. It’s not over yet, though. Even if it does end as badly as most of us expect, I think he’s still going to get more chances and overall it’s hard to complain too much about the results of the last four seasons.

In the same way, the 09-11 teams were Pat Gillick teams, with RAJ making a few apparently schizophrenic high profile moves along the way. Year 3 or 4 is when the long term effects of a GM start being felt (with drafts, trades involving prospects, long term contracts that players may not be living up to, etc.), and for the most part what we’ve learned is that the well is dry and RAJ didn’t bother to contract with a neighboring city to have water imported.

I’m not saying I’d be a better GM. I am saying I have a pretty good idea what better GM’ing looks like and this ain’t it. There’s a pretty good chance that Montgomery et. al. give him a pass this year, but if they fail to do two of the following — get a real left fielder, get a real 3rd baseman, lock up Cole — and aren’t serious contenders next year, then he’s probably gone.

I don’t want to come off as an Amaro apologist. I personally don’t think he is one of the better GM’s in the game. He’s pretty good at recognizing and targeting star players, but seems to overpay in terms of talent to acquire that player and dollars to sign that player. A few of the moves have seemed short-sighted. At the same time, I know he is doing a MUCH better job than I or any other ‘Average Joe’ could do.

Look at the flipping of a coin, which is a basic 50/50 proposition. Flip a coin 4 times and you aren’t always going to get two heads and two tails. In fact, you’re going to get 2 heads and two tails 37.5% of the time. Now, you may say the Phillies weren’t 50/50 to win the game. They were 102/60 (or 63%), but the Cardinals were 90/72 (or 56%) which reduces the 63% number somewhat.

In other words, the playoffs are more of a crap shoot than you (or most people for that matter) realize. All you can do is get there.

Agree with Bill that the games where most of the bullpen doesn’t play will certainly turn out a lot better than the games where they do.

Vic with three hits, base running was a bit rough though. Howard with a dinger, almost two.

And the additional wild card this year underscores that, assuming they miss the post season entirely. .