Agree 100%, their actions put us in this situation and now we'll see how they handle the fallout. I also expect them to drop into the 80s win area and, while making the playoffs is likely, I do not expect them to get past the early rounds.
I was not advocating bringing in more costly FA. I was advocating being aggressive in trading the bloated contracts of underperforming and/or older players which would allow us to reload the talent base, free up salary space and address the roster inefficiencies.
Naturally, you cannot build a perfect team to win a WS, but I can guarantee that overpaying flawed and older players who then do not produce up to par is a good way to keep your team from winning a WS.
I do see parallels between now and 2009-12. In both cases, the FO has refused to move on from vet players who are starting to or continuing to decline in an attempt to keep "competing". In the earlier era, Amaro went so far that the trade value of most of the players was gone by the time he moved them along which compounded the damage to the organization.
We've just seen the Eagles and Howie Roseman build a winning roster by not only being aggressive in finding talent, but also knowing what players to let go, trade away or not sign in the first place. The Phillies have done better with the former under Middleton because finally we have ownership willing to spend, but still have little clue about the latter skill.
Spending money is great, but spending money strategically and wisely is the key. That puts them behind better run teams and hurts our chances to have parades like the Eagles will tomorrow.
