Baseball Musings: Wade Removed

October 10, 2005

Wade Removed

Ed Wade is out as general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.

"This was a very difficult decision. No one works harder than Ed, and he has served this organization extraordinarily well for over 16 years," Montgomery said. "At the same time, we have not been able to achieve the goals we have set for the Phillies. As a result, I believe we have reached a point where a change is necessary."

I thought Wade made some good moves early in his tenure, but the Scott Rolen debacle soured me on the man. In a way, hiring Larry Bowa led to Wade's downfall, as that appeared to be a big reason Rolen wanted to leave, and Bowa's inevitable firing made Ed unpopular.

Posted by David Pinto at 03:14 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)

Comments

I don't know how the weather is today in Philly, but it sure is a sunny day.

Posted by: Michael at October 10, 2005 03:59 PM

My Phillies-fan friends have been calling for Wade's head for some time, and want the whole operation to be cleaned out. I have the feeling that my friends are not unusual (at least, not in their opinion of Wade), and I wonder if this sort of sentiment will hurt the chances of someone like Amaro or Arbuckle being promoted from within.

Posted by: David Dean at October 10, 2005 04:40 PM

Actually, David, among a lot of us, it wasn't the Bowa firing that soured us -- it was the failure to win. Bowa was a walking clown show who never should have been hired in the first place. What doomed Wade was a failure to make in-season moves that might have made a difference, and the inability to create a team whose whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

For the record, it's cool and rainy in Philadelphia today. I take no joy in a decent man losing his job, but as a fan, I believe this was a necessary move. Whether the Phils brass hires a better baseball guy for the job is the next issue to deal with ...

Posted by: Tom Durso at October 10, 2005 04:42 PM

The new GM will have to deal with the Thome/Howard situation as well. Conventional wisdom seems to be to trade Howard, as he is the more attractive than Thome and his fat contract.

How tough will this be PR-wise for the new Phillies GM? Are the Philadelphia fans keen on Howard, or would a good trade be welcomed? Likewise, how keen are the fans on Thome? Just wondering ...

Posted by: matty fred at October 10, 2005 05:05 PM

`As an ex-Philadelphian and current Braves fan, I've got to tell you that no GM will be successful in Philly until they decide to stock up on pitching, pitching and still more pitching, preferably sinker ballers in that cute little stadium.

Posted by: Lew Hartman at October 10, 2005 05:10 PM

And keep Howard, he will be better than Thome ever was.

Posted by: Lew Hartman at October 10, 2005 05:13 PM

i'm one of those fans...

wade was a Poor GM, overmatched in so many ways,,,
he overstayed here by at least 3-4 yrs..

if phils bring internal guy (amaro for instance) up, fans will be VERY disappointed...i'm not saying whether its a good move or not, fans are looking for major overhaul, not cosmetic..

the fans here would not abide a trade of howard..philly fans fall in love with our young up and coming players and usually learn to despise them when they fail to produce a championship...sometimes like with the all time greatest 3rd baseman Mike Schmidt, the fans come back full circle and love the guy after booing the heck out of him for years....thats just philly..

so the trade is thome...the GM's dilemna is this...Thome's value is as low as it will ever be(unless he cant play at all)...do you let thome back, get him and howard some playing time, and hopefully win some games while creating some value for thome???

or do you just dump him and pay a big part of his salary??? and what can you really get for him...right now he looks a little bit washed up

the other trade is either burrell or abreu ..both wildly over-rated in my mind...stat machines with no heart...rollins and lofton batted over 400 each in september and burrell and abreu did what??? not much is the answer..

Posted by: Ken at October 10, 2005 05:15 PM

If conventional wisdom says to keep Thome over Ryan Howard, then conventional wisdom is just plain wrong. Why would you ever not keep the 25-year-old who mashed 22 home runs and drove in 63 runs in 312 at-bats while hitting .288/.356/.567? Thome, meanwhile, is 35 and hasn't played a full season in two years. Granted, his contract is untradeable. But that hardly suggests to me that trading Howard is the necessary move to make. If you want to win, that is.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at October 10, 2005 05:33 PM

Ken: When you say Burrell did nothing in September, do you mean other than hit .284/.402/.480 with 20 RBI? Abreu seriously folded during the stretch run, but it's hard to single out Pat the Bat for failing in September.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at October 10, 2005 05:35 PM

Ken's thoughts are pretty classic Philly to be honest. Burrell and Abreu are not loved to be sure. However, the general opinion in Philly is that Thome should be traded and not Howard. In my mind, trading Thome is the right move. Sure, they'll have to eat at least half of his contract, but that is several million you won't have if you keep him. Thome needs to be flipped (to use real estate parlance) for a very good pitcher.

Posted by: Tom G at October 10, 2005 05:44 PM

Finally. This is long overdue. It would be really something to see the Phillies move into the 21st century and hire a stat-minded GM. Cashman maybe?

Whoever the new GM is needs to lobby to move the fences back at Citizens Bank so they can attract some live arms to Philadelphia.

Posted by: jason at October 10, 2005 05:59 PM

Moving the fences back, or at least getting the power alleys correct, would be a nice first step.
I think Abreu has actually been underrated everywhere besides Philly, but if he's not a big-gamer, then he's right there with virtually the whole team.
Maybe Philly fans have a different view, but for fans of other teams, all we've seen the last few years is an organization that had a nutcase managing, ran out of town one of the most highly regarded players (and persons) in the game in Rolen, and seems to only have one player (Wagner) who can be trusted in a big situation. And apparently Wagner can't pitch against Houston, so even that's out.

Posted by: James d. at October 10, 2005 06:38 PM

This'll get lost (rightfully) in the Playoff threads...

all i can remember about burrell is if OH-FER vs the mets is a huge 3 game series that knocked the phils out in the end

including a check swing ground out to the pitcher with bases loaded 2 outs in 9th and 2 huge strike-outs looking and in late situations... burrell was smoking in first half of dec and like he always does,put up some big stats pretty quickly..

yes i'm typical phils fan...guilty. but i'm honest about it!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Ken at October 11, 2005 09:29 AM

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