John Middleton deems Jonathan Arauz too Good to Keep
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| Jonathan Arauz Signs Contract with Phillies |
David Price and Zack Greinke got paid big this winter. Not by John Middleton though. In fact the whole pitching market seems to have gone up in price so far. When your team has a $6 Billion TV deal that shouldn't be any problem at all. However, if your team is owned by a balls out criminal like John Middleton who thinks nothing of ripping off $200 million from his own sister it's a completely different ballgame that you're playing.
Fortunately for John Middleton he has the racist Philadelphia media 100% behind him. The player you see pictured above - Jonathan Arauz - doesn't exist anywhere in the corporate media discussion of the Phillies. Kevin Maitan - profiled in my last post - is completely unknown to most Phillies fans and the media in Philadelphia is going to keep it that way. The Braves have an illegal, unenforceable verbal agreement to pay that generational SS talent just $4.5 million when he's easily worth $30 million. Yet you can't find an article or any discussion about Kevin Maitan and John Middleton allowing the Phillies alleged division "rival" to have Maitan at a bargain price.
This is the way things work in the land of "42". The July 2nd market does not exist. Where do all those international star players come from? For the "42" market the answer most give is a shrug of the shoulders and perhaps a comment like "Who knows? We don't have none of those on the Phillies so it don't matter"
So John Middleton's collusion with the Braves against Kevin Maitan continues.
John Middleton's rape of the Phillies fan base also continues unobstructed and with the exception of myself and a few angry commenters on the ever rarer comment sections of corporate media, John Middleton's epic ripoff of the fourth largest market in the USA goes on at an ever more rapid pace.
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| Jonathan Arauz wearing Phillies red in the GCL at age 16 |
Above you see Jonathan Arauz at the plate, in a Phillies uniform in the Gulf Coast League this past summer. Arauz was still 16 years old. Arauz was playing against some recently drafted four year University grads. Arauz caught the attention of the entire scouting base in MLB. Ben Badler at Baseball America raved about Arauz in a way I had not witnessed by him since he gushed over a teenager named Rougned Odor.
The Rangers were recently rumored to be offering Odor an eight year deal, trying to buy out some of his early free agent years. This is what John Middleton is going way out of his way to avoid. Any player with the potential to get to free agency by age 27 and get an eight year deal is someone John Middleton does not want on the Phillies.
The Phillies had another GCL player who they paid an additional 100k for in Luis "Hands of Stone" Encarnacion. He is listed to 1B and will fit best as a DH if his bat advances. The fact that the Phillies will have no long term use for such a player is what makes him a keeper for John Middleton, who is already planning his next rebuild.
This is now "The Phillies Way". A brief period of contention followed by a 12 to 15 year rebuild. It's all by design. The Phillies payroll is under $70 million and they take in $200 million minimum before they sell their first ticket. John Middleton's bank accounts are being flooded with new money that should be used to buy players but instead is going to Palm Beach to finish and furnish his mansion and out to Hollywood where his greedy thieving son @johnmiddleton (his Twitter address) is planning the purchase of more film production companies and buying more mansions and beach houses.
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| John Powers Middleton Hollywood Johnny @johnmiddleton |
So what did Phillies fans get for trading the future - during a rebuild! - for today? Well, they didn't get Cliff Lee.
Mark Appel is already a certified bust. Finding a conversation about Appel among prospect ranking media folk is about as scarce as a discussion about Domonic Brown. In fact, being released on waivers is in Appel's future, it's just a matter of how long the process is allowed to run. Unfortunately for Phillies fans that is likely to be quite a long time since Appel is a graduate of Stanford.
You see, Stanford is a very special place for Super Republican John Middleton. Stanford University is an elite university on this planet and it is a Republican University. On this blog you can see John Middleton photographed with international War Criminal Condoleezza Rice, an event that took place in Philadelphia. John Middleton is a big financial contributor to the Republican party.
Why did John Mayberry Jr. last for a part of six seasons with the Phillies? 500 games, 1,370 plate Appearances producing 1.2 WAR. One point two. Not twelve, one point two Wins Above Replacement. Over parts of six seasons. 500 games. 1,370 PA.
John Mayberry Jr. is a Stanford man.
Ruin Tomorrow Junior. I've never used that nick before, but after being horrified at the trashing of the Phillies fans future by including Jonathan Arauz in this deal for a 24 year old certified bust of a number one pick, it seems disturbingly relevant.
Ruben Amaro Jr is a Stanford graduate.
Expect Mark Appel to get a second chance with the Phillies and then a third chance followed by a fourth chance. We know he's a bust right now, but it's going to be years before John Middleton will be willing to cut the cord. During these years John Middleton's stooges Matt Klentak and eventually Andy MacPhail will be assigned the blame for the Appel/Arauz "mistake". It isn't their fault per se. Their blame only goes as far as they are taking John Middleton's money in exchange for being his front men in public. They have no honor to be spoken for, but blaming them is like looking past John Gotti and blaming the pile of dismembered buried corpses on his soldiers.
