Lenny Dykstra and the Power of One

FanGraphs recently hired an attorney named Sheryl Ring out of Chicago. After reading her early posts I made the above request and she followed through and did so soon after.

Ms. Ring stuck to the law in her article - more so then I would have liked - and concluded that from a legal, criminal perspective Dykstra likely committed extortion under the law as it was in1993, but after 2013 probably did not. However, under civil law he would be open to litigation by umpires whom he investigated and threatened with disclosure of private information.

This is always a problem for me, the law. I had assumed that Dykstra would have been in violation of all kinds of statues both state and federal for extortion and blackmail. Ms. Ring stated later that she hoped she had answered my questions about what I was interested in, but actually the legal aspect was my least concern.

The Phillies local telecast is on Comcast. During rain delays they will sometimes broadcast past games of importance in Phillies history. Last year - or the year before - I caught some video of the Phillies/Braves 1993 playoffs, a game in which Greg Maddox in his prime was on the mound for the Braves. I was struck to the point of being slack jawed at how many pitches Maddux was throwing that would definitely be strikes in todays MLB, pitches for which if they were not called would lead to ejections from the Braves dugout. However, there were frequent cutaways to the Braves dugout and no one was upset. This is what slackened my jaw.

Then it got more incredible and my jaw was so slack that I became a mouth breather. Dave Hollins - who drew the most walks of his career in 1993 - took a swing at a Maddux pitch (after having strikes in todays game called balls) and tried to check his swing. Hollins made such an effort that he landed on his face with  his head and torso in fair territory with the barrel of the bat pointing between 2B and 3B.

This was called a check swing. Tim McCarver was doing the color commentary and after the replay finished McCarver explained that this was a good call because "Hollins did not break his wrists". McCarver must have been correct because Bobby Cox did not charge out of the dugout as would certainly happen today if such a call was made. In fact, the Atlanta dugout did not appear to be upset. In 1993, that was a legit check swing.

So how did the strike zone in MLB become so ridiculous that strikes on either side of the plate were called balls and a player could take a swing like Hollins in Game 6 of the NLCS and have it ruled a check swing? Is Lenny Dykstra the answer to this question?

In MLB the players will generally accept any sort of strike zone as long as it is enforced equally for both teams. Dykstra does not claim to be brazen enough to hire private detectives to investigate umpires for sexual and gambling offenses, he even claims to have blackmailed them in the open around home plate in front of the opposing catcher. So again, we're not dealing with secret stuff here. If this happened - and one look at the video I just described should be enough to make a believer out of most - then we're talking about something that had to have become common knowledge throughout at least the National League. Anything that was common knowledge in the N.L. would quickly spread through the A.L. as well.

It must have been really jarring for an umpire with a gambling problem to have Lenny step out of the box after a pitch he wanted to be called a ball and loudly shout at the umpire "So did you cover the spread last night?"There are shotgun microphones on both sides of the infield. It's not hard to imagine an umpire pissing his pants a bit upon hearing this. Another umpire was gay and in the closet. Lenny let him know he knew all about it right there at home plate.

Now, Lenny was a menacing little dude, but he wasn't a loner. Lenny was good friends with Darren "Dutch" Daulton and John Kruk. Those two would have known about this the same day Dykstra first implemented his scheme. These three were at the top of the game in OBP and walks in 1993. I remember Dykstra coming to the plate around the fifth inning and seemingly willing himself onto 1B with a walk soon to be followed by Kruk and Daulton. The 1993 Phillies did this machine like and turned those full bases into runs and chased the starting pitcher while taking the lead.

From the looks of it 1993 was the fruition of a plan that had begun in 1992. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of Dykstra's book and the SNAP card in my wallet that's been active there for six years now won't help me with that, therefore I don't know when Dykstra claims to have begun this scheme. Dykstra was injured for much of 1992 so he didn't enjoy the fun as much as Kruk, Daulton and Hollins did if that is when it started.

If these three were all using Lenny's info on the umps the effects would be felt immediately on the entire lineup. The other team would start arguing with the umps for the same calls and would soon get them. After awhile the calls would spread to both teams quickly as the umps adjusted to their new reality. The opponents of the Phillies would no doubt try to take the shrunken strike zone with them to the next series that did not include the Phillies. Those players would have learned from the mouth of the horse named Lenny what the dirt on which umpire was and would be able to use it themselves when that umpire was behind the plate even if Lenny was not in the other dugout.

What you would get over time is a rapidly shrinking strike zone and check swings that looked like a comedy skit as the hitters worked their verbal magic around home plate.

What, me worry?

Something else happened around this time in 1993. I was in Los Angeles then and in the Los Angeles Times there was an article about Lenny Dykstra and his physical transformation. As with all corporate media at that time and even ten years later, there was no mention of PEDS. In the article the author asked Barry Bonds about Dykstra and Bonds offered something very much like this: Ÿou know, I've always wondered what I could do if I took my work outs as seriously as he does. I've always just been natural not really working out at all."

Well, we know how that ended even if we will never know the details as Bonds won't write a tell all.

Did Lenny make a mockery of the strike zone in MLB and inspire the big boppers of MLB to enhance their workouts with some "Lenny's Vitamins"? Could one fiery little guy have caused all that to happen? Is the concept of The Power of One a real thing or just the product of human imagination and paranoia?


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Banned From MLB Trade Rumors

No Shohei Ohtani and the Phillies talk allowed. No mentioning who owns the Phillies baseball team and no discussion whatsoever that might lead someone to discover this blog.

This was the opening in a thread about the latest on Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani who will be posted this winter. I had previously noted in Phillies threads that exactly zero articles about Ohtani had ben authored by sports writers who cover the Phillies. When I saw this posted the morning of November 14, 2017 I took note of it.

Immediately the personal attacks began quickly - as within several minutes - the moderators jumped in to stop me from responding and advancing the discussion.

What is objectionable about this post that it would go into moderation? There certainly was something because this post went into moderation when I attempted to post it again, but other posts I made before and after the second attempt at posting went through fine. My guess is "John Middleton"was entered into the moderation filter.

Then the feces hit the fan. Attacks from new posters who had just made accounts flooded on demanding that something be done about me for exactly what I posted above in the screens and I complained about the censorship and received this response from Jeff Todd:

Sounds pretty nonchalant, however, that post is just for public consumption. Not even a half hour later I tried to make a post and it did not go through or go to moderation. My account was banned from posting entirely.

Here's some of what I recovered from a couple days back when something similar happened when the subject of Shohei Ohtani, the Phillies and the Orioles came up:

And the post that blew up the site and sent Jeff Todd and others at MLB Trade Rumors into a tizzy of deletions:

So MLBTradeRumors will not allow discussion about why the Phillies and Orioles have no interest whatsoever in the most talented Japanese player ever to be posted. They insist upon maintaining the fiction that all thirty MLB teams are trying to sign him.

Today after being censored and just before being banned I excoriated Jeff Todd for his sites blacklisting of this blog, pointing out that I had over the years made submissions for MLBTradeRumors blog roundup and been ignored. I have also had many posts in the past deleted when I used search terms in my post that would point someone doing so to this blog.

Everyone who writes about MLB professionally knows about me. People in MLB - beyond the Phillies - know about me yet I am totally blacklisted from the game. People who are grossly incompetent to speak about the Phillies are never the less invited onto national podcasts to discuss the Phillies. Those podcasters know about me and this blog but will not even have contact with me.

All the back and forth was removed by Jeff Todd as well. Some of it I pulled out of email notifications sent to my account:

It's not as if the years of online blacklisting and site banning in the comments have prevented everyone from finding this blog, a few have and even years after reading this blog they recall it later. There were others who yelled through their keyboard that they knew it was me too (calling me "Free_AEC" or just "Free"). I've never seen another baseball commenter noted and remembered by others like this, yet I am an untouchable with anyone who has any kind of professional relationship with MLB.

Here is another post by "Cat Mando" (someone who just popped up there) and my reply:

How much abuse, imprisonment, beatings, banning, public disrespect and being treated like a leper can one man accept?

JOHN MIDDLETON Deals Cole Hamels for Pile of Dog Feces

So it has happened. He did it again. The bloodsucker who the Philly sports media told you for years was your savior, a "George Steinbrenner" just dealt yet another Cooperstown talent for the standard sack of crap that you always see head for the airport in deals like this.

Let's quickly review the "work" of John Middleton again:

Curt Schilling
Scott Rolen
Bobby Abreu
Cliff Lee
Hunter Pence
Shane Victorino
for
Vicente Padilla

This is correct. Vicente Padilla is the total return for shipping out all those players. If Schilling was not hated by so many baseball writers he would have gone into Cooperstown on the first ballot. It was his "trade" that brought back Padilla. The rest yielded nothing.

Now we can add Cole Hamels to this list without adding anyone to the sum total of Vicente Padilla.

Jorge Alfaro

The prospect evaluators at Baseball America and their ilk will tell you never to scout a stat line. You know why they say that? Because if you do you don't need to pay for all the verbiage they produce and then they're unemployed. Really, the only time you can't scout the stat line is when everything is good.

That won't be a problem with Alfaro or the rest of this "haul".

Alfaro in AA this year: Nine walks and 61 strikeouts. A ratio of almost seven to one. Take a look around MLB at any successful hitter and see how many you can find with a ratio like that. Then consider that Alfaro is doing this in AA and he's 22 years old.

If you read the work of the prospect guys they'll tell you how Alfaro has awesome power. Well, he has five bombs in 207 plate appearances in AA. What they mean is that in batting practice he can hit the ball a long way. So can many guys in slow pitch softball leagues. The minors are full of guys with big batting practice power who can't connect in games.

The Phillies already have a catcher like this. His name is Cameron Rupp. Now they have two Cameron Rupps.

More bad news, and this is from the prospect guys at Baseball America themselves. They had Alfaro rated as the 54th best prospect in the minors before 2014. This year they downgraded Alfaro to 67th. If asked they will tell you that this is dependant on the talent as a whole, but this is bullshit. If you have followed their work for over a decade as I have then you know that no prospect goes backwards like this on the Top 100 list unless that player failed at the next level or showed no improvement. The later is the case with Alfaro who moved from low-A to high-A ball - not a tremendous jump - aging another year and showing no improvement at all.

Now it gets worse.

Alfaro has moved on to AA this year after 99 plate appearances late last season in AA and he is still the same guy as he was in those 99 plate appearances after aging another year.

In short, Alfaro has horrible plate discipline. He is crippled at the plate. This is a key component of hitting. You can't get better at the higher levels if you can't recognize bad pitches and take them. It's all downhill from here. The difference in this regard between AA and MLB is profound and Alfaro is challenged almost to the point of being overwhelmed in AA.

If Alfaro's defense improves he may have a year or two - on the Phillies - as a backup catcher to Cameron Rupp.

Nick Williams

Williams will turn 22 years old on September 8th. Before last year he made the Baseball America Top 100 list for the first time.

This year he didn't make the cut. Another guy who went south on the list that matters. However, this year he surprised a lot people by making some improvements at the plate in AA and he will likely crack the Top 100 lists this winter.

Williams is a "toolsy" Domonic Brown type of outfielder. He has all of Brown's flaws, maybe some more on defense than Brown does (Williams arm stinks while Brown has a cannon). Nick Williams is a soon to turn 22 year old project. If Nick Williams looked more like Darin Ruf than Domonic Brown he couldn't sniff the bottom of a Top Three Hundred list.

A .836 OPS at AA in 415 plate appearances is nothing to be excited over and in his chats this year Keith Law has not been excited about Nick Williams. Maybe in his writeup behind the pay wall he will try to put a shine on Williams so as not to alienate Phillies fans, but his true opinion on Williams is available in his chat transcripts.

The only other player in this criminal transaction is Jake Thompson, a RHP who the Rangers received in a deal with the Tigers. Thompson is 21 years old and has a decent MLB quality fastball and a good slider. He lacks command though and do I even need to write this for you? He's likely to end up in the bullpen, probably a 7th inning guy.

The others are so bad I won't even mention their names. It's better that way since you will never remember their names three years from today anyway. I'm not sure the Camden Riversharks would have much interest in them. Really, I'm not exaggerating their lack of ability. One of them is going nowhere and he's 24 years old. He has a mother who may still be alive and have an internet connection, why go down that road? None of this is his fault, he's an innocent swept up in the crime wave of John Middleton.

Oh yeah, and the Phillies took on the contract of Matt Harrison. This is a dead contract. Harrison essentially has a broken back. He has had three serious spinal operations. He should just go home and collect his money guaranteed on his deal. However, John Middleton doesn't have the decency to do that. Harrison will be put on the field as a Jerome Williams type of crash dummy to get shelled and help John Middleton get the first pick in the MLB draft - probably for at least the next three years, maybe longer than that (picking first in the draft I mean, Harrison will not be able to take the field for that long).

Putting Matt Harrison on the field should be considered a Human Rights violation. John Middleton is of course proud to have his picture taken with international War Criminal Condoleezza Rice so why would he blanch at putting a man with a broken back out on the field to be shelled?

Did the Rangers have any better prospects than this? ABSOLUTELY! And they told the Phillies to forget about them. So if the Rangers wouldn't give up Joey Gallo or even Nomar Mazara then why would the Phillies do the deal? Why would they not even insist on the lone pitching prospect the Rangers have in Alex Gonzalez?

Simple.

John Middleton told his underlings who will take the rap for this crime to "Get Hamels out of here."

In 2017 the Phillies had one player under contract for that season. Just one. Can you guess his name?

What is John Middleton Building?

The only name ever mentioned as an owner of the Phillies is that of John Middleton. The nick given for the those who own the Phillies is "Mysterious Owners, who of course are only mysterious because the media in Philadelphia and the national MLB media refuse to discuss them by name.

Here is John S. Middleton's little bungalow in Palm Beach, Florida. Those aren't a little kids toy trucks, those are the real kind. Mister Middleton is no fan of huge signing bonuses - Miakel Franco only received one hundred thousand dollars to sign - or big time free agent contracts - five million for Aaron Harang - but mansions that John Middleton is going to spend some time in, that's a completely different story.

Here's another view of the 17,000 plus square foot bungalow that John Middleton is building in Palm Beach. It may not be finished yet even though it has been under construction for about four years. It's bigger than all his neighbors.

If you scroll the picture to the left you can see two little people - like us - wearing white hard hats working diligently to get the smallest detail down to the exact specification desired by John S. Middleton.

I have an attic vent in my house that's corrugated metal.

I wasn't born a Middleton so that's all I deserve. That and my baseball team being turned into one of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball.

Here's yet another view. Don't forget to scroll to the left. Google did not design their blogging code to accomadate castles big enough to satisfy John S. Middleton.

Here is a rare interior shot. Don't mind all the wood, metal and wires. It will all be covered in Italian marble and trimmed in gold before John S. Middleton sees it.

It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.

In case you were wondering where the $6 Billion in Comcast TV dollars was going or all those billions from Citizens Bank Park sellouts and concession sales, and the $50 million every year that MLB distributes to every team for the national TV contracts with ESPN, FOX Sports and TBS, or the $25 million plus for MLB dot com and the $20 million plus for MLB merchandising.

That's one of the swimming pools, this one is in back overlooking the ocean. If you have an ocean to swim in what do you need?

Look closely.

Can you see all the little people wearing white hard hats working diligently among the concrete and rebar to get everything just right, the way Mister Middleton expects it to be?

I don't know what this is, but it's bigger than my house and looks like it is designed to keep out an invading viking army, but I'm sure it's you and me that Mister Middleton wants to keep far away.
_

JOHN POWERS MIDDLETON FLAUNTS HIS FELONY FRAUD

So here's what is both available and coincidently for the roster deprived Philadelphia Phillies (alleged ) MLB team, what the Phillies need:

HANLEY RAMIREZ
PABLO SANDOVAL
YOAN MONCADA
YASMANY TOMAS
MAX SCHERZER
JON LESTER

So what is John Powers Middleton actually buying with our money? Well let's check out his Twitter account from last night:

The Phillies coming off signing their $6 Billion TV deal with Comcast and selling pairs of season tickets for $13,000 are buying us nothing, while in Hollywood, and Malibu, John Powers Middleton is buying movie studios and buying ÂSS.

I have no doubt this thief won't even have the decency to release a sex tape of himself and Summer Rae. No, John Powers Middleton actually expects us to watch that roster of Camden Riversharks wearing Phillies uniforms. Not only watch it, but pay $13,000 for tickets to watch this felony fraud.

MORE EVIDENCE OF JOHN MIDDLETON'S FELONY FRAUD

MLBTradeRumors has published an article on MLB teams payroll obligations. As we are being swamped with articles and podcasts from Philadelphia and national MLB media telling us how the Phillies are supposedly sunk by payroll obligations it is in fact easy to see for ourselves that these are massive LIES.

The Phillies are in the process of liquidating their payroll. In just a year and a half from today - 2016 season- the Phillies have only $76 million in payroll obligations.

Notice what happens the following year in 2017 - 2 1/2 years from today - the Phillies payroll is only $34 million! Their share of just the National TV money that every team receives is $50 million. That alone gives them a profit before the Comcast dollars are received, before the first sucker walks through the turnstiles, before the MLB merchandising dollars roll in.

Why focus on MLB, this SCAM stands out in the history of the USA as one of the biggest ever.

Want to see the SCAM that John Middleton is running on Phillies fans in color graph form? Here you go:

Look at this closely. Study it.

The Tampa Rays have more payroll obligations than the Phillies. Look up at the top of this color graph. The Cincinatti Reds dwarf the Phillies in payroll obligations. The Reds own the smallest market in MLB. The smallest media market in MLB dwarfs the fourth largest media market in MLB in payroll obligations.

Look at the Dodgers and Yankees, the Phillies true peer group. This is a scam unlike any other ever seen. Everyday we are pelted and smothered with new propaganda telling us the exact opposite of the truth about the Phillies. We are led to believe that the Phillies are buried by payroll obligations and unable to buy players to fix their team.

Well, look at the fraud in living color.

Here are your well kept pedophilies sitting behind talk radio microphones and posting click bait on Philly dot com where the most notorious, Bill Conlin plied his trade.

The Phillies should sign Hanley Ramirez, Max Scherzer and Jon Lester in addition to Yasmany Tomas (who is being inked purely for public relations reasons).

The felony fraud gets worse.

While we are being fed this "get younger" big lie, the best young talent available YOAN MONCADA - is not even mentioned in any article focused on the Phillies.

Look at him

Nineteen years old. A switch hitter with 30+ HR power. He plays an outstanding 2B, 3B and CF. Yon Moncada is a Cuban Mike Trout. A Cuban Bryce Harper. If the Phillies are trying to "get younger" then how is it not a forgone conclusion that Yoan Moncada will soon be a member of the Phillies organization?

Yet the name "Yoan Moncada" does not exist in the Philly media. Most people in any comments section have never heard of him. Those who have heard of Yoan Moncada admit that it is from reading my comments on this subject. The Philly media will not mention Yoan Moncada. It's as if someone has issued talking points about the Phillies to the media and told them not to mention Yoan Moncada.

Who could have issued these talking points? Who connected to the Phillies has such power and influence?

_

"The Phillies Way" by John Powers Middleton

Ruben Amaro has released a new book via Phillies Publishing authored by John Powers Middleton
titled "The Phillies Way".

@johnmiddleton (He's on Twitter!) has stolen $6 Billion in television money from Phillies fans. In addition, the Phillies have cleared at least a billion dollars in profit since Citizens Bank Park opened.

We the fans of the Phillies MLB team sold out Citizens Bank Park, and while the ballpark was still sold out John Middleton nuked the outfield. The Phillies were also well aware that Roy Halladay was done. They had the MRI scans. They knew they needed to sign Yu Darvish or Zack Greinke, but they lied to us. Halladay signed a sweet, short contract that the Phillies had no trouble eating. They had already begun to plan the dismantlement of a five time division winning roster that actually began by pushing Jayson Werth out of town.

Hunter Pence was acquired with the full knowledge that he would be a rental to go for it one last time before they blew it up and began a fifteen year rebuild.

The Phillies know that it will take at least fifteen years. Their farm system is garbage. Every prospect rating outfit from Baseball America to Baseball Prospectus says so. The Phillies know that Maikel Franco and Cody Asche are Camden Riversharks, but they are telling the big lie to their fan base that these MLB frauds are a "new core".

Any Phillies fan who purchases a ticket is the enemy of real Phillies fans. Citizens Bank Park must be emptied completely. Fans need to picket outside the ballpark. Form a picket line of striking fans. Hurl insults at anyone who tries to cross this picket line.

Clare Betz kicked off with $2 Billion. This crook never bought us anything. Her remains should be dug up and defecated upon.

The same for Sally Buck, and James Mahlon Buck and his brother Alexander Buck. They were all worth multiple billions of dollars and they deliberately, and with great malice, defrauded us.
_

Phillies Draft History and Dave Montgomery

This sad story begins in 1999. It was not an unsuccessful draft for the Phils. In the 1^st round they selected Brett Myers out of high school. A pitcher with a bad reputation already his great arm fell to them as the 12^th pick of the 1^st round.

Unfortunately, this was the only player of that draft who ever gained any notice. When your draft is about the 1^st round pick and nothing else, it was not a good draft.

But it didn't have to be that way.

In the fifth round the Phillies chose another high school pitcher, a lefty named Joe Saunders. You may have heard of him. Three years later the Angels chose him again in the first round out of college.

Why didn't Saunders sign with the Phillies out of high school?

“Saunders says the Phillies offered a $150,000 take-it-or-leave-it signing bonus the day after the 1999 draft. When that offer was rejected, Saunders insists he never heard from the organization again.

'To get drafted was such an honor and the whole way they handled it was such an awkward experience for me,' Saunders said Friday before the Phillies and Angels began their weekend interleague series. 'You never see an organization come in with one offer and you get 10 minutes to make your decision, then not talk to you the rest of the summer.'

Members of the Phillies scouting department say Saunders’ story is ridiculous. In their version, repeated follow-up attempts to get a deal done were made. But it was Saunders’ advisor and parents, the Phillies say, who refused to negotiate or even permit the club to speak to Saunders again, in person or over the phone.

'It’s frustrating because obviously we thought we had a chance to get him into the system,' Phillies director of scouting Marti Wolever said.

...Saunders laughed when hearing Wolever’s version.

'What they told you was a fish story,' he said.

The following year the Phillies drafted Chase Utley in the 1^st round. Good pick again.

In the sixth round the Phillies drafted Taylor Buchholz, a Pennsylvania high school talent and perhaps after the Joe Saunders experience they had some second thoughts, or maybe it was just the Pennsylvania background. Anyway, they signed Taylor Buchholz for $375,000.

Good move. Taylor Buchholz would later become the key talent in a trade for Billy Wagner. If you want to acquire a prime time MLB talent you need top minor league talent. The better the talent and the younger that talent, the more top minor league talents you need in order to acquire that player.

In 2001 the Phillies received their reward for the 2000 “Bring it On!” Phillies season, one in which they did nothing but trade for Andy Ashby, who we were told would be an “Ace” equal to Curt Schilling (!). Even if he was the team had no chance to be a contender, but Ed Wade and Dave $$$ Montgomery insisted otherwise.

The Phillies lost 97 games, traded Curt Schilling for the “sack of crap” that at least netted them a surprise in Vincente Padilla.

It was also the end of Scott Rolen's time as a Phillie. He had seen enough and wanted out. Made it clear to everyone that there was nothing more to discuss. Curt Schilling being dumped overboard was the last straw.

So now the draft. And who should be there? Why Third baseman Mark Teixeira. That's correct, Gold Glove MLB first baseman Mark Teixeira once was stationed on the hot corner.

But the Phillies took Gavin Floyd, even though Phillies draft talent guru Mike Arbuckle wanted Teixeira and said so before the draft.

The reason for Arbuckle being overruled?

$$$

Dave $$$ Montgomery turned thumbs down on Teixeira and his agent Scott Boras who the Phillies have boycotted since Boras became an agent.

Once, and only once the Phillies have chosen a Scott Boras client. J. D. Drew in 1997. Before the draft that year Boras informed the Phillies as is customary as to what the parameters of a deal would look like. The initial asking price would be a multi-year Major League contract for eleven million dollars.

Not only did the Phillies have no intention of paying Drew and Boras that much money, they were determined to not allow anyone else to pay him that much. Immediately following the draft Bill Giles came out of hiding and announced that the Phillies would pay Drew the same as Kris Benson was paid the previous year, $2.8 million.

And the Phillies never moved from that figure and Drew went into the independent leagues and back into the next years draft where he was picked by the Cardinals and paid almost $8 million on a Major League deal.

The Phillies got a supplemental 1^st round pick that they squandered on a slot money college outfielder named Eric Valent, who today works as a scout for the Phillies.

And you wonder why Scott Rolen bailed?

So Mark Teixeira went on the following choice in the first round by the Texas Rangers who were ecstatic with their good fortune and happily gave Teixeira a $9.5 million Major League deal. The Rangers also had 3B Hank Blalock who took to 3B faster than Teixeira, and that is how Teixeira became a Gold Glove first baseman instead of a Major League 3B.

The Phillies scouts though were getting better as a crew as the years went on. In the fifth round they took Ryan Howard and hit the ball out of the park. He didn't even cost any money to sign.

That's why he's here today.

But oh what could have been. Today the Phils could have Howard at 1B and Teixeira at 3B. A draft for the ages.

But Dave $$$ Montgomery had other ideas. And unfortunately those ideas have not changed.

Phillies draft spending

2003 $1,417,000 Rank: 30th

2006 $4,842,500 Rank: 16th

2007 $4,092,000 Rank: 22nd

2008 $6,875,000 Rank: 10th

2009 $2,755.000 Rank: 29th

2010 $3,927,900 Rank: 27^th

In 2002 the Phillies took a chance on Cole Hamels, who lasted until the 17^th pick due to an extremely serious arm injury, the breaking of the humerus bone in his pitching arm (that is the bone running between your bicep and tricep muscles connecting your elbow to your shoulder). Hamels has a metal wire running through that bone into his elbow, he is the only pitcher to have fully recovered from that injury.  He also demanded a few hundred thousand over slot money even with that history.

Later in the 17^th round the Phils selected Scott Mathieson out of a British Columbia high school at age 17. His draft bonus has never been disclosed, but it's believed to have been quite reasonable. That's why he's in the Phils farm system. 

Mathison's fastball topped out at 89 MPH on draft day, but Phils scouts projected him to throw harder due to his size and perfect arm motion in delivering his fastball. The scouts were right, and today even after three years of recovering from two Tommy John surgeries Mathieson still lights up a radar gun at 98 MPH. His breaking pitches never developed unfortunately, but Bruce Sutter has been hired to work with him on a split fingered fastball and he's showing some promise, so we might see him come out of the Phils bullpen in 2011.

The Phils did something they had previously not done much of in the 14^th round when they took Stanford football star Darin Naatjes. He was 6'9” and 245 lbs and could bring it in the high nineties. His control was suspect but the Phils saw a bullpen roll for him. Unfortunately, like Mathieson he landed on the surgeons table, but did not recover.

So of the three major pitching talents signed by the Phils, two who were healthy had very serious arm injuries subsequently. Cole Hamels, who should have gone in the first three picks of the draft, dropped to the Phils because teams were scared of his previous arm injury, and after several years of scares in the minors -Hamels spent a huge amount of time on the D.L. before arriving in MLB – Hamels has been a top-of-the-rotation workhorse of the first magnitude.

Such is baseball.

In 2003 the Phillies spent less money on the draft than any other team in MLB. Still they came up with Michael Bourn and Kyle Kendrick. Bourn fronted the trade for Brad Lidge, perhaps making the Phillies 2008 season into a World Series winning year as Lidge was perfect, never blowing a save.

However, in the 41^st round the Phillies selected Greg Reynolds, a 6'5” RHP with a Stanford scholarship. Mike Arbuckle wanted to pay him. Dave $$$ Montgomery as is his custom said “NO!”. Three years later Reynolds was the third player chosen in the draft by the Rockies. He subsequently developed shoulder problems (possibly from overuse at Stanford). But the lesson is that the Phils scouts knew a stud talent when they took him, but were denied the opportunity to sign him through the interference of Dave Montgomery.

The third overall pick. Snatched three years earlier by the Phils in the 41^st round.

2004 was a draft year that nearly brought on a stroke for me when the Phillies picking 21^st took Greg Golson, a consensus 2^nd round talent due to a suspect bat, solely because he was happy to sign a slot money deal before the draft. Two picks later the Yankees at #23 took Phil Hughes – you may have heard of him – who was the consensus best high school pitching talent in the draft. Hughes would not agree to a pre-draft slot money deal, which was Dave Montgomery's goal before the draft. Golson's bonus? $1.475,000. Phil Hughes? $1,400,000.

Yep, once again as in 1997 the Phillies brass were going out of their way to please Bud Selig. Immediately following Golson's quick signing announcement – rare – Chris Wheeler went on a rant during the TV broadcast of a Phils game talking about how great it was that Golson signed so quick and for slot money and how “poor small market teams like San Diego, Pittsburgh and Kansas City couldn't afford to sign their top pick because of raising bonuses, and something had to be done to send a message”.

Do you care about the price of signing bonuses and whether those teams that live off revenue sharing “can” sign them? Do you want the Phillies to miss out on Phil Hughes to “send a message”? Do you want to miss out on the next J.D. Drew to “send a message”?

Even worse, it's bullsh*t. In 2008 the Kansas City Royals spent $11,104,000 on the draft. The most money ever spent by a MLB team. The Royals spent almost as much in 2008 as the Phillies spent in 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.

Today the Royals have the best farm system in MLB.

The Phils in the later rounds – without money to spend – selected J. Happ and catcher Lou Marson. Happ fronted the deal for Roy Oswalt, and Lou Marson was the third talent in the package that brought Cliff Lee to the Phils.

Time and again Phillies scouts have proven themselves worthy of being given a blank checkbook, but Dave Montgomery does the exact opposite.

For some reason draft spending by teams for 2004 and 2005 is not available. That's too bad because 2005 has to have been a bigger drop off the graph than 2003 when the Phils were dead last in spending at $1,417,000. The Phils did not spend over slot for anyone and they did not have a 1^st round pick. Mike Costanzo as a 2^nd round pick got $570,000 as the Phils top pick. In the following round the Phils selected LHP Matt Maloney and in the 10^th round Josh Outman. Both were later used in trades, Outman for Joe Blanton and Maloney for Kyle Lohse. The scouts came up big again and Dave $$$ Montgomery did not.

Oh yeah, the Phils also drafted highly regarded RHP Vance Worley. Dave Montgomery put a stop to him becoming a Phillie though. And yes we're talking about the same Vance Worley who is now a good Phillies pitching prospect. Three years later the Phils drafted Worley again, out of college in the third round and he signed for...you guessed it, slot money.

How else would the Phillies get him?

2006 was a good draft year for the Phils though no thanks to Dave Montgomery. Kyle Drabeck who later fronted the Doc Halladay trade was taken in the 1^st round and signed for...slot money. The Phils had a supplemental 1^st round pick and took 2B Adrian Cardenas who later fronted the Joe Blanton trade. The 2^nd round pick is still floating up and down in the person of Andrew Carpenter. Next was Jason Donald who became part of the Cliff Lee trade. Round 20 was again interesting as the year before as the Phils selected five tool outfielder Domonic Brown out of high school. Brown has gotten smarter since 2006 and is now represented by Scott Boras. Then he was not and the Phils signed him for just $200,000.

Scouts came up real big again, Dave Montgomery was no where to be found with the dollars though. In fact Dave Montgomery sabotaged this draft. In the 36^th round the Phils drafted 6'5” RHP Kyle Gibson. Over a pittance that would never be noticed in the bottom line at the end of the season Montgomery pushed Kyle Gibson into college where he quickly became a 1^st round talent and was picked by the Twins. Right now Gibson is the Twins #1 prospect and is awaiting a place in the Twins rotation to open up.

2007 was a big draft year for Phillies scouts, though no thanks to Dave Montgomery. In fact, Dave Montgomery once again sabotaged the scouts insisting on a fast slot money signing in the first round. This yielded Joe Savery, once a good LHP prospect who burned his shoulder up at Rice University. This was evident with just a glance at his pitiful stats that branded him at best a sixth round pick. All the reasons given for drafting Savery actually applied to Brett Cecil who was still on the board when the Phils chose, but the Phillies didn't have a pre-draft agreement with Cecil so the Phils picker had to choose Savery, who has been a massive bust as a pitcher, so much so that he is now trying to do a Rick Ankiel and become a position player. Savory is off to a blazing start at Clearwater this year so his story could still have a happy ending, but it remains a major screw-up and a continuation of interference by Dave Montgomery that prevents the Phillies' farm system from becoming all it could be.

And it could have been a lot. Rick Porcello was available when the Phillies chose Savery. Of course, he had a $7 million dollar Major League contract price on him, and he was a Scott Boras client and the Dave $$$ Montgomery has forbidden his farm team from ever again drafting a Scott Boras client.

And it did not stop there. Scott Boras had another talented client named Matt Harvey who had a $4 million price tag attached and he was not taken until the 3^rd round, so the Phillies could have drafted and signed both Porcello and Harvey (who became a #1 pick of the Mets and may soon be ranked as their best prospect).

If the Phillies had made these signings they could have afforded to make the deal for Roy Halladay after acquiring Cliff Lee in 2009 and had Doc and Cliff in their rotation against the Yankees. Dave Montgomery and his “hate Scott Boras” campaign may have cost the Phillies the 2009 World Series.

In the supplemental 1^st round the Phils took Travis D'Arnaud who is now a Blue Jay along with Kyle Drabeck in the Roy Halladay trade.

In the 3^rd round Dave Montgomery again exerted his influence stopping the Phils from signing Brandon Workman who was chosen in the 2^nd round by the Red Sox last year out of college.

Then the Phillies hit on Michael Taylor in the 5^th round and he too became part of the Roy Halladay trade.

Next was 1B Matt Rizzotti who tore it up at Reading last year and for some reason was sent back there again to begin 2011 and is off to a scorching start.

All of that for slot money. What could the Phils farm team have done if they had an open checkbook like the Red Sox farm team?

In 2008 the Phillies had one of their highest spending totals ever, yet 9 teams spent more. The reason was not going over slot either, the Phils simply had extra high selections that carried high slot bonuses.

In round one Dave Montgomery did his thing again and it once again flushed a 1^st round pick and the money that the pick cost to sign Anthony Hewitt down the toilet. That's the thing about this policy, it not only screws the franchise out of talent but has wasted millions of dollars by overpaying prospects to enforce the draft slotting system that even teams like the Kansas City Royals have been ignoring for several years.

Zach Collier was a 1^st round compensation pick who has been stopped by injuries. He was followed by two 2^nd round picks in Anthony Gose and Jason Knapp. Gose went in the Roy Oswalt trade and Knapp was either the 1^st or 2^nd highest rated talent to go in the Cliff Lee trade.

Then in round three the Phils again took Vance Worley out of college after they gave him the Dave Montgomery “you're not getting paid by us!” treatment out of high school in 2005.

Then another compensation pick who the Phils turned into 17 year old Jon Pettibone who is now part of the highly anticipated 2011 Clearwater rotation, immediately followed by 4^th rounder Trevor May who is also part of this years Clearwater rotation. And it doesn't stop there. In round eight the Phils picked 17 year old Julio Rodriguez out of Puerto Rico, and he is part of the 2011 Clearwater rotation.

In the 11^th round they plucked Mike Stutes out of college and he is at triple-A Lehigh Valley and likely part of the Phillies pen before the season is over.

And then all the way down in the 38^th round the Phils made their one over slot money pick, surprising everyone by giving Jarred Cosart $550,000, and he is considered the ace of this years Clearwater staff after missing the 2009 season with Tommy John surgery.

In round 12 the Phils drafted, but would not pay Ryan Weber out of a Clearwater high school. The next year he was drafted out of a community college and signed by the Braves and is off to a good start in the Sally league this year.

What players did the Phils not draft because of bonus demands? Six picks after Anthony Hewitt the Red Sox chose Casey Kelly. He cost $3 million deferred over five years. About twice what Anthony Hewitt cost. But Casey Kelly is a real talent and was used by the Red Sox this winter as the number one talent in the Adrian Gonzalez trade. I really liked Gerrit Cole. The Yankees took him three picks after Hewitt. He didn't sign and I suppose we have to assume that the Yankees didn't hold to slot money, but they got the pick over next year and getting to pick over is a lot better than wasting one and half million dollars on Anthony Hewitt.

2009 was another grand slam Dave $$$ Montgomery year. The Phils were 29^th in draft spending. They did not have a 1^st round pick and for the first time they took a talent out of the 1^st round and paid supplemental 1^st round money to sign him. His name is Brody Colvin and he is the last mentioned of this years well regarded Clearwater rotation. He received $900,000 as a 7^th round pick and that was the highest bonus by far that the Phillies paid in this draft.

But the Phils scouts had a big year too, not only convincing Dave Montgomery to do something that most other clubs will do, but the Phillies never did, but finding another gem in the very next round after Colvin, and he was someone that Dave Montgomery loved too because Jonathan Singleton, like Domonic Brown years earlier, signed for just $200,000. Today Singleton is the Phillies best hitting prospect, a can't miss 19 year old.

Think about this: Just $400,000 for both Domonic Brown and Jonathan Singleton. That's less than third round slot money! Imagine what the Phils farm team could do if they were given some real money to spend every year?

There were other “tough signs” looking for money who the Phils picked in 2009. Jake Stewart is now at Stanford in his 2^nd season starting for the Cardinals. Stewart is a five tool CF type of prospect.

Then there is the one who is likely to hurt for a long time. Catcher Andrew Susac – highly regarded pre-draft – was taken in the sixteenth round. He tore it up at Oregon State to the point that he looks like a potential Joe Mauer bat. He was recently injured but is still expected to go in the 1^st round. Jim Callis of Baseball America can't stop Tweeting about Andrew Susac.

2010 was not a good year for the Phils in the draft. Dave Montgomery wrapped both hands around the throat of the Phils farm staff and choked them unconscious. The Phillies spent less than than $4 million on the entire draft, placing them 27^th in draft spending.

The Red Sox spent $10.6 million.

Once again the Phillies overdrafted their 1^st round pick. Jesse Biddle is a good LHP prospect, but was probably destined to go in the 2^nd round. From here on it gets ugly.

Fifth round, 6'7” 220lb RHP Scott Frazier wanted to sign, he also wanted in the neighborhood of $1 million. Dave Montgomery told him to go find another neighborhood to play in. He did. Frazier is currently being moved into the starting rotation at Randy Wolf's old college Pepperdine University.

Then in the ninth round five tool outfielder Brenton Allen was told to take his talent to UCLA.

In the 19^th round Georgia Tech recruit Daniel Palka, a 1B/OF/LHP who was highly regarded and expected to be paid accordingly found out that Dave Montgomery was not swayed by such high opinions. Palka was moved into the Georgia Tech lineup from day one as a freshman and is profiling as a 1^st round pick in two years.

The Phillies blew off more talent then they signed.

The top four spending teams and what they spent:

Nationals $11,927,200

Pirates $11,900,400

Blue Jays $11,594,400

Red Sox $10,664,400

Yes even the Pirates and Blue Jays, two notorious low spenders have learned the futility of choking the farm.

Totaling the spending for the last three years the Phillies are 28^th in MLB. The future does not look bright. The history of teams that operate like this is poor. The baseball odds say that the Phillies farm system will sink into quicksand and disappear if Dave $$$ Montgomery is not stopped.

Soon.