Success: A Cautionary Tale

Any Phillies fan under 35 has a meaningful recollection of only one World Series Championship in their lifetime.  2008 changed the face of the Philadelphia franchise and elevated the team to an elite status.  Any fan of a perennially terrible team will gladly accept 10 years of underachieving slop with the promise of one championship (aside from maybe Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner).  Winning comes with a price though, and for the Phillies, that price came with interest.  The team payroll in 2008 was roughly $98 million dollars.  That may sound like a lot, and anyone with a social conscience could not reasonably say it isn't, but it was the same or less that 12 other teams in baseball.  Philadelphians could legitimately use the "go buy a championship" line to any Red Sox or Yankees fan that year and not seem delusional.  That time is but a memory anymore.

Think for a second about the all of the homegrown talent on that team, including the WS MVP (Hamels) and the '06 (Howard) & '07 (Rollins) NL MVP's.  Also, Pat Burrell.  In the years since, we've seen the farm system get less attention, and many of the better prospects traded for players like Lee and Halladay.  Domonic Brown was not a Mike Stanton or Jason Heyward, and looks like he still needs some time.  As the Phillies age, we aren't seeing the future superstars at each position like are currently on the team.  That may sound greedy, but in reality there isn't even an occasional all-star reserve in waiting.  But I digress.

I mentioned the $98 million spent in 2008, but what I didn't tell you yet is that the Payroll has increased by 60% in the three years since.  Let that sink in.  A 60% increase is a 2011 payroll of $158 million.  Each year since the WS, Philadelphia has taken one step back from the ultimate goal of a championship. I'd hate to see that trend continue into this year, as the Phillies are the odds on favorite to win it all, but are trending to lose in the NLDS.  That wouldn't sit well with many people.  Anything could happen over a seemingly never-ending season though, and I'd certainly take the pitching staff currently assembled over a high powered offense, so I'd take that +300 money line on the Phils.  My only concern though is whether Ruben Amaro, Jr. is pushing for another championship while the best infield in Phillies history still don't need walkers, or if it is what I fear the most: an addiction.  Can Rube be addicted to spending money?  Is he afraid of the team slipping back in to irrelevance?  While asking these questions, every Phillies fan must look in the mirror and ask his or her reflection...

"Am I alright with being the Yankees South?"

Before Yankees fans jump down my throat with the 27 rings nonsense, I'm not comparing team histories and previous success.  If you look at age and salary, the two teams are comparable.  Aging players brought in, paid for what they have done rather than what they will do, litter the roster.  As they go, the front office's first reaction is to look at the next guy's roster, rather than their own minor league organization.  Once you buy one player, it's easier to pull the trigger on the next, and the next, and the next.  Obviously, the sample size is much smaller than the Yankees, and in recent years the Red Sox as well.  But can their be sustained success without increasing or maintaining the payroll each year?  I'm not sure it is something that a team owner would be willing to try.  Ticket prices AND sales have drastically increased in Philadelphia since the string of playoff appearances began.  Five years ago you couldn't give away a Thursday night ticket to a PHI/SD game in July, but you could buy a cheap seat ticket for $15.  That same ticket in 2011 is $28, and a standing room only ticket is $17.  Parking has gone from $10 five years ago to, and I'm estimating based on the $17 prices from last year, possibly $20 this year.

People are getting very rich on the success of the team and the names on that line-up card, and rich people don't just stop being rich by choice.  It seems that for the near future this team is going to maintain  the expensive lifestyle, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that.  Heck, we are about to watch something magical happen as these starting pitchers take the rubber night after night.  It would not surprise many if this team wins over 100 games, and even win it all.  But as they say, ignoring history dooms one to repeat it.  It's a tale as old as time: an heroic act elevates the subject to an elite status, until the inevitable fall.  Let's just hope that this team has not finished climbing yet.

The Best Move Was No Move At All

They forebore to break the chain

Which bound the dusky tribe,

Checked by the owners' fierce disdain,

Lured by "Union" as the bribe.

Destiny sat by, and said,

"Pang for pang your seed shall pay,

Hide in false peace your coward head,

I bring round the harvest-day.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Another trade deadline has come and gone which means three or four more teams have on-paper championships, and three or four more fan bases face years of misery.  All the while, the Sixers are content with the roster they had before 3 o'clock this afternoon.  A brief conversation with Houston lead to Shane Battier whispers, but ultimately, the trade was never a reality.  So as fans of the Sixers, we are left to wonder what this means in regards to ownership's mindset.

Lots of big names moved in the past couple of days: Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace, Baron Davis, Kendrick Perkins.  Obviously the Carmelo to the Knicks trade was by far the biggest.  It created yet another super-team with him, Amar'e, and the surprisingly under-appreciated Chauncey Billups.  There is this theme of having two superstars and a complimentary third player in order to compete for a championship that has swept over the Association over the past couple of years.  The Lakers did it with Kobe, Gasol, and Artest/Odom.  The Celtics did it before them with Pierce, Garnett, and Allen/Rondo.  There is another team in Florida who did it recently, though I can't quite place them right now.....  We'll never know for sure whether Emerson was talking about the situations in South Beach or New York when he wrote those lines, but I'm going to assume he could see the future.

The Sixers have decided not to go that route this season, though there is a wealth of young talent and potential that could have baited many GM's.  In a way, it's sad to see another year of Sixers basketball without a superstar, but on the other hand there wasn't a massive salary dump signaling the forfeiture of the season either.  What we have is a team of role players playing satisfactory basketball.  This team WILL make the playoffs this year.  Heck, they may even win a round if the stars align.  They WON'T win a championship with the team currently assembled, though.  I think Thorn, Stefanski, and Collins want to see how this group handles the playoff push and matures in a series against one of the superpowers before deciding what to do.  There are some majors needs that weren't addressed today, but the way this team is playing together, maybe adding a big name would have been dangerous or disruptive.

There are two schools of thought for this team.  The first is to dump salaries like Iguodala or Brand, and hope to get serviceable talent in return until a new superstar is found in the draft.  The other is to add an established center like Chris Kaman, Marcin Gortat, or for the dreamers out there, Dwight Howard.  In ignoring both of those philosophies, the Sixers organization have created more time to evaluate talent, and figure out if this team is really on the way up.  There will still be a draft this year, with underrated talent coming out no less, for the team to attempt to plug some holes.  Holliday is only getting better, and Iggy has turned into an unselfish player.  The superstar will come, eventually, but until then why mess with a good thing?  Let New York, Miami, Boston, and LA battle it out for a couple years until their stars get too old to be really effective anymore.  In the meantime this team must compete with what they have, and then make an intelligent decision later.