Philly Front Office

BENEVOLENT PHILLIES DONATE TO CHARITY CASE

News came out Friday that the Dodgers were signing Japanese flamethrower Roki Sasaki to an entry level contract with a $6.5m bonus. Wait, if the Dodgers only had a little over $5m to spend internationally, how did they give him so much money? Well, they would need some patsy to help out by trading them international pool money. What loser took that bait?

BREAKING: Phillies trade $1m international bonus pool money to Dodgers.

[deep sigh]

On the bright side, if it wasn’t the Phillies, it would have been someone else (…and it was! The Reds are trading with them too).  For their trouble, the Phillies received Dylan Campbell, a 4th round pick out of Texas two years ago. He’s a righty who can play all 3 outfield spots but hangs out mostly in right. He can kind of hit? It was an outfielder for nothing I suppose but still disheartening.

I think the real problem here isn’t that they gave the Dodgers the ability to spend $1m, it’s that they had the money to give them in the first place. You don’t get to save international bonus money. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Why didn’t we spend that money on a prospect ourselves? The Dodgers ended up trading for more than they needed for Sasaki which means they are going to sign other talent too and we will be directly helping them do it. I still trust Dave Dombrowski implicitly, which I acknowledge is more than most, but this doesn’t sit well.

DODGERS SIGN SCOTT

Tanner Scott is a Dodgers. The best reliever out there went to the best team for the most money. The short version is that LA needed a reliever and overpaid to get one at 4 years, $72m. The longer version is that the Dodgers did Dodger things by punting $20m of this into the future and spreading out a hefty signing bonus. They are running a tax payroll of $370m for this season (and will almost certainly bring back Kershaw for like $10m more). This brings their tax bill to roughly $119m. With Kershaw, we are talking a $500m payroll. Hey Phillies, they are the big kids in the neighborhood. Not you. Be the underdogs. Don’t lose to the Mets.

More on the Dodgers coming later today or tomorrow.

SIXERS CONTINUE DEATH SPIRAL

Was anyone else surprised shortly after the Eagles game with a proof of life notification that the Sixers were about to tip off against the Bucks? Even the computer program sending me that probably got a good laugh. It goes without saying that despite having a 15-2 run at some point in the first half, the Sixers still lost by double digits.

The 3-week run of death before the trade deadline is really doing its job on the Sixers, losers of 6 straight. Talk of trying to keep their betrothed draft pick and selling off the scraps ought to really pick up by the end of the week. Here come the Sixers!!!

EAGLES IN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

It was OVER with 4:36 left to play…then 2 minutes later it absolutely was NOT over. We are defensive fans. We never get too up and stay guarded until that moment just before we are sure of victory. And as we all know, THAT’S WHEN THEY GET YOU! Yesterday’s terror was all too familiar. It was over, then it wasn’t, and we let our guard down.

Then Jalen Carter saved our lives (irony alert). His 3rd down sack of Stafford in the red zone finally slowed down the rejuvenated and relentless Rams attack that had been dormant until the last 4 minutes. The next pass was off target, and we were given a reprieve.

I have never been so sure of a collapse than in that final drive. The two missed extra points were going to doom us to a loss of a lifetime. We deserved it too. Collectively, we the fans, let our guard down too early and that was why this was happening. We would wear this forever. Not this time.

Washington will be coming north to the Linc next Sunday at 3pm.