Philly Front Office

On the afternoon of July 28th, 2011, reports rang out that the Eagles had traded Kevin Kolb to the Arizona Cardinals for a 2nd round pick and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. That’s a nice bit of business considering Kolb wasn’t any good and the team desperately needed a cornerback. Little did we know that this was just an appetizer for the events of the next few days.

Later that night, the Phillies played the San Francisco Giants and managed just 1 run off starter Tim Lincecum. This was the season of 4 aces, but Kyle Kendrick pitched in this one. Despite a gaudy 65-39 record, the Phillies were having problems replacing the lost offense of departed right fielder Jayson Werth who had left for the Washington Nationals in the offseason. Top prospect Domonic Brown had been promoted the previous year but was not giving the team the dynamic power they needed. He was batting .250 and walked a ton, but the slugging just wasn’t there. The MLB trade deadline was fast approaching and GM Ruben Amaro Jr. was the reigning king of making moves after trading for Cliff Lee, then Roy Halladay, then Roy Oswalt.

During the Phillies game, more news came out of Novacare. The Eagles had signed their backup QB, Vince Young. After being drafted #3 overall in the 2006 NFL Draft, Young was still considered very talented but had washed out of Tennessee. He would now be asked to backup Eagles starter Michael Vick.

July 29, 2011 started like any other, but both the Eagles and Phillies were deeply involved in franchise altering moves. The Phillies were set to tip off at 7:05pm with Roy Halladay on the mound, must see programming. However, less than an hour before the first pitch, we were hit with breaking news out of the Eagles’ front office, CB Nnamdi Asomugha was coming to Philadelphia on a 5/$60m contract. It’s funny now, but this seemed like an impossibly good addition at the time. Asomugha was the top free agent in football that offseason and a reigning 1st team All-Pro at CB. He was so good for the Raiders that teams simply didn’t throw his way at all. He barely had any statistics because he never got the opportunities. In 24 hours, the Eagles went from having nothing at CB to two studs.

It isn’t often that something could steal the spotlight from Citizen’s Bank Park with Roy Halladay on the mound, but the Eagles did it that day…at least for a little while. The Phillies immediately hit back with an offensive explosion of 8 runs in the first two innings with Chase Utley leading the way with a triple and then a HR. The Phillies went into the game with Brown in right field hitting 2nd. That’s not how it ended. Not long after the game was essentially over (Halladay plus 8 runs!), the Phillies made a trade with Houston for RF Hunter Pence, sending 1B prospect Jonathan Singleton, pitcher Jarred Cosart, pitcher Josh Zeid and a Player to be Named Later (PTBNL) to the Astros.

Pence was an unorthodox and jittery hitter who had developed a solid track record as a do everything player over his 4 seasons in Houston. He would step in to the right field role as Domonic Brown was sent down to AAA. He had a ton of promise, but this team was built to win now and they had no time to wait for Brown to develop. As a Domonic Brown truther at the time, I was upset, but this was a great move.

The Phillies farm system had been depleted the last few years thanks to the big swings on Lee, Halladay, and Oswalt, but the Phillies unloaded the rest of the clip on the Pence deal. Singleton and Cosart were the top 2 prospects in the system and consensus Top 100 guys at the time. The PTBNL was Domingo Santana, a power hitting OF the Phillies had signed two years earlier and was tearing up the minors. This was thought to be an incredibly steep price.

Halladay went 7 shutout innings giving up 1 hit that night and the Phillies won 10-3. They had the best record in baseball and just made the biggest splash of the trade deadline, seemingly fixing their hitting problem.

The Eagles weren’t ready to cede the summer spotlight to their cross-street rival just yet though. The following day, the Eagles signed DE Jason Babin from the Titans and DT Cullen Jenkins from the Packers. Over the next few days they also brought in RB Ronnie Brown and G Evan Mathis. The city was going nuts. The Phillies countered with Cliff Lee on the mound who pitched into the 8th and struck out 11. It was a good time to be a Philly fan.

Aftermath

Until it wasn’t. Sometimes things just do not work out the way they are supposed to. On August 1, Vince Young claimed that this Eagles roster was a “Dream Team” and everyone knew immediately that things were not going to go well. The team flopped with basically none of the additions living up to their new contracts except Evan Mathis. Reports of Asomugha not fitting in with teammates ran rampant including him eating lunch in his car instead of with the team during training camp. On the field he was picked on mercilessly and looked absolutely nothing like what we were promised after All-Pro Teams 3 out of the last 4 years with Oakland. He will go down as probably the worst free agent signing in team history, exponentially worse than the recent Bryce Huff whiff. Jason Babin had 18 sacks the next year but was so annoying about it that coaches and fans openly hated him and he was released during the middle of the next season. The Eagles went 8-8 and missed the playoffs. The next season was even worse, ending 4-12 and Andy Reid was fired.

The Phillies finished the season with 102 wins despite a late 8 game losing streak that kept them from being known as one of the greatest of all time. Unfortunately, the team did not win a playoff series and I will not ruin my day by recounting what happened. If you already know, then you don’t need me to tell you.

As for Hunter Pence, the new right fielder would go on to have a great rest of the season with a .324 average and a .954 OPS. Once the playoffs came around though, he went 4-19 with no extra base hits (but did knock in 4 runs). The following year, things fell apart for the Phillies thanks to injuries across the roster. Pence was traded to the Giants where he promptly won the World Series. It probably isn’t fair that I hate Pence so much, but I blame him for the Phillies screwing up their top prospect.

Domonic Brown was never right again after the demotion. The consensus top prospect in baseball the year earlier was blessed with a great knowledge of the strike zone and it seemed like the Phillies could afford to use him high in the lineup as an on base guy rather than a run producer. The team thought otherwise. It seemed like Brown got the wrong message from the demotion. He traded his discipline for a more HR centric approach which eventually got him to an all-star team after a hot month in 2013, but he lost what made him a special prospect. He should probably still be playing but instead was out of the league by 27.

None of the prospects traded for Pence came back to haunt the Phillies. In fact, none of the prospects for any of the Ruben Amaro trades ended up being a problem. Cosart came out of the gates looking great for Houston, but his career was quickly derailed by injuries. Singleton signed a $10m contract before playing a game for Houston which was a huge deal at the time. He ended up getting suspended several times for marijuana use though and never panned out despite sticking with the Astors to this day. Domingo Santana looked like the guy who was really going to break out from this group after a monster 2017 season, but he could never match the 30 HR high from that year and is now playing in Japan.

July 29, 2011 was one of the best non-championship days a fan can have. The first place baseball team had its ace dominating on the mound with the favorite son (Utley) nearly hitting for the cycle while the GM was making a splash to improve the team. At the same time, the football team was doing everything it could to improve the team and signed the biggest free agent on the market and still trading for future draft picks. Life was good that day.