CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury has a very wide-ranging interview today with Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. which touches on pretty much every issue with his baseball 64 games into the season. Amaro admits that they simply haven't gotten the production they expected to get out of their veterans, citing Ryan Howard's very poor output (related) as well as injuries to Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz.
RAJ admits that Ben Revere has not performed at the level he had hoped to get from the center fielder when dealing for him this offseason. There's the Delmon Young issue, the Cliff Lee trade rumors, and plenty more.
The whole article is a must read for anyone looking to get into the mind of Ruben Amaro Jr.
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Towards the end, Ruben comments on fans anticipation of the team being "blown up" come the trade deadline if they're simply not close enough to the Braves/Wild Card spot in the standings.
“People think we’re going to blow up this team. We’re never going to be in the position of blowing up. There’s no blowing up. There might come a time when we make changes to improve for the future, but we don’t have a reason to blow it up. Boston didn’t blow it up last year. They retooled. That’s the challenge we have whether it’s July 31 or November 1.”
You say "blow it up." Ruben says "retool."
So the Phillies may not blow it up come July, but they could be waving the proverbial white flag on their 2013 playoff hopes. Or at the very least attempting to get younger.
I think Cliff Lee's future will clearly be the biggest indicator of that.