It's been a busy week for your Constable, between going to a conference, the first six rounds of the draft, and then driving to Alabama, to watch his brother-in-law graduate from college, and back. But the Most Notable story of the weekend has to be this one:
Jose de Jesus Ortiz reported that the Phillies basically accidentally traded Domingo Santana as the player to be named later to the Astros, in addition to Jarred Cosart, Jon Singleton, and Josh Zeid:
In Spring Training, a Phillies official admitted that Santana wasn't actually supposed to be on the list that was given to the Astros to pick from to satisfy the final piece on August 15, 2011.
Well. CSNPhilly's Jim Salisbury says Phillies GM Ruben Amaro says Nay! that's not true. According to Amaro:
We didn't want to put Santana on the list but we had to get the deal done. There were several prospects we didn't want to part with in that deal but we were trying to acquire the best right-handed hitter on the market and that was the price. I understand we're going to get picked apart because we haven't had success for a couple of years, but this is not true...There was no mistake. If someone said that, they are misinformed because it's absolutely, unequivocally wrong. It's false.
Now Ortiz was wise to couch this language in that it came from A Phillies Official. Say what you want about Ortiz, but there's no way he just makes that crap up on his own - 22 months after the deal is made. So it's a Phillies official who is mistaken - which is great. Why? Because either the Phillies:
(a) Totally screwed up and accidentally let a prospect walk
(b) Gave up way too much for Hunter Pence, whom they traded 367 days later for not much of anything at all
(c) Can't trust their Unnamed Officials.
It's pretty great not being an absolute train-wreck of a franchise anymore. But you know what would be the Greatest Twist of All? If Ed Wade was the Phillies Official...
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
