Organizational Depth

Just wanted to step away from the best player countdown for a moment and discuss something most baseball fans, and I'm guessing more than a few execs, seem to discount. Organizational depth. Now I'm not talking about pure "next superstar" type players, but I am talking about a player who can come up when injuries happen, a young player with the potential to become everyday players in the future.

And why am I bringing this up now? Well, as a Phillies fans, we're starting to see the downside of trading that organizational depth at the upper minor league levels for a pure stud, Hall of Fame, caliber player.

There have been three eras of Phillies baseball just within the time, last ten years, when they began to compete for division titles. Let's call them Ed Wade, Pat Gillick, and Ruben Amaro. Now all three men have to be given some credit for the three division titles, two World Series appearances, and one World Series title. It was under Ed Wade that most of the home grown talent were drafted and nurtured through the minor leagues. It was under Pat Gillick that his stand pat attitude, for the most part, put together the additional pieces in predominantly minor moves (I'm thinking moves like Matt Stairs, Jason Werth, J.C. Romero, and Jamie Moyer), just to name a few. Now we've moved forward into Amaro time. And that's the time I'm speaking of.

Amaro seems to favor the "striking while the fire is hot" scenario. He likes the bold move, the stud player, and even the older player to fill out a roster. And that's the gamble now playing out. There is a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher in Roy Halladay who is capable of pitching a perfect game. There was an All-Star level pitcher in Cliff Lee traded for last year that pitched so well through the remainder of the season and postseason that they had a chance to win title number two in a row. There was the older outfielder, Raul Ibanez, who was given a large paycheck to form a formidable lineup meant to win now. There were the Ramon Castros of the world to fill in the blanks and the roster in place of the organizational depth that had to be traded to gain some of the former three.

And we have seen the positives and negatives play out in just the first two months of the 2010 season. Month one, most players healthy, with notable exceptions in Lidge and Rollins, and the lineup that pounds the ball to the tune of 5.5 runs per game. Month two, more players get hurt and you're left with playing Ramon Castro and Wilson Valdez for more than a day or two, and your lineups starts to sputter, and the wins slow to a drought induced trickle.

But now, why is organizational depth important in this scenario? Because there's no way a team as good as the Phillies should be relying on never beens to be more than the last player on the bench. The two trades made to acquire the top level pitchers over the last two years raided the upper minor leagues of the backup catcher, backup infielder, backup outfielder, and backup starting pitchers who would have come to the potential rescue. Yes, we're talking Lou Marson, Jason Donald, Michael Taylor, and Kyle Drabek.

Now both Marson and Donald are starting in Cleveland with middling results, but they have potential. You really can't say the same about Castro or Valdez or even Brian Schneider, who we think was a good sign, but still past his prime.

Now we believe players will get healthy and the Phils will rebound, hopefully to the World Series again. But if they don't, and the struggles continue, without a plus minor league player (beyond Domonic Brown) to fill in the gap. You're going to find a lot of managers of other teams who were really glad they had to pitch to Castro, Valdez, Gload, or Schneider, during the injuries, and not take the chance that the organizational depth might have provided a spark of potential to get you through bad times. Of course, to be fair, they weren't going to pitch a perfect game either.