Dom_brown_bombs2You can probably get an idea of the current state of Philly sports when we resort to quoting Jack McCaffery of the Delco Times… but, who doesn’t want to laugh at a zany idea?!

Jack thinks the Phillies should trade Cole Hamels, because Cole doesn’t win a lot of games:

So dangle Cole Hamels, who makes $144 million and has never won 20, or 19, or 18, and this season has yet to win three. Send Rollins to the West Coast, where he once said he might retire, even on the day the Phillies made him a wealthy man. Give Howard away for salary relief, minimum bid 10 bucks. Utley is unsigned after this season, so move him for something before he gets any big ideas of re-upping.

Cole may not be performing at $144 million level, yet, and he may have only been 17-6 last year, but yeah, Jack, let’s just toss aside his career 1.14 WHIP and nearly 4-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio because a mostly meaningless stat wouldn’t belong on a poster hanging above your little boy bed.

How about lone bright spot Domonic Brown, who makes $500,000 per year, who isn’t arbitration eligible until 2015, and who won’t be a free agent until 2018. Keep that guy, right?

The Phillies should have traded Domonic Brown the last time he was hot, for if they had, they would have been 2009 world champions. Don’t repeat the mistake. Brown is a .254 career hitter, but he is the sitting NL Player of the Month. His value has peaked.

What?! I’m dizzy. I’m not sure how trading Domonic Brown the last time he was hot would have made the Phillies 2009 World Champions. Brown’s stock didn’t skyrocket until after the 2009 season, when he become one of Baseball America’s top 20 prospects and when his name came up in Roy Halladay trade rumors (again, after the 2009 World Series). Ruben Amaro – rightfully – held onto Brown and, instead, traded Michael Taylor, who has one hit in 23 at-bats for the A’s this season. Is McCaffery implying that the Phillies should have traded Brown mid-season in 2009 to get Halladay, rather than Cliff Lee, at the trade deadline? Because if so, Lee was outstanding in the 2009 Postseason and won two games in the World Series. Having Halladay would have led to exactly zero additional wins.

And why, in the world, would you want to trade Brown now? HE’S 25! HE’S LEADING THE LEAGUE IN HOME RUNS! But no, let’s judge him on his low batting average in a few seasons of being jerked around. Sure, his stock is high, and that’s how it should be! He’s barely making the league minimum and is under team control for five more years!!!(!!!). I feel like I should use! exc!amat!ons po!nts here!!!!

I was indifferent to trading Brown in 2011 (for Hunter Pence). I thought, and still think, that the Phillies needed to do everything they could to get Pence– he put the Phils over the edge that year and helped them to the best record in baseball. Holding onto Brown, which the Phillies did, was the the preference, but you certainly could have argued at the time that trading him would have been worth it. He still had (and has) a long way to go to prove himself. But it makes no sense at all to want to trade him now. He’s finally living up to expectations, he’s 25, and he’s cheap (for now)– in what world would you want to trade that? In a world where the Delco Times employs sportswriters, I guess.

While you’re at it, go get one of these sweet t-shirts from Philly Phaithful:

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