Nice to see Rube is making some contribution to the Philly sports landscape this week.

This morning, Amaro was on the WIP Morning Show, where he said a lot of things – most of them pretty asinine – about how it’s his job to produce a winner and: “Why would I take away from my club and add a player in our system who I don’t believe is going to help our club? It doesn’t make any sense. That’s not a good business decision.”

Maybe not. But it’s also not good business to hold on to mediocre players with three months left on their contracts for the remainder of a lost season. When the season is over and Michael Young goes back to Texas to do what he does in Texas, the Phillies get nothing. When Carlos Ruiz leaves (or, oh God, signs a four-year extension), the Phillies will have nothing to show for his lackluster 2013. So it was in the Phillies’ best interest to do basically anything yesterday. But they didn’t.

There were reportedly deals to be made, but Amaro, of course, blames the source on that, saying, “Jon Heyman is a good reporter. But he’s been wrong before.”

Fun. A spat!

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The Morning Show folks wrangled Heyman to get his response. He says the Phillies were offered Yankees mid-level prospect Tommy Kahnle:

“The Yankees were interested in both Young and Ruiz. There was a conversation around 3 or maybe a little bit after. Brian Cashman made the offer of a prospect and to take the cash– he would pay the $5 million of Young. And a prospect. I just spoke to Rube, so we have it clear– the story was accurate. He declined that offer. There was a little more back and forth… and maybe the memory isn’t exactly right, but it sounds like he didn’t do another offer. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“This is not in the story, but I can tell you the prospect was [Tommy Kahnle]. His name was in the Cubs talks, and they actually took Corey Black. He’s a hard thrower. He’s at AA. I’ve never seen him pitch. But the offer was Kahnle and the $5 million the Yankees take, and he didn’t do it. You can judge for yourself whether he should have or not. I didn’t make any recommendation.”

“I do think that they’re still trying to win games – that’s my impression – and they don’t want it to be a lost season… they’re not giving up on winning games. I don’t know whether they think they can win the Pennant. They want to continue to win games. They’ve sold a lot of tickets, and people want to see them win games. And he obviously didn’t think this prospect was worth it.”

“In terms of Ruiz… the Yankees were willing to do it, and he just didn’t want to trade Ruiz. He declined to trade Ruiz.”

That’s like keeping NBA 2k12 after buying NBA 2k13 because you might want to get nostalgic one day. Makes no sense. Get something for it. Even if it’s only the $3 Gamestop is offering.