Joe Posnanski Spit-Roasts Ruben Amaro

Photo: St. Pete Beach Photo

Well, not really. But I’d love to see Rube cooked rotisserie-style ‘neath a powerful heat source. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Joe Posnanski, writing for NBC Sports:

Some years ago, I named particularly terrible baseball contracts “Ricciardis” after former Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi, who seemed particularly skilled at giving them out. However, in retrospect, I may have been unduly harsh toward Ricciardi. What Ruben Amaro has done in Philadelphia deserves its own place in the Bad Contract Hall of Fame.

Then again, take all nine of these player together (Howard, Lee, Utley, Hamels, Papelbon, Burnett, Byrd, Ruiz and AA pitcher Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez) and they make almost $50 million more dollars than the entire Oakland Athletics roster — this without a shortstop, center fielder, third baseman, lead-off hitter or much of anything else.

Amaro wanted to hold on. It’s a natural instinct. And it’s a destructive one. It never fails to amaze how obtuse Major League general managers can be about things seemingly as obvious as aging. Now, the Phillies are terrible, they are old, they have not developed a useful young player for themselves in about a decade, and Baseball America has ranked their minor league system 22nd, 23rd and 27th the last three years.

Where is it? There it is:

Full thing from Posnanski here. Reasonable chance it will make you cry.