Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

When we first talked about it yesterday, Jonathan Papelbon’s 45-minute plea to be traded was pretty fresh, so all of the Papelbon-isms were still being transcribed. We know he said the Phillies need to shit or get off the pot, but he continued, talking about the changes the Phils have made in the front office:

The Phillies have got to make a decision. You got to go one way or the other. You can’t be in limbo … You gotta make a decision, and you gotta go with it. I know that we got a new interim president, we got a new interim manager, we got all this change supposedly happening, but I don’t see any of it yet.”

It’s hard to disagree with him when you read his words, but when you watch him saying those words while spinning in his chair like a petulant child, it suddenly becomes very easy. He also used this opportunity to remind other teams that when they get Jonathan Papelbon, they get a total headcase:

“I take a certain persona. I feel like that’s me and that’s who I am. Whether it’s an alter ego, or Cinco Ocho or Ric Flair, it is what it is. When I step on that line, I’m not Jonathan Papelbon. I’m a different person that goes out there and competes and will do anything to win.”

And where would he want to go instead? “I’d go to Toronto, the East Coast, West Coast the dirty South, I’ll do anything.”

It’s really easy to agree with what Papelbon is saying, but so very hard to agree with Papelbon as a person. It’s like getting lectured by your parents when you’re a teenager. You know they’re right, but they’re the last people you want to hear it from. I totally get what Papelbon is saying, but he just makes it so damn hard to agree.