Phillies

Exhibit 4,623 Why Ruben Amaro is a Moron

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jun 5th, 2014 · 1:01 PM EDT

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The bow tie man himself, little baby Ken Rosenthal, on Oakland A’s outfielder Brandon Moss, who has 15 home runs and 49 RBIs with a .960 OPS in 193 at-bats with the A’s this year:

My tape recorder is on. Moss is talking about the end of the 2011 season.

“Philly had kind of showed me what they thought of me when they were looking for a left-handed bench bat late in the year,” Moss recalls. “I had been having a pretty good year at Triple A for them. And they went outside the organization and got another guy. Things like that are when you see what teams think of you. You see where you stand. I read the writing on the wall.”

The player whom the Phillies acquired, John Bowker, went 0 for 13 the rest of the season and never played in the majors again.

That off-season, as a minor league free agent, Moss’ choice came down to the Phillies and Athletics. He was still upset with the Phillies, mind you. But he nearly re-signed with them, anyway.

“I knew they knew who I was, knew how I played,” Moss says. “It’s always good to be in a place that at least knows what you’re capable of doing. But at the same time, when I found out Oakland had interest, I just felt like it was a good fit.

“The things I do as a hitter are things that they valued. Batting average was not the end-all, be-all of things. They look at numbers outside of that, numbers that usually are in line with what I do well. I thought if I could go show what I was capable of doing, there might be an opportunity to earn some sort of spot. And if not, at least I knew I would be in the PCL (Pacific Coast League).

And if ever you needed a reason why advanced statistics are more valuable than Ruben Amaro’s antiquated thought process, there it is.