No Need for Retroactive Ed Wade Praise

by Bill Baer on November 2nd, 2008
Posted in Media, MLB, Philadelphia Phillies | Print | 1 Comment »

It wasn’t long ago when the phrase “Fire Ed Wade” was a regular part of the Philadelphia lexicon. In fact, a website under that exact title was created and laid out in great detail the extreme failure in his eight years as general manager of the Phillies. He was one of the most reviled people in Philadelphia for many reasons, but mostly for completely botching the trades of Curt Schilling (to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Travis Lee, Omar Daal, Vicente Padilla, and Nelson Figueroa) and Scott Rolen (with Doug Nickle to the St. Louis Cardinals for Placido Polanco, Mike Timlin, and Bud Smith).

On a semi-related note, I wonder if the 1998 Phillies featured the worst 6-4-3 combination in baseball history: Desi Relaford (65 OPS+), Mark Lewis (73 OPS+), and Rico Brogna (97 OPS+). 1999 was excruciatingly bad as well, featuring Alex Arias (93 OPS+), Marlon Anderson (61 OPS+) and Brogna (94 OPS+).

Given the Phillies’ recent success that involves a lot of players drafted under Ed Wade (did Wade analyze them himself, or was he just the guy who either gave a thumbs up or thumbs down?), and Pat Gillick’s classy move to give him credit, the hate has dissipated. That the Phillies just won a World Series doesn’t make Wade’s eight-year tenure any better. It may make you hate him less, but he was still that incompetent.

Wade’s biggest flaw was his inability to put together a decent bullpen. In only three out of his eight years did a Phillies reliever log 25 or more saves (Jose Mesa, 2001-02; Billy Wagner, 2005). Oftentimes, Wade opted for experience over tangible skill, which explains why pitchers like Tim Worrell, Roberto Hernandez, and Mike Williams found homes in the Phillies’ bullpen. But above all, Wade’s bullpens were just awful. And just think that in 2001-02 and 2004-05, Wade had a competent closer (Mesa and Wagner, respectively).

Philadelphia Phillies Bullpen ERA under Ed Wade, 1998-2005

It didn’t end there. He wasn’t just bad at making trades and putting together a bullpen, he was too happy to sign old, declining players to large contracts:

  • Mike Lieberthal: 3 years, $23.5 million (2003-05, ages 31-33)
  • David Bell: 4 years, $17 million (2003-06, ages 30-33)
  • Jim Thome: 6 years, $85 million (2003-08, ages 32-37; the Phillies paid the White Sox $22 million over the length of the remaining contract after trading him before the 2006 season)
  • Jon Lieber: 3 years, $21 million (2005-07, ages 35-37)

If it hadn’t been for the free-spending New York Yankees, the Phillies would have been saddled with another expensive contract of Wade’s: the five-year, $64 million contract given to Bobby Abreu in 2003 with a club option for 2008. But because of how expensive Abreu was, GM Pat Gillick couldn’t get much in return for Abreu and Cory Lidle, settling for Matt Smith, C.J. Henry, Jesus Sanchez, and Carlos Monasterios. Only Smith has contributed at the Major League level.

Another aspect of Wade’s teams was the Mets-like ability to choke it all away in September (my inspiration for the name of this blog — the Phillies’ tended to crash and burn in September until recently):

  • 2001: Finished 86-76, 2nd in NL East, 2 GB Atlanta; 7 GB Wild Card-leading Houston; 15-13 in September and October
  • 2003: Finished 86-76, 3rd in NL East, 5 GB Wild Card-leading Florida; 26-29 in August and September including losing 7 of their last 8 games (three against Florida)
  • 2005: Finished 88-74, 2nd in NL East, 1 GB Wild Card-leading Houston (swept by Houston Sept. 5-7 including this soul-crushing loss)

If there’s one thing that those Phillies teams and the New York Mets of the past two years have in common (besides Billy Wagner), it’s an unreliable bullpen. In today’s state of baseball, nothing will help you choke away a division or Wild Card lead faster than a shoddy relief corps. And for the Phillies’ late-season choking, we can blame Ed Wade.

Yeah, it’s cool that Wade gave the thumbs-up on drafting Pat Burrell, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Ryan Madson, etc. but when you consider everything he was responsible for, it’s hard to find anything for which to praise him. A World Series trophy earned three years after his firing doesn’t change that.

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  1. One Response to “No Need for Retroactive Ed Wade Praise”

  2. By CJ on Nov 10, 2008

    You make a good point about the Wade bullpens. It seems that a bullpen is where a GM can really make or break a team (so many borderline pitchers, where picking up the right pieces can have a huge effect.)

    And I realize that most of the draft legwork is done by others (Arbuckle, etc.) But I suspect that if the drafts were horrible, we would count that against Wade, so….

    As for the Schilling/Rolen trades….I can’t really hold it against a GM when a player tells the world he wants out – killing his trade value – and the GM obtains little of…trade value. It seemed destined.

    And let’s admit it, he deserves credit for putting the Phillies over the top, finally. By trading us Brad Lidge.

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