Fire Steve Phillips

Here's my annual post celebrating the baseball knowledge of Steve Phillips (see last years post). Phillips used to be the GM of the New York Mets once upon a time, but given his absolute lack of understanding of the game, I have no idea how he managed to reach those heights. Anyway, these days he spends his time spouting nonsense on ESPN's baseball tonight. He also apparently has a grudge against the Yankees. Every year he picks them to not make the playoffs and this year is no exception. I guess he's just going to keep on doing that until he's right and then he will turn around and say I told you so.

Last year he said that not only wouldn't the Yankees make the playoffs, he said that they would finish third in the division behind the Blue Jays. He was correct about one thing, the Blue Jays did finish second, but they finished 10 games behind the Yankees. This year he made this statement in July:

"the Yankees want to hold on to their young players and have so many different needs they are not sure where to start. If the Yanks make a big trade it will more likely be as a seller (see Abreu), as opposed to buying a major piece for a run down the stretch. "

He was right that the Yankees didn't want to part with their young players, but they were certainly not sellers at the trade deadline and since he made that statement, the Yankees have gone 24-8 (Abreu is still very much a part of the team and has been one of the best hitters in the AL since June). Today on Sportscenter he predicted that not only would the Yankees not make the playoffs, but the Mets would also be staying home come October. I guess he decided that now was the time to try and get back at his former employers.

I'm not one to make guarantees about the Yankees and the playoffs, but if Steve Phillips says they aren't going to make it, you can take it to the bank that they will. That goes for the Mets too. Remember this is the guy who said last year that he would take the Blue Jays starters over any other team in the AL East. At that time, the Blue Jays had exactly one starter (Roy Halladay) with a career winning percentage over .500. By they way, his reason for the Yankees not making the playoffs this year is that their offense is going to fail them and that they don't have enough pitching to maintain their current pace. According to Phillips, making the playoffs is all about pitching. However in his very next segment he said that the Colorado Rockies were going to win the wildcard in the NL because of (come on say it with me) their OFFENSE. Not a word about their pitching, just their offense, which he had just finished saying was not enough to get you in to the playoffs (just for reference the Rockies have the 9th best ERA in the NL while the Yankees have the 6th best ERA in the AL).

Steve Phillips, professional idiot.