Well, the Phillies lost the Machado sweepstakes. Oh well, maybe we can sign him during the off season for just money. Until then. we have the opportunity to use the prospects we saved, as well as others, to go after some of our other needs. And if we do sign Machado this winter, he won’t cost a draft pick and international money.
The Phillies opened the second half with a series win over the Padres. That opened their lead over the Braves to a full game. They face the Dodgers this week and have lined up their rotation so that they face our three best – Eflin, Nola, and Arrieta. I hope the fans have the good sense to not boo Machado.
One last thought on Machado. It was reported that the Orioles wanted young, controllable pitchers in return. That’s why a lot of us and a lot of industry types thought that the Phillies had the ability to provide the Orioles with the best package. I think the Orioles were mesmerized at the last minute by the Dodgers’ inclusion of Diaz. They accepted lesser pitching prospects than the ones I heard the Phillies were willing to part with. Oh well, I can’t help but think that the Orioles found a way to lose the trade. But, I’m biased.
And now a some other stuff.
A couple weeks ago we had a trolling problem on Phuture Phillies. I won’t go into the specific actions by the perpetrator again. I received a lot of suggestions and appreciate the responses. As you may have noticed, I decided to do nothing, but watch and wait. This week, Rocco provided the following apology. It was posted as a response to a Romus comment.
“Romus my next six post will be as j. then 6 as tim , I just like to say this to everyone. it was a joke and I guess I pissed off people. Which I really never intended to do. I Really never heard of trolling. believe it or not. So if I crossed the line I am sorry. I just like to have fun, but sometimes I do cross the line.”
Personally, I think the apology is weak. It should have been posted as a separate comment to the entire group, especially the people he indirectly hurt. Also, I find the 13 word introduction to be tasteless, and it causes me to question his sincerity.
However, some people just don’t know how to apologize. I will continue to monitor all comments with special attention to Rocco. A similar abuse will be handled with finality. I have started to, and will continue to delete his non-baseball comments.
Phuture Phillies 