Phils' President Dave Montgomery About to be on 97.5 FM

[Ben Grimm]

I'm not sure how much information he'll divulge. But he's usually a bit more open than hearing from Amaro Jr. If he mentions anything decent, I'll follow up. He just came on now.

[Ben Grimm]

Started off basically talking about the Hamels extension. Likes it, but of course won't know the value out of it for 4-5 years.

Q: Now that the team's back together, and the current style with which they've been winning of late, what's the direction?

DM: Still listening to all possible offers. Could be both in buying and selling in order to maintain winning while helping out the future.

Q: With so much money invested to only a handful of players for next year, will Ruben be required to work on shedding payroll to avoid the luxury tax?

DM: That's not the current plan. Totally aware of it, but the fan support is there where it's not as big of a nut to overcome.

Q: How much of future chances on sell-outs over the next 5 years determined the Hamels decision?

DM: Very much aware of that. Between Cole being in his prime and to show their commitment to their core, it pretty much had to get done. The risk was a bit too great to do it last offseason becuase of the possibility of injury, and it may have cost them a bit more financially.

That's pretty much it. Both the questions and answers are paraphrased as I can only type so fast.

[philliesfiend55]

The sellout streak is ridiculous. Everybody knows that the Phillies have had occasions where they've been 2,000 to 3,000 under capacity but called those games sellouts anyway. They are padding their attendance figures to keep the streak alive. 250 games and over three years was a nice run of sellouts but it would have been better if the streak ended before the Hamels signing. This artificial streak wil probably continue now that Hamels has signed a long term deal. They will now probably try to break the Cleveland Indians record for a sellout streak of about six years, that ran from about 1995 to 2001, which was accomplished when "The Tribe" was winning division titles and Jacobs Field was brand new.

[Ben Grimm]

No doubt. I've been to a few games this year where it was definitely not a sell out in terms of the gate. But since the Phils had 3M+ sold in season tickets, they must be doing some fluff on that number. I also saw alot of people come in with tickets given to them, and head right to McFaddens. So even though they used the ticket for the gate count, they weren't in the stands. The secondary market has been huge during May & June. Tickets were basically being given away by season ticket holders.

And with the latest fan pressure to sign Cole, along with being in dead last in the division, I think it really twisted their decision.

[philliesfiend55]

With the latest fan pressure to sign Cole, along with being in dead last in the division, I think it really twisted their decision.

I had such mixed feelings about re-signing Hamels, especially at the price he negotiated. On the one hand, it does make a statement that the Phillies have no intentions of becoming a second class team and they will pay big money to their stars and potential free agents. On the other hand they could have plugged several gaps with the salary Cole will be getting next year. They could have paid the salaries of four or five well-established major leaguers acquired through trades or free agency, including two pitchers for the starting rotation and maybe a reliever or two and a position player for the amount of money that they wound up giving Hamels.

[Ben Grimm]

I had such mixed feelings about re-signing Hamels, especially at the price he negotiated. On the one hand, it does make a statement that the Phillies have no intentions of becoming a second class team and they will pay big money to their stars and potential free agents. On the other hand they could have plugged several gaps with the salary Cole will be getting next year. They could have paid the salaries of four or five well-established major leaguers acquired through trades or free agency, including two pitchers for the starting rotation and maybe a reliever or two and a position player for the amount of money that they wound up giving Hamels.

I definitely don't disagree. But my questions stem back to last year when they re-acquired Lee while already having Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt on the staff. I simply thought it was overkill and still do. Heading into this season, I was really questioning the reason behind so many top-end pitchers when the NL doesn't have that many offensive stars anymore. Other than Votto, there was no dominant 1B. Brandon Phillips was probably the best 2B along with Tulowitzki at SS. 3B had a ton of questionable players and to a point, so did the outfield other than Carlos Gonzalez, maybe if Beltran could stay healthy and 2-3 others.

That's not much. But the NL had the pitching. I wanted a bit more of a 50/50 or 60/40 percentage based on offense compared to pitching. Give me a top #1, a solid #2, innings-eaters at #3 & #4 and I don't care who's at #5 if the offense is there. But that didn't happen, and with Howard out and Utley chronic, the Phils are where they're at.

I'd really - and I mean really like to move either Lee or Halladay this offseason. Halladay only has a year left so he could be more attractive to teams because of his short term cost. But this team's going in next year against the tax with possibly needing a 3B, LF, CF and 4th/5th starter - not to mention bullpen pieces.

This is where Ruben scares me. Anybody can sign ridiculous contracts like Ruben has. It's the GMs that find the great values that become legendary. He's got to turn coal into diamonds over the next few years.