Phillies Public Enemy #1A
[originally posted in May, but more relevant now]
While the Phillies blow, the fans rally around a common call for the proverbial head of General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. If you get your news from Twitter, you’ll probably be more familiar with the moniker Ruin Tomorrow, Jr. As today feels kind of bleak for the future of the Phillies, tomorrow looks to be even worse with an aging veteran core and a futile minor league system, which was recently ranked 25th out of 30 by Baseball Prospectus. Our once beloved and World Series Champion Phillies have fallen way below .500. They pretty much suck.
Fans were told injuries contributed to the slide. Fans were told that Charlie Manuel needed to go. The veterans are healthy, playing decent, and Charlie is gone. Yet, the are firmly planted in the basement of the NL East.
With the third highest payroll at $185MM, Ruben is the obvious whipping boy. He’s been the figurehead behind this debacle and unable to bring in solid bench players or bullpen help. He’s the easy whipping boy. God knows I’ve done my fair share of whipping. His smugness makes it too damn easy. However, a recent interview with Todd Zolecki, the Phillies beat writer for MLB.com, on WIP with Anthony Gargano and Rob Ellis led me down another road. There may be another Phillies Public Enemy #1 or #1A.
Zolecki had mentioned that Cole Hamels is the last first round draft choice to make a significant contribution to a team in the majors. Travis d’Arnaud, who was traded to Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade, currently has a .199 career average in two years with the Mets. Cole Hamels was drafted twelve years ago in 2002.
In the years leading up to 2002, the Phillies had drafted the likes of J.D. Drew, Brett Myers, Pat Burrell, Chase Utley, and Gavin Floyd with their first round picks. So what gives? What changed? In October of 2001 the Phillies Director of Scouting, Mike Arbuckle, was promoted to Assistant General Manager.
Arbuckle served as the Director of Scouting for the Phillies from 1993 to 2001. Arbuckle struggled in his first four years of first round picks going 0-4 in finding prospects that became major leaguers. Then, he found his groove. Six out of the next seven first round picks ended up having MLB careers (Adam Eaton, J.D. Drew, Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, Chase Utley, Gavin Floyd). Arbuckle moved on to Kansas City after he was passed over for the Phillies GM position in favor of Ruben back in 2008.
This brings us to Phillies Public Enemy #1A, Marti Wolever. Marti Wolever took over Arbuckle’s position of Director of Scouting, Amateur, within the Phillies organization. This is the position he still holds today, as well as the title Assistant GM. Cole Hamels is officially a first round pick under Wolever’s direction. However, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that the 2002 draft still had some of Arbuckle’s stamp on it since he was Director of Scouting months before that pick was made. If the Hamels pick was the result of Wolever’s direction it was a good pick and perhaps beginners luck.
Since 2002, here are the first round picks of Wolever (and players taken after by other teams in the 1st round):
2003 – No Pick
2004 – Greg Golson OF (Glen Perkins, Phil Hughes, Gio Gonzalez, Huston Street)
2005 – No Pick
2006 – Kyle Drabek P (Ian Kennedy, Chris Perez)
2006 – Adrian Cardenas SS
2007 – Joe Savery P (Rick Porcello, Ben Revere, Todd Frazier, Josh Donaldson, Brett Cecil)
2007 – Travis d’Arnaud C (Josh Donaldson, Brett Cecil)
2008 – Anthony Hewitt SS (Gerritt Cole, Lance Lynn, Wade Miley)
2008 – Zach Collier OF
2009 – No Pick
2010 – Jesse Biddle P
2011 – Larry Greene OF
2012 – Shane Watson P
2013 – J.P. Crawford SS
Biddle may eventually join the Phillies, but doubtful. He had to take a mental break from baseball. Crawford looks like he’s going to be a player. Those drafts are still too young to grade against the other picks. Still, this is an unimpressive list. As Director of Scouting, Arbuckle had later round success such as Jimmy Rollins in the 2nd Round and Ryan Howard in the 5th Round. I don’t know if Wolever has had similar success in later rounds. If I’m not mistaken, the only players, with any serious upside, currently contributing to the Phillies roster that were drafted while Wolever has been Director of Scouting are Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman and Cody Asche.
That’s three players in twelve years of drafting in a draft that has FORTY ROUNDS! 12×40 is 480 players. Let’s say that some rounds they did not have picks. Let’s round it down to 350 players. That’s less than 1% of the players drafted while Wolever has been Director of Scouting that are currently contributing to the major league ballclub. My numbers may be off, but the point is that he hasn’t done a decent job filling Arbuckle’s Director of Scouting shoes.
How Marti Wolever has not been moved into another position in the Phillies front office is mind-boggling. Their farm system is dreadful. They haven’t been able to draft and develop a major league outfielder in over a decade—not one outfielder—under Wolever’s direction.
I make a living in the music industry. Part of my responsibility is finding new bands. If I signed eleven bands to record deals and only one of them had any real success, I’d probably be moved to a different department. I’d probably be looking for a new gig. Cole Hamels is the lone success out of the eleven picks with Wolever overseeing the drafts.
The Phillies and the Flyers are loyal organizations. Sometimes, they are loyal to a fault. In ways, working for these two organizations is like working for the federal government. It’s hard to get your foot in the door, but once you do you have some serious job security.
While Ruben is the face of the architecture firm putting together the Phillies roster, the man in charge of finding the pieces at the amateur level is Marti Wolever. He just hasn’t done a good job. I’m sure he’s a good man and there is another position in the Phillies organization for him, just not Director of Scouting. He may be more directly responsible for the lack of young talent than anyone in the organization. I understand that Wolever reports to Ruben so Ruben has to take the blame, but Wolever was in place well before Ruben became GM. I’m not so sure it’s solely Ruben’s call. Wolever could be a Montgomery hire. Who knows!
I’m not done calling out Ruben. The bench and bullpen is on him. However, I’m calling out Marti because I sure as hell don’t want him being promoted to General Manager if and/or when Ruben is relieved of his duties.
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