Ed Wade Revisited

As we all know, Ed Wade was the Phillies' General Manager for quite a long stretch... two presidential terms worth of time as a matter of fact. During Wade's 8 years here as GM from 1998 to 2005, there was simultaneously quite a lot going on and almost nothing going on. Confused? Well, here's what I mean:

On one hand, Wade managed to draft future stars such as:

-Chase Utley
-Ryan Howard
-Brett Myers
-Cole Hamels
-Pat Burrell (say what you want about him)

(Amazingly all of them have 10 letters in their names, as listed above. Secret to Wade's success, perhaps? You be the judge.)

Wade also brought in a good handful of productive players, with the likes of:

-Bobby Abreu
-Placido Polanco
-Jim Thome
-Kenny Lofton
-Billy Wagner

By all accounts, that's an impressive cadre of players right there, between draft picks and other acquisitions under his watch. Not to mention the fact that he signed Terry Francona as manager, then fired him, allowing Francona to win two World Series titles in Boston, and a generous contract extension that can keep him in Beantown for five more years.

Meanwhile, however, the Phils, under Wade's direction never made the playoffs though they did come within a game or two of making it a couple of seasons in a row. Ultimately, his downfalls came by not bringing in the one or two players (pitchers, most likely) that could have put the team over the top. Us peon fans will probably never know the full story of whether or not Wade couldn't figure out how to land the right deal or if Phillies management held the purse strings too tightly, or what, but the fact is that the team signed too many underperforming players under Wade's watch, including but not limited to: Eric Milton, Kevin Millwood, David Bell, and Travis Lee. Big names, but also big duds for the Phils.

So on one hand we should be grateful for the solid foundation Wade built for us with tremendous draft picks. On the other hand, the walls, A-frame, and roof never went up, leaving us with a half-completed house that finally started to be built this past year as the Phils made the playoffs for the first time in a dozen years. Hopefully there will be even more building this year...