Welcome to SportsRadio94WIP's Judgment Week, where we will find out who we were wrong about and ultimately revisit five topics in Philadelphia sports with the benefit of hindsight.
From Wednesday, July 8th to Wednesday, July 15th submit someone or something that we were wrong about. You can click this link to do so.
From Monday, July 20th to Friday, July 24th we will spend each day judging, discussing, and debating one of the five most submitted topics that we were wrong about.
We needed to do this.
WIP's Judgment Week will be cathartic. It will be freeing. It will be something that makes us better fans.
Here's the truth: We're all wrong about sports. A lot. Me, you, the entire WIP staff, callers, listeners. All of us. It's unpredictable, and sometimes we see things the wrong way or can be stubborn on a take.
And there's nothing wrong with admitting that, or saying we were wrong by judging something too early.
Here are some Phillies I judged too early and have been wrong about over the years.
Gabe Kapler: Let's start here. I was not wrong (and still fully expect to be right as his San Francisco tenure unfolds) about Kapler's ability to manage. But I was dead wrong on Kapler proving many wrong in Philadelphia and taking the Phillies to high heights. Kapler wasn't given enough time and didn't get the support he needed from the front office. But my contention was that Kapler would be a successful Phillies manager. For that, I was wrong.
Nick Pivetta: #BreakoutPivetta went off the rails last summer. I'm not optimistic it's getting back on the rails this summer. Talent (or stuff) isn't the issue here. Pivetta's problems are in his head. Ability is there. I underestimated his will on the mound and looked too much at his arsenal. I was wrong.
Rhys Hoskins: The jury is still out here. Hoskins can turn his career back around and become a long-term building block for this franchise. But when Hoskins arrived, I thought the Phillies had something really meaningful. His power-patience combination was impressive, and I compared him to what Anthony Rizzo was for the Cubs rebuild. But back-to-back slump-heavy seasons have made Hoskins look more like a Pat Burrell or Carlos Santana-type player than anything truly special. I was wrong.
Matt Klentak: "Finally, the Phillies are joining modern baseball!"
That was my first instinct when Klentak was hired after the 2015 season. The Phillies were (very) late to the party on analytics. They needed to change everything and flip the franchise on its head the way Theo Epstein did in Boston and Andrew Friedman did in Tampa Bay. I was excited for the idea of Klentak, but the reality hasn't been what was hoped.
The farm system isn't where it needs to be. Klentak's eye for pitching is suspect. The rebuild was artificially sped up, leaving the team where it is right now and stuck in the middle of trying to contend in a window it created. I thought the Phillies had their version of the whiz-kid GM. I was wrong.
Joe Blanton: I didn't think it was enough. When the Phillies traded for Joe Blanton in 2008, I looked at the move like some sort of a cheap bandage for a serious wound. There's no way Blanton could be the starting pitching upgrade to take a contending team into a World Series group, right? The Mets acquired Johan Santana and the Phillies countered with Blanton. It seemed subpar. It worked. A parade commenced. I was wrong.
Ruben Amaro Jr.: By the end of Amaro's tenure, he was a punchline. I took my shots. The team was behind the curve on analytics. The farm system was awful. Bloated contracts were still on the books. The Phillies were years from contending.
But I was wrong to overlook the job Amaro did in trying to keep a World Series nucleus intact, and prioritizing winning over everything. Ownership likely played a larger role in big decisions and the direction of the franchise than Amaro, even though the latter got the blame when the ship started to sink. Plus, Amaro left the franchise with more talent (Aaron Nola, Rhys Hoskins, Hector Neris) than we give him credit for.
I was too hard on Amaro, a GM that helped the Phillies win a World Series and post the best regular season in franchise history. I was wrong.
