Illustrating Plate Appearances To Ruben Amaro

Crossing Broad recently uncovered that Phillies GM (General effing Manager) Ruben Amaro Jr. doesn't really understand the difference between plate appearances and at bats. While discussing Jimmy Rollins' run at Mike Schmidt's Phillies' hits record, RAJ dropped this unknowledge bomb on us...

“Yeah, we were checking it out. In fact Schmitty was in the booth yesterday when we were talking about it, and, um, I think it’s about a thousand difference in, ah, plate appearances. Pretty amazing. But their batting averages aren’t that different, which is kind of… weird. I don’t quite understand it.”

That man runs a Major League Baseball front office. Into the ground but the fact remains the same. The 28-36 Phillies are only 6.5 games out of first in the NL East. So, maybe they can turn things around. I designed this to help Ruben Amaro Jr. with his unsurprising lack of understanding baseball terms.

Obviously, there are some other factors that can play into the discrepancy of PAs and ABs but baby steps. Hope this helps!

Phillies Gonna Philly; Sign Marlon Byrd

In true Ruben Amaro Jr. fashion, the Phillies GM struck quick during the GM Meetings in Orlando, FL, signing Marlon Byrd away from the two's of teams that may have been interested in the 36 year-old outfielder.  Byrd will presumably be taking the spot that was vacated by last year's big signing, Delmon Young. The two-year, $16MM deal - that was reportedly drawn up in red crayon while Amaro attended a tea party with stuffed animals - makes Byrd the sixth highest paid player on the Phillies roster. I'll let that one sink in for a moment.

Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Is Getting Sued

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr has been named in a lawsuit. Armed with just a street law degree, I found it interesting that Phillies fans could file a class action lawsuit against Amaro just because of the Ryan Howard extension and the Jonathan Papelbon contract. As it turns out, the lawsuit has little to do with Amaro's incompetence with a checkbook.

Former batting practice pitcher and potential blog favorite, Ali Modami, worked for the Phillies from 2007-2011 before Philadelphia let Modami go to shake things up in the hitting program. *more curveballs!* Modami is suing Amaro, and seeking $100,000, for the telling of lies which might have cost Modami a job with the Dodgers or Nationals. While I try to figure out if that's libel or slander, here are the details...

The suit states that Modami initially got positive responses from the Nationals and Dodgers when he contacted them for a job in late 2011.

But both teams eventually rejected Modami, the suit claims, because Amaro told both teams' general managers that he was no longer with the Phillies because he was stealing and selling memorabilia, the suit alleges.

"Moreover, Amaro claimed that plaintiff Modami was writing negative things about the team on the Internet," according to the suit.

I bought all of this Chase Utley game used memorabilia fair and square on ebay, you guys, from seller phllysbpptchr07.

I suppose Modami will get his day in court to dispute the claims of him thieving the clubhouse. I'm more curious to see what negative things Modami was writing about the Phillies online. My money is on Facebook updates like "struck out ryan Howard in bp. their stupid if rupen amaro thinks hes worth that cash" and "i have the phanatics costume in my trunk, hit me up if u want to by it."