Thursday, March 30, 2006

Gillick screws up, then has gall to fix mistake

Pat Gillick is old-school. So old-school that he refuses to spin bad moves he has already made. Here's his take on the Vicente Padilla for Ricardo Rodriguez: "Turned out it wasn't a good trade." Wow, Pat must have big brass ones, because admitting a mistake is simply past a ton of people in the public eye now, and for good reason. Admitting a mistake leaves one open to direct criticism, whereas backing up something one did with spin and after-the-fact excuses allows them to save some sort of face. However, Pat Gillick doesn't play by your newfangled rules.

Pat also admitted another mistake, by sending Ryan Frankling to the bullpen and inserting Gavin Floyd. After he had signed Franklin to a 2.6 million dollar contract for this year, there were some who lost confidence in Gillick(linkage to Huge Tiny Mistake's take when Franklin was signed). However, he redeemed himself somewhat when he proclaimed Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd as definites in the Phils rotation. Here's how he explained it:

"I want to win," Gillick said. "Whatever it takes to win, and whatever the manager and pitching coach think it will take to win, we'll certainly go in that direction... . Hopefully, we'll come up with somebody or make some move that will alleviate Charlie's mind a little bit in the seventh inning." (source)

Sure, he dealt Aquilino Lopez, a capable bullpen arm, for two fillers in the minor leagues, sure he signed Ryan Franklin to begin with, traded for an old Arthur Rhodes and signed an older Tom Gordon. But the man can be guaranteed to fix any mistakes he's made, and quickly, unlike the previous GM Ed Wade. If Rhodes sucks, I have all the confidence in the world that he will be out of here. I just hope that he trusts that young guys can get it done, because a bullpen full of veteran (read: old) arms will certainly have a few injuries or blowups (see: Terry Adams and Tim Worrell from last season). Either way, he has shown that he is willing to fix his screw-ups. The gall of this guy.

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