Hitting The Cutoff Man

Former Mets GM and ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips wrote a column a week ago titled, "Think You Can Be a GM? You Have No Idea". The general point was that every fan believes he could be a GM but is completely unaware of what it takes to do the job, which involves a lot more than dealing with the 25-man major league roster.

Fair enough. Being a GM is a tough job, and it's undoubtedly true that the vast majority of smartass fans out there would fail miserably at it if given the chance. We all think we could do the job better than someone who currently does it without being fully aware of everything that the position entails.

Then again, Phillips saying a job is difficult is kind of like a kid who goofed around in class all year telling his parents about the trials of school when his report card comes back with poor grades. Sure, being an MLB GM is difficult, but plenty of people have been able to do the job well, and when you basically ignore logic and modern methods of analysis on a regular basis, you lose credibility.

And Phillips has very little of that left. He was fired by the Mets -- and for good reason -- was an atrociously bad TV analyst, then got himself booted from ESPN for some "indiscretions".

And now, he apparently said that if he were running the Nationals, he would trade Stephen Strasburg straight up for Roy Oswalt.

Look, Roy Oswalt is a fine pitcher who has enjoyed a very good career. But if you're even a casual baseball fan with a functioning frontal lobe, I don't think I need to explain the absolute insanity of Phillips' statement. In a nutshell, you would be trading a guy who everyone agrees is a once-in-a-generation talent and who will be under team control for years to come for an injury-prone veteran whose best days are behind him, who is expensive and who will be a free agent in a year and a half.

If anyone was even considering the notion of hiring Phillips for a baseball front-office position again, I think that idea is pretty much squelched at this point.

Just for fun, I hacked into Phillips' e-mail account and found some other sage advice he has offered people recently. Here are some highlights:

To his sister, who is thinking about signing up for a cooking class: "Why learn how to make gourmet meals for cheap when you could go eat at Quiznos every day?"

To his son, who is car shopping: "I know that new BMW will probably last you for years and offer slick performance and reliability, but you should really consider a used Toyota."

To his nephew, a high school senior thinking about next year: "Sure, you got into Harvard on a full scholarship. But think of all the opportunities you'd be missing by passing up a chance to go to community college!"

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