Maybe
Savery will
provide more evidence that this ownership's quarter-century pitching nightmare is nearing sunrise.
Notice . . . I have written 119 words so far and haven't mentioned Phillies' 10,000-plus losses a single time. And I agree with the organization's overworked spinmeisters that the hands of this team are clean of the Original Sin implied in a
tradition that began when the Phillies were clearly the brokest, most clueless and least talented organization in all baseball history. The bad, old days are a speck in history's rearview mirror.
But they have not exactly been replaced by the good, old days of 1976 through 1983, 8 years when five postseason visits included two pennants and the club's one World Series title.
For an ownership now in its 26th season, one is the loneliest number. One postseason since the 1983 pennant they shared with the fading but powerful
nucleus left by the Carpenter family. One for the last 23.
If a common thread winds through the entire span of 124-plus years and 10,000-plus losses, it is the frayed, constantly unraveling constant of lousy pitching.
This ownership is up to its frequently arched eyebrows in a relentless and often fatal inability to scout, sign, develop and profit by a nourishing flow of farm-grown pitching. I'm not going to take this case by case - neither of us has the time or patience to hear the retelling of all the horror stories of bad drafts, sore arms and serial underachieving.
