"Because of our rotation. We just weren't very good," he said bluntly. "If we were going to get any further down the line, even if we became more consistent in [late] July and August, we weren't going to go very far, I don't think, with what we had at the time. We just didn't have enough punch in our rotation."
The rookie general manager had been handed a team that just won a world championship when Pat Gillick retired at the end of last season. There is a natural temptation to assume that Amaro's greatest contribution was simply not to screw it up.
And while there might be an element of truth to that, the reality is that he was ultimately responsible for three significant acquisitions in his first year sitting in the big chair.
Raul Ibanez.
Pedro Martinez.
Cliff Lee.
Getting Lee from the Indians for four well-regarded prospects - righthanders Carlos Carrasco and Jason Knapp, infielder Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson - 2 days before the trading deadline might well have been the pivotal move of the season.
Heck, it worked out so well that Lee will be the Phillies' Game 1 starter tonight.
Remember that, until the last moment, almost all the reports had the Phillies focusing on Blue Jays righthander Ray Halladay.
"A lot of people wrote that we were after Halladay," Amaro said. "We had a lot of balls in the air. There weren't one or two different pitchers we were looking at. I mean, we were looking at about seven or eight. Ten. Twelve maybe. We were out there trying to keep the balls in the air in a variety of ways."
The Blue Jays' asking price never came down, though. There were times, Amaro can now admit, when he didn't think he'd be able to get it done.
