Six Finger Discount

The Phillies landed The Octopus, Antonio Alfonseca. This is a pretty good deal, even if it does bring to mind former General Manager Ed Wade's obsession with washed-up middle relievers. The problem wasn't that Wade collected them by the truckload, but that he overpaid in both talent and money to bring them in.

By contrast, Alfonseca will only get about a million bucks if he pitches well. He might not be healthy enough to pitch all year, which would be OK. The worst case scenario is that he's healthy and the Phillies need him to pitch a lot. They're looking at him as possible insurance in case Tom Gordon gets injured again. If Alfonseca gets more than five save opportunities this year, that will be an indication that things have gone horribly wrong for the Phillies. If he pitches 40 or 50 times in the 7th and 8th innings, this will probably work. Again, the Phillies appear to be gearing up to contend this year. We'll see how that works out.

Stop The War.