CSN: Are the Phillies spending money wisely?

Sports Illustrated recently released its ?Fortunate 50." Four Phillies are very fortunate indeed -- which, as it turns out, isn?t quite the same thing as the Phillies being fortunate.

The rankings factor in salary as well as endorsements. There weren?t any Eagles on the list. Or Sixers. Or Flyers. Cliff Lee came in 17th. He?ll make $25.28 million this year. Ryan Howard was 25th. He?ll earn $23.2 million. Roy Halladay was 39th. He?ll collect $20.21 million. And Cole Hamels was 44th. He?ll pocket $19.9 million.

Again, those totals include income from outside concerns, but not as much as you might think. According to baseballreference.com, $25 million of Lee?s money comes courtesy of the Phillies. Howard gets $20 million from the club. Halladay gets another $20 million from the Phillies. And Hamels gets $19.5 million.

The math experts among you no doubt added up the total and concluded that those four players will cost the Phillies $84.5 million this season. That?s more than the Mariners, Twins, Brewers, Royals, Rockies, Indians, Pirates, Padres, Rays, A?s, Marlins and Astros budgeted as of Opening Day, according to Yahoo! Sports.

The Phils had a total opening day payroll of $158 million. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers ($214 million) and New York Yankees ($211 million) had bigger budgets.

The Phillies, as we know, are spenders. But are they getting a solid return on their investment?

The Indians beat the Phillies, 10-4, at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday (see story).?The Fightins are 19-22. Not terrible. Not great. After Wednesday's loss, they were four games behind first-place Atlanta (which also had a day game). Again, not terrible. But not great, either.

No. 44 on the Fortunate 50 list took the mound for the Phillies on Wednesday. Hamels threw five innings, allowing six hits, five earned runs, two walks and two homers. He also struck out four. He got the loss again, dropping his record to 1-6 this season. There have been quite a few games this season in which Hamels didn?t get adequate run support and the loss really wasn?t his fault. Wednesday wasn?t one of those days. He simply didn?t pitch that well.

?You wake up and get ready for the game and you know you?re facing a tough team and you have to go out there and execute pitches, and I wasn?t able to do that early on,? Hamels said. ?Anytime you go 3-2 [pitch count] to pretty much the whole lineup, over and over, you?re not putting yourself in a good spot.

"Pitching myself into situations where, most likely, they?re going to get hits, they?re going to get walks, they?re going to score the runs. That doesn?t keep my team, obviously, on their toes and ready for the ball if it is hit to them. It just makes for a really boring game. And, obviously, a losing game because that was the effort it entailed. That?s the really unfortunate part of how it went [Wednesday]. I?ve got a lot of work to do.?

Despite the unsightly record (again, not his fault for the most part), Hamels has been OK this year (though his 4.61 ERA puts him just 79th among starting MLB pitchers). Lee (4-2, 2.86) has been very good. And Halladay -- well, you know how things have gone for Halladay.

Together, the top three pitchers on the team have combined for a 4.83 ERA and 7-12 record. Those numbers are obviously skewed by Halladay?s less-than-stellar/pre-surgery output. Even so, the numbers are the numbers. And when you measure those numbers against some other numbers (mainly the pitchers? combined $64.5 million price tag), none of the numbers look great.

Then there?s Howard. He went 0 for 4 against the Indians on Wednesday. He entered the day hitting .252/.291/.446 with six home runs and 22 RBIs. That?s not exactly $20 million man production. (Somewhere, Lee Majors is shaking his rebuilt robot head at the price of inflation.)

In fairness, they?re only four guys. Four out of 25 on the roster. But they?re also four of the highest paid professional athletes in the country -- as well as four of the most important Phillies. Sports Illustrated is right. They?re fortunate men. Wonder if the Phils feel the same way.

Source: http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/has-money-been-well-spent-phillies

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