Man, it’s starting early this year. Take it away Ruben Amaro:
Amaro said Ryan Howard’s offseason conditioning program has already shown results. “I think he’s lost a significant amount of weight, which bodes well for him,” the GM said.
Good for Howard. And good for Amaro for making it safe for all general managers and agents to make reference to a player’s offseason conditioning program as if a player getting into decent shape is a net positive as opposed to the rectification of previous problem. It’s a long offseason and we have to fill it with stuff that doesn’t really matter at all between now and spring training.
In other news, tell me how these two statements later in the article, separated by a mere couple of sentences, conflict with one another:
The Phillies have a reputation for being a by-the-book organization that values good citizenship. It’s difficult to envision them making serious plays for [Josh Hamilton or Melky Cabrera]
and
“I don’t have any problem with Brett [Myers], as long as he could help us,” Amaro said.
