Ruben Amaro Jr. Speaks Candidly With Angelo Cataldi on 94WIP
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On the heels of an abysmal five-game home series against the New York Mets, in which the Phillies lost four games falling to 24-31 on the season, Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. spoke with Angelo Cataldi and the WIP Morning Show during his weekly 9:30 a.m. 94WIP appearance on Tuesday morning.
Amaro Jr. candidly answered Cataldi's questions on an array of topics from the decision to call up pitcher Phillippe Aumont from Triple-A, to the struggling Domonic Brown, to the fans displeasure with Amaro Jr. himself.
"I totally understand," Amaro Jr. said on the WIP Morning Show on Tuesday. "Listen, I absolutely understand the sentiment of some of your callers, but we have to continue to grind through it and look beyond that. I know that we play this game for our fans and I wish that we were playing better baseball and we were giving you a better product right now. This was one bad series that hopefully we're going to wash away and return to a better brand of baseball. If we don't, then we're going to have to make some tough decisions."
LISTEN: Ruben Amaro Jr. On The WIP Morning Show
Cataldi asked Amaro Jr. if the Phillies are getting closer to beginning the rebuilding process at this year's trade deadline.
"We're getting closer, but we have to–there's no question that we didn't play good baseball and that's not the kind of brand of baseball that we were hoping or expecting from our players in a variety of ways," Amaro Jr. admitted. "It was disconcerting."
The Phillies chose to call-up relief pitcher, Phillippe Aumont, over the weekend from Triple-A, despite Aumont's 21 walks in 24 innings pitched with a 4.12 ERA. In his two appearances against the Mets, Aumont allowed four earned runs, two home runs, and two walks in less than two innings of work.
"For him to get two-outs and then walk the next batter, we've have a lot of that happen this year. Not just for the young guys, but for the veterans guys too. That's unacceptable and not being able to throw enough strikes. We're going to have to remedy it and if Phillippe is giving us the reason why he is showing us that he is not able to perform at the Major League level, we're going to have to make changes there."
The player many fans would have liked to see instead of Aumont is 23-year-old right-handed relief pitcher, Ken Giles. Giles is 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA with five saves in 12.2 innings in Lehigh Valley (AAA). Amaro Jr. explained why he went with Aumont over Giles.
"One of the reason is a timing issue," Amaro Jr. said of Giles. "He had just thrown, and thrown poorly, there are other reasons as well. We have some things that we like to have some of our younger players go through, adversity is one of them. Kenny is very, very close and at some point you are likely to see him in the big leagues."
