Fantasy advice from the fired

Last night on ESPN Sportscenter, Dan Patrick interviewed Steve Phillips, former Mets GM and current ESPN baseball guy. Patrick was asking Phillips for fantasy baseball information. Is it just me, or is this wrong in so many ways? I know ESPN likes to hire these disgraced general managers. It gives them some name recognition while the GM gets a paycheck, albeit smaller than the one afforded them by running a major-league franchise.

Looking at Phillips’ resume, isn’t he the kind of guy you’d love to have in a fantasy league? While with the Mets, Phillips led the team to a World Series appearance in 2000. After that he was decidedly unsuccessful. He gave big bucks to over-the-hill starting pitcher Tom Glavine and outfielder Cliff Floyd, who can get injured walking across the street. This is exactly the kind of guy who would give you Bobby Abreu for Sammy Sosa.

While a has-been general manager giving fantasy advice of any kind is high on comedy potential, it makes sense for ESPN to take this route. How telegenic is the average fantasy geek? Most sports fans have heard of fantasy sports but there’s still a large percentage who think of the fantasy geek as a nerd with Coke-bottle glasses and an abacus. Guess what, America, some of us have lives (and wives).

Why is a former general manager a bad guy to give fantasy advice? A general manager has to find a guy to fill out his bench who can play three positions and knows how to execute a hit-and-run. The last guy on your bench in a fantasy league has been to two All-Star games. A real general manager has to consider how a guy fits in with the clubhouse and the franchise’s future. A fantasy general manager wants to know how a guy hits with men in scoring position and two outs. He (or she, it’s possible) doesn’t care about AGPI (average greenies per inning) because it’s not a stat used in fantasy leagues, at least not yet. In short, it’s not the same game.