Phil Seghi is alive and well and living in Ottawa

[yave1964]

  Okay not really. Seghi, the Indians GM during the bleakest time in the teams history the inglorious seventies died in 1987. But I swear he has come back and taken over the Ottawa Senators.

  Yeah I know, this is a Hockey site and I am referencing baseball but hear me out, Seghi took over the tribe in the early seventies when Gabe Paul left to take over the Yankees. The Yankees were pretty awful at the time, the Indians were mediocre, then Seghi did the following:

 

Traded Graig Nettles to Paul and the Yankees for a package of prospects, none really did anything. Nettles played 1500 games of wonderful defense and 250 homers and a couple of world series titles in New York before going to the Padres and playing a role in leading the team to their first WS appearance.

 traded Dick Tidrow, an underrated pitcher who could close games or start and Chris Chamblis he of the flawless swing and solid defense, the two fo them were key cogs as the Indians fell further and the Yankees climbed to the top of the American League.

 Traded Gaylord Perry, thinking he was done to the Rangers for a package that was meh, Perry went on to win another 130 games after leaving the tribe.

 Traded George Hendrick away for a package of Padres that never developed.

  The teams most popular player was Rico 'Beeg Boy' Carty who was taken by Toronto in the expansion draft. Rather than let the 37 year old go, he gave the Blue Jays Rick Cerone and John Lowenstein who went on to solid careers while Carty had one more good year and faded away.

  Traded Dennis Eckersley to the Boston Rec Sox for essentially nothing. Eck was stilla kid, wanted to get paid and there were personal things as well, but a HOFer was given away for nothing.

  He let Oscar Gamble and the most famous afro in baseball go, only to see him also end up as a key cog with the Damn Yankees.

  He traded prospect Pedro Guerrero to the Dodgers for a pitchers named Bruce Ellington who won 1 game in 16 appearaances for his career, Pete Guerrero went  on to be one of the best hitters of the eighties.

  He did do one great thing, he hired Frank Robinson to be the first Black major league manager.

 

  All of these trades (and there were more, believe me of minor players that were in their own way just as dreadful) were unforced errors, many were reactive lead with the chin moves.  I imagine that the tribe with a nucleas that included Nettles, Hendrick, Chamblis Eckersley and Perry with Tidrow in the pitching staff as a jack of all trades and Cerone behind the plate and Guerrero rolling out of bed and slashing doubles to all fields and Lowenstein destroying righties in a platoon that the Indians, if they ahd simply held fast and kept what they had very well might have won a series, at least amde the playoffs a few times in the seventies and early eighties. Just hold pat, develop your team and avoid reactive trades, they coulda woulda shoulda been at the least a good team and possibly a very good team. Instead in 15 years as the teams GM they peaked at 84  wins and only had 3 winning seasons.

  Which leads us to Pierre Dorion, the modern Phil Seghi.

  Dorion is cut from the same cloth,  the trade for Turris, the trade of Turris, the trade for Brassard, the trade of Brassard, trading for Duchene, the inevitable trading away of Duchene, I give him a mulligan on Hoffman but he could have and should have gotten a better return, the Sharks two hours after adding him proved that. Trading for Phaneuf, trading away Phaneuf. Every trade, players come in and go, with each deal weakening the team.

 

Zibenajad for Brassard for Cole for a third rounder.  Essentially Zibenajad for a third rounder time it was done. It took a few years and bodies coming and going but that is what it boiled down to. And on and on.

  What sucks the most is the team is not devoid of prospects, quite the opposite really, they have guys who canflat out play, chomping at the bit. Colin White, Filip Chlapik and Logan Brown will all be top nine or better this year and are talented young forwards, Ryan (Go buckeyes!) makes up for limited skill with speed and desire and plays hard every shift, Alex Formenton with a good camp may also crack the lineup on the wing as a teenager, Shane Bowers is a year or two away but has a rep as a hard nosed player, this draft produced Brady Tkachuk who should be a nasty bit of goods scoring 30 goals and hitting everything. Thomas Chabot is a real deal defensive prospect. In fact, the Senators in spite of the chaos swirling around the big club probably have one of the best groups of ready or nearly so players in the game today. Most teams would kill to have this collection of talent just below the surface.

 

  But it doesn't matter. Hoffman is gone, so is Turris and Phaneuf and Karlsson is right behind, Stone just filed for arbitration so he is staring down free agency next year and the Sens cannot even offer him a contract extention until January according to league rules, Duchene is also in his last year of his deal. 

  And then Chlapik will develop into a premier playmaker, Tkachuk will become a 30 goal scorer, Formenton and Brown and White will become solid players and the team will trade them away, one at a time or in a group, chasing that elusive piece of the puzzle and continuing to make the hole bigger.

 

  A friend of mine once said that when you are in a hole up to your neck, stop digging. Someone needs to tell the same to Dorion.