Ed Wade redux

Ed Wade must feel as if he's back in Philadelphia with all the criticism he's getting for his recent signings.

His signing of Brandon Lyon - who was part of the infamous 2003 Red Sox closer-by-committee experiment before being trading for Curt Schilling - has been already called the worst contract of the offseason by statheads.

I'm one of those people who doesn't really enjoy Saturday Night Live sketches, because to me, the joke is made in the first 15 seconds and then just repeated over and over for the next several minutes. You drive a Dodge Stratus and you think that makes you important – okay. Not much funnier the 15th time you yell it. Not to me, anyway.

Ed Wade is the GM equivalent of a bad SNL sketch. The first time he overpaid a middle reliever, we figured out that he didn't really know how to build a roster. Now, when he gives Brandon Lyon a 3 year, $15 million deal, we just shrug our shoulders and say, "Yeah, that's Ed Wade for ya."

Seriously, $5 million a year for the next three years for Brandon Lyon. We're not talking about overpaying for a premium bullpen guy. Lyon is a generic middle reliever, the kind of guy who could be replaced by a minor league free agent or a Rule 5 draftee.

Even general managers agree with that assessment:

Two different GMs were aghast to hear the Astros are paying $15 million over three years to reliever Brandon Lyon. Both of them had to have the numbers repeated to them twice, thinking surely they had misheard what will be one of the worst contracts of the winter.

Although, you have to wonder what the reaction would have been if Ruben Amaro had acquired Lyon as he wanted:

"We were in there pretty deep," he said. "Ed [Wade] stole him from us."

Wade also got ripped for signing former Phillie Pedro Feliz:

Addressing the hole at third base is a good idea for Houston, but you don't address a hole by filling it with air. You already have plenty of air; why bother paying money to import premium air from Philadelphia?

Christine thinks Wade is just targeting players other teams want because the Orioles had been interested in Feliz.

I can't disagree with the critics, but urge a moment of caution because even though he was pretty much hated at the end of his tenure in Philadelphia, without his work, Phillies Sunday packages would probably be available all winter.

While Wade was GM, the Phillies drafted Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and, as Wikipedia reminded me, shrewdly hired Charlie Manuel as manager despite the fans' clamoring for Jim Leyland. Do you think 2008 would have happened without those guys?

All I'm saying is, give the guy a chance. He proved his mettle in Philadelphia, even if it took a little longer than the fans (including Christine and me) and the organization wanted to wait.

SoxandPhilsandStros: The following former Red Sox and/or Phillies are on the Astros roster right now - Lyon, Feliz, Gary Majewski, Chris Shelton and Michael Bourn. And, of course, they will be managed by Brad Mills.