Ruben Amaro: ‘I still think we're the best team in baseball'

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Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. was a guest on Mike and Ike's midday show on 94 WIP this afternoon to wax poetic on the 2011 season and look ahead to 2012. RAJ didn't break any news about his plans, keeping his cards close to his chest per usual, but he didn't hide the fact that he's open to change. As for the 2011 World Series though? He can't bare to watch much of it.

"I can't watch it either. I do not watch. I watched a little bit of the game yesterday because it was a nice performance by the kid [Derek Holland]. I bet you I've watched maybe 12 innings. Because I still think we're the best team in baseball."

So what happened in the NLDS, Michael Barkann asked?

"It's called baseball, Michael, you know the game. We didn't get the big base hit. If Raul Ibanez's ball goes out of the ball park, if Chase's ball goes out of the ballpark, we're playing baseball I still think," Ruben said

Amaro goes on to talk about really liking the club he had, especially with the addition of Hunter Pence, but seems to be frustrated by the fact that guys like Placido Polanco weren't able to perform well in the postseason due to injury.

[more highlights plus audio from Ruben's spot on WIP below]

On Jimmy Rollins and whether the Phillies are hoping he gets a more lucrative/lengthy contract elsewhere.

"What we really want to do is sign Jimmy. Whether that happens or not kind of depends on if we can get to the place where we're all comfortable. Everybody knows what we want to do; no secret that we'd like to bring Jimmy back. Whether it's three, four, five, eight years, that's up to us to decide and hopefully with the help of Jimmy make the right decision to be able to keep him here."

Is it about the years or the money? Raj gave the same answer Jimmy Rollins did: "Both."

Ike Reese asked Ruben how can you improve upon what many considered to be the best roster in baseball?

"I'm going to have to be be passively aggressive because our priority is to try and bring Madson back and to bring Rollins back. I don't know how long that's going to play out. I have a feeling it may play out for a while. I like to be aggressive typically but I think in this situation because of the nature of these particular players' situations and where our payroll is, I'm going to have to be passively aggressive. At the same time, be ready to strike if there's a deal to be made either signing somebody or trading somebody. I don't want to preclude us from doing things with Jimmy or Ryan. That kind of ties us up a little bit in terms of timing, but that doesn't mean we don't have contingency plans and we work on those with agents and other clubs. I've already had several discussions with several teams about possible trades and I've also obviously talked to all the agents that our two players have to keep those lines of communication open."

On the need/desire to get younger in 2012:

"I don't mind change. It's hard to get younger with the situation we have. I would like to be a little different [than 2011]. If it's John Mayberry in left, then we're younger. We'll see. A lot of it kind of depends. I think there are things we can do to try to improve and try to get younger."

On alcohol in the clubhouse and the Red Sox situation:

"We do have beer in the clubhouse. We do not have hard liquor in the clubhouse. We do have beer. Our guys -- knock wood -- have been tremendously responsible. This is my 14th year in the front office, we've literally had like zero issues. That's almost impossible, but I think it speaks to the people that are in the clubhouse and the kind of people we try to target to be in the clubhouse."

Audio:

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