1. Disgust 2. Despair 3. Detachment
With the Phils trailing Florida by the dispiriting score of 4-0 in the fourth inning, I'm about to pack it in for the evening and go to the gym. Why burn any more time on a game that started with Damian freakin' Easley taking Randy Wolf out of the yard, and has scarcely gotten better from there? The Marlins have three home runs in the game; they'd come in with 14 on the season.

I was thinking earlier that every time the Phils play the Marlins, Ed Wade's emotion should be deep, deep shame that Fish GM Larry Beinfast eats his lunch so consistently.

Every failing of Wade's is a strength of Beinfast's. Scared to promote the kids, as Wade has been with virtually every good prospect the team has developed in his tenure? Beinfast wasn't; without lefty pitcher Dontrelle Willis, then 21 and outfielder Miguel Cabrera, who was 20 when he reached the majors, there's no 2003 World Series trophy in Miami (but it's likely that some Paul Abbott type would have increased his service time). Unwilling to fire your manager even when it's clear he has failed? Beinfast pulled the trigger in spring of that year, canning Jeff Torborg and bringing in septuagenarian Jack McKeon. Wade couldn't even fire Larry Bowa after the Phils imploded down the stretch that same year, and Bowa's ineptitude ruined another season afterward. Can't trade in mid-season? The Urbina and Conine pickups lifted the Fish over the Phils the same year that Wade added Mike Williams, who was as bad as incumbent closer Jose Mesa.

Add in the Marlins' superior farm system, opportunistic/"buy low" player acquisition--he got closer Armando Benitez after '03 and saw him put up a dominant 2004 season for peanuts, and made economical pickups of Al Leiter and, relatively speaking, slugging first baseman Carlos Delgado this year--and smart resource management, e.g. letting Benitez and Carl Pavano walk last off-season, and I can't imagine there's a baseball fan in the world who doesn't realize the better executive.

Can you imagine Wade trying to contend with any of what the Marlins have had to deal with? Ownership change. Stadium uncertainty. Tight budget constraints.

Conversely, think about what a guy like Beinfast could do with the Phils' larger market and bigger revenue stream. And just know that David Montgomery, that pimple of a Phils managing partner, probably never will.

edit: Thome struck out, for the 25th time this season, as I typed the above. Burrell then followed with an RBI hit off the left-field wall, scoring Abreu (who'd walked, of course) but was held to a single. This proved important, as Chase Utley, after working the count full, ended the inning with a 4-6-3 double play. Your 2005 Phillies, in a nutshell.