This has the look and feel of a joke doesn't it? Even Ed Wade acknowledged himself that the situation was rather fishy stating:
"I'm prepared for the remarks that I only traded with the Phillies so Ruben would give me a job if I got fired."
Quite.
Wade will serve as special consultant to the Phillies baseball operations office, assisting in scouting and arbitration cases, ostensibly so he can lose to Hunter Pence again this offseason. If that is the only thing we will miss about Tal Smith, it will be his long spell of winning arbitration cases against players.
So the Astros will be paying Wade for the 2012 season while the Phillies 'benefit' from his services. Isn't this great that we are still writing about Ed Wade a month after he was given the chop by Astros owner Jim Crane. Can we move on already? Possibly. Yes. Read the full story over at the Houston Chronicle then we an spend the rest of December speculating about Wandy Rodriguez's trade value.