If you're looking for a road map as to how the Phillies decayed into such a dreadful state following five straight National League East titles, the team's annual January seminar for some of its most valued minor-leaguers is a pretty good one.
The exercise itself, which started the same year Ruben Amaro Jr. replaced Pat Gillick as general manager, was a good idea then and remains one today. Young aspiring big-leaguers are schooled on a variety of subjects: What they should expect inside a big-league clubhouse, how to deal with the media, how to handle social media and what it's like to play in Philadelphia are among them.