IF THE Phillies had fallen in love with Mike Olt as hard as fans wanted back in 2012, they would have traded Cole Hamels for a guy who has a .158 batting average, .579 OPS and 119 strikeouts in 314 major league plate appearances.
So before anybody lambastes the front office for failing to land any of this year's supposed blue-chippers in their long-awaited trade of Hamels, consider the possibility that it wasn't a failure at all, but, rather, a prudent decision to limit their exposure to risk by agreeing to a diversified package of talent that contained a solid mix of predictability and projectability.