Phillies' rumored Tarik Skubal package feels worse after Angels broadcaster calls out MLB

Midway through another dreary Angels-Brewers game about an hour outside of Los Angeles, and just a few hours after Phillies fans felt semi-renewed hope about landing the trade deadline's biggest fish, the bomb we all should've expected dropped: Tarik Skubal, Dodgers, one top prospect, a 28-year-old starting pitcher, and a lottery ticket down below.

If you felt like the package was light, you weren't alone. If you felt like at least half of the rest of the league's owners could have stepped up and made things interesting - or, at least, more difficult on LA - you weren't wrong. Thankfully, one man who felt exactly that way was on air at the moment.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim play-by-play man Wayne Randazzo, aided by color commentator and former pitcher Mark Gubicza, vocalized exactly what Phillies fans and scorned baseball lifers were feeling.

"Why couldn't a team like the Brewers or the Braves or whoever ... step in and keep the Dodgers -- it's an open market. Anybody can go and get Skubal. This is not about money," Randazzo fumed, keeping his anger barely disguised.

While it's true that the Dodgers' unique financial position and sweetheart TV deal mean they don't face the same repercussions for failure as the way-too-precious rest of the league, this specific package could've been exceeded fairly easily by any number of teams. It's confounding that it wasn't and smells somewhat like collusion in hopes of drumming up offseason aggression against the Dodgers and in the owners' favor when a lockout arrives. Even if Skubal's eventual move to Los Angeles feels fated in the offseason ... competition used to be about trying to take advantage of windows and pockets of time and defeat your opponent. Now it's just about succumbing to the entropy of the universe and surrendering?

Count the Phillies among the scorned group that we wish would've stepped forward, but ... at the very least, the rumor mill indicates there's a chance that they tried fairly hard here. Harder than the teams Randazzo sniped at.

If rumors are true ... Phillies actually did do the dirty work and "outbid" Dodgers for Tarik Skubal

Now, there are a lot of modifiers used here. Alex Coll, a producer at WIP, is in the Philly sports universe, but he isn't Jayson Stark. He doesn't claim this was the Phillies' offer; he claims the Phillies' offer was "along the lines of" this collection.

But ... if the Phillies were putting forth a Gage Wood/Justin Crawford/Jonathon Bowlan group, that's a collective consisting of their top prospect (an MLB-ready arm), a post-hype top name and MLB starter getting his sea legs, and a controllable ace reliever (locked down through 2031). If the Tigers intend to contend now - they're 2.5 games out of the Wild Card this year, by the way - it's hard to argue this wouldn't be more immediately valuable than near-28-year-old River Ryan scuffling through the PCL and a low-minors wild card in addition to top prospect Zyhir Hope.

Hope's star power is greater than any name discussed in the "Phillies group" - but, again, what does Detroit want? What happened to the consistency of their ask? Is Ryan an established MLB-ready starter? Or did we all just get hoodwinked?

Randazzo is on the right path, but it seems his argument should rest at the feet of plenty of teams other than the Phillies. I guess we'll make like the Dodgers and defer our anger elsewhere.

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