I always like to listen to Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger on
WIP on Saturday mornings. The two seem
to gel well together and really know their stuff regardless of what sport they’re
talking about. Last Saturday I happened
to be tuned in as they were discussing the Phillies. Ray made the point that he usually doesn’t
look up at the standings until Memorial Day to evaluate where teams are and how
they’re doing. With this past weekend
being Memorial Day weekend, Ray came to the logical conclusion that the Phillies
are who they are which is a roughly .500 baseball team that’s going to look
half decent sometimes and lost at other times.
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| Hunter Martin/Getty Images Josh Beckett celebrates his no-hitter against the Phillies with his Dodger teammates. |
The last three games are a great example of this. Sunday, the Phillies, inexplicably, on their
home field, got no-hit by Dodgers’ aging veteran Josh Beckett. They showed no signs of life. The next day the Phillies broke out
offensively in a 9-0 blanking of Colorado.
But last night, they looked like the offensively inept Phillies again losing
6-2 to Colorado setting up for tonight’s rubber game.
While there are still four months of baseball left, as I
write this on May 28, I think this is who the Phillies are. They’re going to get your hopes up one night
only to crush those hopes shortly thereafter and I’m not falling for it. It’s who they are until they prove otherwise.
Coming into the season there were lots of questions about
Ruben Amaro’s decisions to keep the veteran nucleus of the Phillies
together. What’s particularly
frustrating about the Phillies 22-27 record through 49 games of the season is
that the veterans on the team have provided decent production. Chase Utley looks like an All-Star, Jimmy
Rollins can still play great defense at shortstop, his discipline at the plate
has significantly improved as his on-base percentage is up to a career high of
.356, and Ryan Howard could very well wind up with over 30 home runs and over
100 RBIs this season if he stays healthy.
Marlon Byrd is batting .289 and has proved to be one of the better moves
by Ruben Amaro Jr. and AJ Burnett has posted a respectable 3.51 ERA and 1.43
WHIP. While Jonathan Papelbon takes a
lot of heat in the city he’s converted 13 of 14 save chances and has a 1.96
ERA.
But what’s disappointing is that the Phillies bullpen has
blown far too many leads late in games, and the younger players on the roster
are not doing their job. Domonic Brown,
hailed as one of the Phillies top prospects and the future of the organization
while the Phillies were busy winning NL East division titles, is hitting
.202. Cody Asche has looked lost at
times at third base. Ben Revere has
struggled mightily to get on base for a man who prides himself on speed and
someone who has been given lots of chances to lead off this season. So where does that leave them?
The Phillies have a group of veterans producing but not well
enough to carry the team to the top of the standings, and they don’t have much
promise regarding young talent on the major league roster right now. You might as well keep your fingers crossed
and hope the veteran production continues but it’s hard to see that carrying
the Phillies anywhere this season considering the veterans aren’t getting the
help they need and even when the Phillies have leads late in games, nothing is
safe considering the path to Jonathan Papelbon is often a nightmare and right
now the Phillies are without one of their more consistent starting pitchers in
Cliff Lee.
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| Yong Kim/Philly.com staff photographer Ruben Amaro Jr. should not remain as Phillies general manager past this season. The Phillies are nothing more than a .500 team. |
So while the Phillies are only five games behind in the NL
East until I see some more consistency this looks like a third straight season without
the playoffs and the future looks less and less promising. Standing pat when the recent past hasn’t yielded
favorable results usually isn’t a good idea.
Look at the other professional sports teams in Philadelphia. The Eagles brought in Chip Kelly after a 4-12
season under Andy Reid. Kelly completely
changed the culture within the organization and won the NFC East last year and
the Eagles look to be favored to do so again this year. The Sixers brought in Sam Hinkie as their
general manager and he totally blew up the roster and now there is some hope
for the future of the organization.
Since their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, the Flyers have only
won two playoff series so they decided to move on this season with Craig Berube
as head coach and after the season hired Ron Hextall to take over as general
manager. The Phillies changed managers last
season but the core of the roster is largely the same and Ruben Amaro Jr. is
still the general manager. After this
season, it seems only logical more drastic changes be made.
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