It's a new era in the City of Brotherly Love.
Charlie Manuel was relived of his duties as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday, becoming the first manager to be fired in the middle of the season this year. Manuel is the Phillies' all time winningest manager with 780 wins and recently won his 1,000th overall game. The Phillies' had been .500 or better up to this year since Manuel took over the job in 2005. The Phillies also went to the postseason five times in Manuel's eight full seasons on the job, highlighted by the team making the World Series two years in a row and winning it in 2008.
I'm torn about this. On the one hand, the Phillies have been among the most disappointing teams in baseball this year, finishing off Manuel's portion of the season 53-67 and 4th place in the NL East. Obviously, a change needed to take place. But it's also pretty plain that if Manuel was a problem for the Phillies, he wasn't the biggest problem. Who do the Phillies have?
Aside from Dominic Brown and MAYBE Ben Revere, there are no bright spots on the roster. Five of the eight starting batters are 33 or older. They have no farm system to speak of due to bartering young guys for these older veterans who, as I've mentioned, are really old. Ryan Howard, when he's been healthy, is currently leading the team in strikeouts with 95. On top of that, Howard is signed through at least 2016 with an option for 2017, and he's far from the only player who's signed to an unreasonable contract. Cole Hamels is signed through 2019, and has been absolutely atrocious. He has played better since June, but his numbers still aren't great (his ERA has been between 3.65 and 4.58 since June). Speaking of the Phillies' pitching, aside from Cliff Lee who has honestly been very good this year, all of the starting pitchers have sucked hard. Lee and Hamels are the only starting pitchers who have an ERA below 4.00. Taking Lee out of the equation, the other pitchers are a combined 23-32. Now some of that is due to the fact that the Phillies' offense really sucks as well, but again, when three of the five projected starters have ERAs at or above 4.04, it's not good.
This all seems to fall on general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., who gutted the farm system and signed these old guys and brought in other old guys (like Michael Young) or damaged young goods (like Delmon Young, who's now gone). I'm not one to usually call for someone's job, because high positions in sports are incredibly difficult and stressful. But if anyone is the most culpable for the sad state of the Phillies, it's Amaro. Maybe he'll be replaced at the end of the season, but Charlie Manuel is gone, Ryne Sandberg has never managed before in the big leagues, and this roster is dead-weighted by bad contracts and older players that can no longer consistently produce good results.
And to underscore just how pitiful the Phillies' roster really is, Ryne Sandberg lost his first game as manager. Generally when a head coach is replaced midway through the season in any sport, the players usually play harder at first to try and make sure people don't think that they're the reason that the coach got fired. Nothing doing last night: the Dodgers creamed the Phillies 4-0. It's just one game and the Dodgers are one of the best teams in baseball right now, but that just puts the emphasis on how bereft of talent the Phillies are right now.
It's just a shame. In other news, the Mets have have won two in row against the Padres and are 2.5 games behind the Nationals for second place in the NL East.
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