Trading Burrell is linchpin to big winter

Pat Gillick and the Phillies are like an airplane loaded with passengers but still sitting at the gate. Everything has been checked and double-checked, everyone’s seatbelt is fastened and luggage is safely stowed in the overhead compartment.

All Gillick needs to is the OK from the control tower and he’s set for take off.

Kind of.

When the free-agency period begins on Nov. 12, Gillick and the Phillies are expected to woo Washington Nationals’ left fielder Alfonso Soriano, likely the biggest name on the winter market. On the strength of his 40-40 season in 2006 (46 homers and 41 stolen bases), the Phillies are said to be prepared to offer Soriano $80 million over five seasons, and then plunk him down in the middle of the batting order between lefties Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. The thought is that Soriano can both provide protection for the sluggers as well as fortify a lineup that has scored more runs than any National League team over the past two seasons.

“We could use some depth in the middle of the order,” Gillick said.

Even without Soriano the Phillies are formidable offensively. Howard, one of the top two MVP candidates on the strength of his 58-homer season in 2006, is the anchor of the murderer’s row that featured four players that swatted at least 25 homers and drove in 83 runs. Besides that, Gillick and manager Charlie Manuel are both very high on Shane Victorino, a young outfielder who appeared in 153 games in many roles last season.

Offense? Yeah, the Phillies have that.

So why do they feel the need to make it better with Soriano instead of pursuing a starter to fill out the rotation or a set-up man for closer Tom Gordon? After all, Manuel told said that he would prefer to have a backend reliever who has experience as a closer to fill out the bullpen. That’s where free agents Joe Borowski and David Weathers enter the picture. According to published reports and sources, the Phillies have eyed the relievers as possible set-up men for 2007.

On top of that, Gillick said that he wants to re-sign free agent starter Randy Wolf to round out the rotation that features lefties Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer, as well as Jon Lieber and Brett Myers. Gillick says he’s hopeful that the Phillies can work out a deal with Wolf.

“Hopeful, but not optimistic,” the GM said.

“This is the first opportunity he’s ever had for free agency so I think he wants to kick the tires and see if the grass is greener.”

The grass may be greener, but for how long? The mood around the media luncheon in Citizen Bank Park’s Hall of Fame Club overlooking the pastoral and eerily quiet ball diamond was that the Phillies weren’t simply going to make bids for players, cross their fingers and hope they get their man. Nope, Gillick and the gang emitted an aura that they were in control of the situation and were confident that they will add the bat into the middle of the lineup, get that fifth starter, and find a suitable set-up man or two to anchor the bullpen.

Really? The Phillies? Didn’t they once describe themselves as a small-market team not so long ago?

“I think our ownership and CEO are pretty practical. Anything we bring to them that makes sense, not only for the short term, but the long term, I don't think they'll be reluctant to make the move,” Gillick said. “But it has to make sense. If you have to make a commitment you have to figure that player is going to figure for you for whatever time you're obligated. If you have to give somebody four years and you only get three years, that's one thing. But if you give somebody four years and you only get one, that's a different story.”

So the hot-stove is heating up for the Phillies. Signing Soriano should be a piece of cake, right? Five years without a no-trade clause should do it?

“You can't ever be sure,” Gillick said. “But when you make these decisions, are you going to be in love with this guy a year from now as much as you're in love with him right now? That's a decision you're going to have to make. I don't know a lot of people that I want to be in love with for five years.”

Like Pat Burrell for instance. Gillick didn’t come right out and say that he was trying to find a suitable deal for the maligned left fielder and the Phillies this winter, but he didn’t deny it either. The same goes for Manuel who when asked about Burrell had a resigned tenor of someone who knew something was coming, but didn’t want to come right out and say it.

“What hurt Pat the most was that when we got to the seventh or eighth inning we had to get him out of the game,” Manuel said without the best poker face. “If he didn’t have the foot issues he might have had a season like he did two years ago.

“I haven't ruled out the fact that he's still on our club. I've always stood with Pat. He lost some at-bats [because of his foot].”

But Burrell holds all of the cards – at least all of the good ones. He also might hold the Phillies winter progress – or lack therof – in his hands. Sure, the Phillies seem to forging ahead as if they can sign all of the players they want and keep Burrell if he doesn’t agree to be moved, but the reality is the left fielder needs to go if the team is going to fulfill their off-season objectives.

Where or when that occurs is anyone’s guess.

More pitching
If the Phillies are not able to re-sign Wolf, Gillick says the fifth starter will likely come from outside the organization.

“We've got to get another starter, and I don't see that starter coming out of our organization. It'll have to come from outside,” Gillick said. “We've got some things to attend to from the starting standpoint and from the bullpen standpoint.”

Nonetheless, Gillick says he is much happier with the state of the rotation now than he was last year.

“This year we’ll open with Hamels and Moyer instead of (Gavin) Floyd and (Ryan Madson),” he said.

Manuel agrees with the GM noting that the rotation at the end of the season was the “best we’ve had in two years.”

Other luncheon notes
If the season were to end today, Ken Mandel's fantasy football team would be in the playoffs. This is despite the fact that Phillies.com writer's club has the least amount of points in the scribes football league.

On the outside and looking in is yours truly, who is running away with the points title but is just 4-4-1.

"We have to do better and I'll take full responsibility," I said in a release issued by the team.

A few writers were steamed that the availability with Charlie Manuel was held up by a TV reporter who wanted to talk to the manager about professional wrestling. Never mind the fact that the channel usually devotes a little less than 180 seconds to sports coverage every night.

Or that no one watches that channel.

Nevertheless, I'd like to know the skipper's thoughts on the Junkyard Dog or Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka. If the segment gets on YouTube, please send me the link.

Now that's a staff

Let’s go out on a limb here and say Charlie Manuel is on notice. His task for 2007 is to get the Phillies into the playoffs or he can forget about that contract extension for his pact that ends at the end of next year.

At least that’s the way it seemed when the Phillies announced that Davey Lopes, Art Howe and Jimy Williams will be the three new coaches on Manuel’s staff. You see, Lopes, Howe and Williams all have managed in the big leagues, and though only one manager in Phillies history has won more games after his first two seasons as skipper than Manuel, some might argue that a couple of those ex-managers have better credentials than their new boss.

Williams guided Toronto to the AL East title in 1989 and took the Red Sox to the wild card in 1998, 1999 and had six consecutive second-place finishes with the Red Sox and Astros from 1998 to 2003, earning AL manager of the year in ‘99.

Howe went to the playoffs in three straight seasons with the Moneyball Oakland A’s from 2000 to 2002, including back-to-back 100-win seasons in 2001 and 2002.

Lopes, the artful base stealer and Phillies nemesis from his playing days with the Dodgers, was the sacrificial lamb for three years with the Milwaukee Brewers. Nevertheless, the Phillies added 2,283 Major League victories to the coaching staff to go with Manuel’s 393.

Suddenly, the so-called overmatched Manuel has quite a bit of experience to draw upon in the dugout.

“We're going to have a hell of a staff,” he said.

That’s good, because there were a lot of whispers around the league that Manuel’s staff – specifically bench coach Gary Varsho – wasn’t doing him any favors. Varsho, after all, was Manuel’s right-hand man for in-game tactical decisions. But when Varsho was working in the same capacity on Larry Bowa’s staff, he mostly just had to position the outfield, write out the lineup card and his other administrative duties while Bowa called all the shots. But with Manuel, that lack of a heavy hand ultimately worked against him. In fact, one National League manager once told me to “tell Varsho to keep giving Charlie that good advice.”

Yes, it was a joke, but it wasn’t complimentary either.

On the new staff, Williams will be the bench coach and coordinate spring training the way John Vukovich used to. Howe, an infielder with those good Astros teams in the late 1970s and early 1980s, will be the third-base coach and infield instructor. Lopes will be the first-base coach and base running and outfield instructor.

Lopes could have a big influence on Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino on the base paths.

Conversely, if the Phillies struggle out of the gate in 2007, or Manuel, inexplicably, loses the clubhouse, GM Pat Gillick doesn’t have to look far for a replacement manager. In that regard will Charlie be sleeping with one open? Is he going to cast sidelong glances over his shoulder to see what his lieutenants are doing?

Nope. At least that’s what he says.

“Not at all,” Manuel said. “I feel good about it. These guys are going to be helpful to me and our club.

Gillick says – at least publically – that Manuel shouldn’t worry about anything but doing his job.

“More ideas, more imagination,” Gillick said. “These are the type of resources you need on a staff for your manager to draw on.”

Apparently, as stated previously, Manuel didn’t have that during his first two seasons.

He has it now.

“Charlie is the man, and we're going to do everything we can to help him be successful,” said Howe, who has a reputation for being one of the friendliest men in baseball despite the fact that he managed the Mets for two years. For normal folks, that experience is enough to make one turn his back on all of humanity.

Not Howe. Now he’s working for Charlie and the Phillies – the loosest and happiest team in the National League.

Et cetera
Though it’s not exactly a scoop or a well-kept secret, Gillick says he wants to try to deal Pat Burrell again. Apparently, the club had a deal with Baltimore last July but Burrell invoked his no-trade clause to remain in Philadelphia.

Said Gillick: “We're going to have to continue to look for a little more offense. We know that at this point, Pat has had a difficult time protecting [Ryan] Howard. We're going to have to continue to have to make an adjustment in that area. And naturally, we're going to have to continue to improve our pitching.

Gillick says the American League champion Tigers have advanced so quickly because of their pitching.

“I think one thing that's been proven is how well Detroit has pitched. If you look at the seven games they've won, it all goes back to pitching.”

But in order to be a legit player in the free-agent market for the highly coveted Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez, the Phillies will have to figure out what to do with Burrell and the $27 million they owe him for the next two seasons.

Coming up…
Musings from the NLCS and a look ahead to this weekend’s Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii and the Chicago Marathon, which unofficially kicks off the Fall marathoning season.

Plus, the opening game of the World Series is this Saturday in Detroit.

Who's at third? Not Polanco

Note: this was written a few innings before Placido Polanco was named MVP of the ALCS.

It’s always unfair to play the “what if” game, but it’s also part of the fun (or agony) of being a baseball fan. No, in this case it isn’t second-guessing or weighing your smarts against those of the manager or players, it pushing ahead the sands of time.

Imagine for a moment if Pat Gillick would have been the Phillies’ general manager during the 2005 season instead of Ed Wade. That was the year when Placido Polanco famously started at second base ahead of Chase Utley on opening day and garnered a bunch of starts – as well as late-inning defensive replacement duty – much to the chagrin to certain segments of the media and the fans.

I believed then as I believe now that Polanco ahead of Utley was the right move. Utley, as some of us recall, was still viewed as a raw free-swinging hitter who also needed work in the field.

That didn’t last too long though.

Polanco then, as he is now, is about as fundamentally sound a ballplayer there is. From a sheer, basic baseball-geek standpoint, Placido Polanco has to be your favorite player. He does everything right.

So imagine that Gillick is in control of the Phillies roster in 2005 when the team had Polanco, Utley and David Bell. Do you think the Phillies would still have Polanco if Gillick were in charge? Do you think Bell would have ended up in Milwaukee or some other baseball port-of-call sooner than July of 2006?

I do. I bet a lot of other people do to.

What if the Phillies had Polanco at third base instead of David Bell in 2005 and Abraham Nunez in 2006? Can you imagine a team with an infield of Polanco, Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard? Polanco in the No. 2 spot in the batting order, with just 43 strikeouts in his last 860-plus plate appearances?

Man… it’s just not fair.

Trust me here: Ed Wade was asked about all of this. So, too, was Charlie Manuel. For some reason they had a unbending loyalty to Bell as the third baseman. Maybe it was the $17 million they were paying him for four years to hit below .200 against righties in 2005? Whatever it was, the common answer we heard was that “Polly is a second baseman … ”

Or something like that.

Well, if that’s true, why has he only committed 15 errors in 322 games at third base during his career, including just a league-leading eight in 131 games during 2002? How come he played five games in left field when Pat Burrell was banged up during ’05?

What kind of pictures did David Bell have of the Phillies’ brass?

Ultimately, Polanco was sent to Detroit on June 8, 2005 for Ugueth Urbina. Since then, Polanco has hit .313 for the Tigers, not including the .412 in the ALDS or .529 in the ALCS with a key, two-out single to bring up Magglio Ordonez in the ninth inning.

All Ordonez did was smack the pennant-clinching homer to send the Tigers to the World Series.

Urbina, on the other hand, remains in a Venezuelan prison for an alleged Pulp Fiction re-enactment gone awry.

At the time, as I recall, many of the scribes hailed the trade as a good deal. The thinking was that since the Phillies weren’t going to use Polanco as an every day player, they might as well get something for him. There were a few others, however, who thought this logic was faulty. Why shouldn’t Polanco play every day in Philadelphia? The goal is to win and go to the playoffs, right? If so, keep Polanco and get rid of Bell.

Who cares if he’s a second baseman?

Not good enough?

New York sure is different than Philadelphia.

Yes, that really is an ambiguous statement, but when comparing the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies, grand, open-ended ambiguity is the safest bet.

For the Phillies, the “Golden Age” of the franchise started in the mid-1970s and lasted until the early 1980s. For about a decade, the Phillies were about as good as a team could be in the Major Leagues. They were so good, in fact, that in 1979 Danny Ozark was fired as the manager of the team because he didn’t win the World Series after winning 101 games in 1976 and 1977 and a 90-win NL East title in 1978.

It wasn’t enough to get it done.

In 1983, general manager Paul Owens bounced Pat Corrales from the managerial seat even though he had the Phillies in first place with 76 games remaining in the season. Owens came down from the front office and kept the Phillies right where Corrales left them before the collapse in the World Series against the Orioles.

Those were the days when it was either the World Series or failure for the Phillies, and it’s safe to say that a similar mentality never really occurred in the team’s 123-season history.

It would be interesting to see what fate would beset Charlie Manuel if he stumbled the way Ozark and the Phillies did in 1979. Or what would happen to Manuel if he were the skipper in 1983 when Corrales’ first-place Phillies were doing something wrong 86 games in to the season.

How can a team fire the manager when his team is in first place?

Make no mistake; there are a lot of people who don’t want Manuel to return to the bench for 2007 after two seasons in which he won more games than all but one manager in team history through this point in his tenure. With the Phillies, 173 victories in two seasons in which the team was eliminated from wild-card playoff contention at game Nos. 162 and 161 is borderline historic. Actually, it’s more than remarkable – it’s unprecedented.

This is a franchise, after all, where only two (two!) managers have taken the team to more than one postseason. It’s a franchise that has been to the playoffs just nine times in 123 seasons. For comparisons sake, look at the Atlanta Braves who… wait, nevermind. It just isn’t fair to compare the Phillies to any other franchise.

Anyway, one of those dynamic duo of managers was Ozark, who won the NL East three years in a row but was axed when he couldn’t do it for a fourth, and the other was Ozark’s replacement, Dallas Green, who delivered the franchise’s only title in 1980 only to lose to Montreal in the 1981 NLDS.

That loss was enough to send Green on his way to Chicago where he thought he could break the Cubs’ losing curse. But Green quickly learned that even he isn’t that good. Sure, historically things are really bad for the Phillies, but even they don’t compare to the futility of the Cubs.

Maybe Joe Torre is the manager the Cubs need to help them end 98 straight seasons without a World Series? After all, it appeared as if Torre was going to be out of a job after 11 seasons as the manager of the New York Yankees.

Torre apparently was headed for the same fate as Danny Ozark in 1979 before general manager Brian Cashman and the Yankees players interceded. But unlike Ozark, Torre didn’t miss the playoffs this year. Actually, Torre made it to the playoffs in every season he was the manager for the Yankees. He averaged close to 100 victories per season, won the World Series four times, including three years in a row, figured out how to charm the fickle New York media and even more erratic, owner George Steinbrenner.

There is no way to categorize Torre’s time with the Yankees as anything other than wildly successful. In fact, there are some of those fickle and hyperbolic New York-media types who have deemed Torre’s Yankees’ career as Hall-of-Fame worthy alongside the all-time greats like Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Miller Huggins. Add Torre to that tribunal and get 21 of the Yankees’ 26 World Series titles, and 30 American League pennants.

In other words, Joe Torre has done a lot better than Charlie Manuel, but only one of them was truly on the proverbial hot seat for returning to the same team in 2007.

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. Obviously, making it through Game 161 with a fighting chance is not a good season in the South Bronx. Steinbrenner, unlike David Montgomery and the Phillies, does not celebrate moral victories or potential. Because of that, Torre and his failure to deliver a World Series title since 2000, ends the season as a “sad disappointment,” as his boss stated. Those 1,079 victories, not including the 75 more in the playoffs, ring a bit hollow.

Torre, it seems, built expectations so high that anything less than perfection was not good enough. Is it his fault that his hitters picked a really bad time to stop being the best offense in baseball, or that the pitching staff he was handed didn’t live up to its old press clipping s anymore?

Of course not. But Torre made the mistake of having high standards.

We don’t have that problem here.

Instead, Charlie Manuel’s run in Philadelphia is still littered with hope and promise. For the Phillies, 173 victories in two seasons is nothing to sneeze at.

Truth and the rumors

Mostly because there is nothing else to talk about, there has been a lot of chatter regarding Charlie Manuel's job security and the ouster of three of his coaches. One bit of misinformation out there was that there was a chance Manuel would not return for 2007. That was never the case according to Marcus Hayes' story in the Daily News today.

According to Marcus, Gillick said: "The fact is, no matter where we were, four or five games over or eight or nine games under, the players liked playing for Charlie. They play hard for Charlie. That's a factor in this day and age. There were times we played some sloppy baseball. There were times we played fundamentally unsound baseball."

The Phillies like playing for Manuel the same way they despised Larry Bowa when he managed the club. Typically, a player is going to be a lot more excited about his job and doing it well if his boss is someone he likes and respects. In that regard, it's pretty difficult not to like Charlie Manuel.

But someone had to be the scapegoat for the Phillies failure to make the playoffs for the 13th straight October. Those goats were Gary Varsho, Marc Bombard and Bill Dancy. All three are fine men, but sadly had to be sacrificed.

Dancy's ouster is not too surprising considering how many runners were routinely thrown out at the plate during the past two seasons. Neither is Varsho's departure considering that he was largely responsible for helping Manuel strategize ballgames. When Varsho was working with Bowa, he mostly just had to position the outfield, write out the lineup card and his other administrative duties while Bowa called all the shots. But with Manuel, that lack of a heavy hand ultimately worked against him. In fact, one National League manager jokingly to me to "tell Varsho to keep giving Charlie that good advice."

Bombard's non-renewal is tough to figure out. Who knows if it anything to do with Chase Utley's home run in Washington that was ruled foul during the last week of the season. Discussing that call was the angriest I've ever seen Manuel after a game and Bombard should have had a pretty good view of the ball clanging off the pole from the first-base coaching box.

Maybe that one play tipped things over the edge for Bombard.

As far as speculating about new coaches, it seems as if it is either a foregone conclussion, a poorly-kept secret or both. Juan Samuel, a former Phillie with big-league coaching experience, appears to have a job on Manuel's staff if he wants one. In fact, Samuel was rumored to be a potential base coach for the Phillies for 2007 as early as August.

Hiring Sammy would be a masterstroke. Every day would be SammyFest.

John Russell, the manager at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre also seems to be a shoo-in as well as a speculated manager-in-waiting. Hiring Russell makes sense.

As far as the other position goes, I'm curious if John Vukovich is interested in returning to uniform after two seasons in the front office. My guess is he's happy right where he is, but the allure of putting on that uniform everyday still has a strong draw for a lot of people.

Dick Pole's name has also been bandied about, but only because he's good friends with Manuel and his old boss, Dusty Baker, just lost his job in Chicago. I guess that's as good a reason as any to make Pole a candidate.

Either way, Gillick will get the coaching staff in place before he begins working on a plan to strengthen the 2007 Phillies.

Most victories by a Phillies manager after two full seasons

1.) Pat Moran (1915-16) - 181
2.) Charlie Manuel (2005-06) - 173
3.) Eddie Sawyer (1949-50) - 172
4.) Bill Shettsline (1899-1900) - 169
5.) Larry Bowa (2001-02) - 166
Billy Murray (1907-08) - 166
7.) John Felske (1985-86) - 161

Manuel just wins for Phillies

WASHINGTON – There’s a lot more to Charlie Manuel than people see on television. In fact, the Charlie Manuel people see on TV is not the same one the writers and players see every day. That guy is verbose and uncomfortable in his own skin. He isn’t the kind, patient and quick jokester that people behind the scenes see. Maybe that’s part of the act or part of the homespun manager’s charm? Maybe Manuel’s uneasiness that has made him a target for so many slings and arrows has allowed his players to escape their errors and miscues behind a façade of stutters and malapropisms.

Could he be that diabolical?

Probably not. Often with Manuel, what you see is what you get. But at the same time…

“When it comes down to [crunch] time, I’m going to do what’s right,” Manuel predicted last season.

For the second season in a row the Phillies have taken the season down to one final do-or-die weekend. If they can survive one more game against the Nationals and three in Miami against the Marlins and get some cooperation from the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Phillies will capture the National League’s wild-card spot. If not, well, the Phillies certainly made it interesting. That’s especially so after general manager Pat Gillick jettisoned veterans Bobby Abreu, David Bell, Rheal Cormier and Cory Lidle then told fans to wait until the year after next season.

“It will be a stretch to say we’ll be there in ’07,” Gillick said on July 30. “We’ll have to plug in some young pitchers and anytime you do that you’ll have some inconsistency.

“It’s going to take another year.”

Yet in two seasons at the helm in which the Phillies will be in contention until the very final out of the season, Charlie Manuel has been ridiculed, questioned and put down. His intelligence has been questioned and his Appalachian drawl has been made fun of in a manner that can only be described as mean spirited and personal. It seems as if people believe Charlie is dumb because of the way that he sounds – never mind that some of these critics of Manuel’s baseball acumen have thick, undecipherable accents that can only be heard in Philadelphia.

Hello, pot.

So Manuel takes the insults and keeps going. Aside from leading the Phillies to the doorstep of the playoffs and getting closer than any of his predecessors had in the past 13 years, Manuel has won more games in his first two seasons than every manager in Phillies history except for Pat Moran. More than 90 years ago Moran won 181 games and took the Phils to the World Series in 1915.

But Moran had Grover Cleveland Alexander anchoring his staff, while Manuel has Jon Lieber and Brett Myers – hardly pitchers destined for the Hall of Fame. Sure, Cole Hamels, all of just 22-year old, may one day be a Cy Young Award-caliber pitcher, but right now he’s an inconsistent rookie.

Yet maybe therein lies the genius of Charlie Manuel. Not only can he get the most out of Lieber and Myers, as well as players like Shane Victorino and Chris Coste, but also he can be deemed as a poor manager for winning. When has that ever occurred with the Phillies?

Along those lines, when have the words “Charlie Manuel” and “genius” ever been used in the same sentence?

The secret to Manuel’s success might be the rapport he has with his players. On one side he appears to be everybody’s favorite uncle always picking players up with positivity and kind words when things aren’t going well. Often, when he lumbers with his distinctive gait through the clubhouse, he stops to joke with a player or ask them about how things are going away from the field.

Then there is his loyalty to his players that is sometimes criticized by the fans and media, but always respected by the players. Rarely will Manuel speak poorly of a player in public, and his critique of his team’s sometimes shoddy play is always peppered with language about how “we” have to play better.

Or he’ll make a joke, like with hyped-up rookie Michael Bourn whose excitement and greenness caused the Phillies trouble on the base paths a time or two this week.

“I might have to put one of those shock collars on him,” Manuel laughed.

Though Manuel is an old-time baseball man who speaks fondly of playing with Harmon Killebrew and for managers Billy Martin and Walter Alston, his approach is hardly "old-school" in the sense that former Phillies managers Larry Bowa, Jim Fregosi and Dallas Green wore that label. But as long-time old-school baseball man Johnny Pesky, the 87-year-old treasure for the Boston Red Sox, points out, modern ballplayers don't need a manager to motivate them.

"These guys are making millions of dollars and they don't need somebody screaming at them to make them play better," he said.

Manuel understands that treating a player with respect and a little humanity is the best tact.

That method is hardly fullproof, though.

Perhaps Manuel has stuck with Pat Burrell and Mike Lieberthal longer than he should have in the final month of this season. Perhaps he should have turned to Coste or David Dellucci and Jeff Conine much sooner than he has. But don’t think for a moment that Manuel’s loyalty has gone unnoticed by his players.

But do not mistake Manuel’s kindness for weakness, pitcher Randy Wolf warns.

“Charlie is a great guy. He’s friendly and really cares about his players. He’ll do anything for us and wants us to trust him,” Wolf said. “But he is not soft. You don't want to cross him because he'll let you know about it.”

Jim Thome liked to tell the story about the time in Cleveland when Manuel removed the ping-pong table from the Indians’ clubhouse when he thought the players were too focused on table tennis than baseball. Then there was the time earlier this season when the Phillies were sleepwalking through another April loss in Florida when Manuel ordered his players back into the dugout before they could take the field and launched into a tongue-lashing that proved to be the impetus to a nine-game winning streak during a stretch where the team won 13 of 14 games.

So maybe there is a method to Manuel’s madness?

Just don’t ask him to explain it with the cameras rolling.

All hands on deck

The easy part about baseball is second-guessing. Sometimes, second-guessing the moves made throughout a game is also the most fun part of watching a game.

But if there is one thing that’s evident is that managers and coaches HATE being second-guessed. I can’t say I blame them. Who wants some smart-alecky guy who can watch the game high in a perch above the field with TV monitors and a laptop at the ready to look up any information needed?

Back when he was managing the Yankees, Billy Martin always had a direct answer for any questioner challenging his moves. When asked why he made a certain move, Billy invariably said: “Because I’m the bleeping manager, that’s why.”

Billy Martin was Charlie Manuel’s first manager in the big leagues back when he came up for the Minnesota Twins in the late 1960s, and the Phillies’ skipper has – from time to time – recited Billy’s old line, though with less colorful language.

That said, since Manuel is the manager and his decisions are what they are, I’m curious about some of the choices the skipper made for his bullpen in last night’s game as it extended into extra innings. Knowing that the Dodgers had won in Colorado and a loss would send the Phillies to two games off the pace with just four games to go, I’m surprised Manuel remained so compartmentalized and rigid with his use of the bullpen.

How so? Didn’t he use the reliever he had? Well, yes and no. He used Clay Condrey, who pitched great, and Fabio Castro, who was shaky in notching his first big-league save, but what about Randy Wolf? Why couldn’t Wolf be used in the ‘pen?

Wolf pitched Monday night in Philadelphia and is slated to go on Saturday in Miami, but when the Dodgers won and the game went into extra innings, it was all hands on deck as far as I was concerned. Plus, since there is talk of Wolf being bumped from his next start so that the Phillies can move up Brett Myers and Cole Hamels to pitch on short rest, perhaps it would have been smart to get the starter ready.

Then again, the game only lasted 14 innings. Perhaps Wolf was going to pitch from the 15th inning on?

Fair, not foul

From our vantage point in the press box at RFK Stadium, we can’t see the right-field corner where Chase Utley’s “foul” ball apparently landed. Better yet, from the press box at RFK, we can’t see the outfield.

At all.

Last night I had a view of most of the infield, but not of the second baseman because there was a big, white pillar blocking my view. That wasn’t as bad as the view Phil Sheridan of the Inquirer had sitting directly to my right. If he wanted to see the pitcher, he had to lean hard to the left.

Then again, Phil used to come to RFK to cover Eagles-Redskins games back in the old days. Based on what I’ve seen of the old ballpark, I imagine those games made for cozy conditions with the press corps.

From the Phillies first-base dugout, the view is equally as bad though they can see most of the outfield. However, the one spot they can’t see is the right-field corner – exactly where Utley’s home run landed.

So when Manuel says he couldn’t see where the ball went and couldn’t confront the umpires over the poor call, he isn’t exaggerating. There is no way he could see anything going on in the right-field corner. From Manuel’s spot in the dugout, right field is nothing but a rumor.

The point is, a lot of people in the press had no idea Utley’s shot had struck the foul pole because we couldn’t see it. Meanwhile, we didn’t get the Nationals TV feed in the press box. Instead, we could only see the in-house scoreboard feed, which wasn’t about to show a replay contradicting the call on the field.

So when I got down to the clubhouse after the game, I was a little taken aback by Charlie Manuel’s anger. Obviously, he was able to see something we (or I had not) and that drastically changed things. It wasn’t until I got home and watched the highlights shows that I saw that first-base umpire Rob Drake blew it.

Nevertheless, while Manuel expressed his displeasure at the bad call – as well as his team’s inability to get a hit with runners in scoring position – all I keep thinking to myself was, “It’s always something with this team… this is the way it’s going to end for them, isn’t it?”

Maybe.

But maybe not. The one thing that stood out amidst the hand wringing by the Phillies’ officials was Utley’s demeanor and attitude. He was not going to break character or allow himself to lose his focus on the task at hand. Sure, he recited all of the usual clichés, but the thing with Utley is that he believes what he says.

“When you look at the replay in regular [speed], it's hard to tell,” Utley explained. “When you slow it down, it's easy to tell. Everybody makes mistakes. We have to put this behind us and come out tomorrow ready to go.”

He will put this episode behind him and come back the next day and try to win.

About last night

The Phillies' bullpen presented a host of plots and sub-plots in the loss to the Astros last night. For one thing, there were a bunch of curiosities regarding Ryan Madson’s stint in the eighth and ninth innings.

Let the second-guessing begin.

To start, it was odd that Madson was instructed to intentionally walk Mike Lamb with one out and a runner on second and Willy Taveras on deck. Yes, first base was open and the intentional walk is the “baseball move” in that situation. But no matter if there were a force at second or not, it would have been very difficult for the Madson or the Phillies to coax a double play out of Taveras. Obviously, Taveras is very quick. His 29 stolen bases, leadoff position in the Astros’ batting order, and recent 30-game hitting streak seem to indicate that.

But what about the fact that Taveras has grounded into just five double plays in 519 plate appearances this season. Or the fact that it took me less than 30 seconds to dig up those numbers on Taveras – surely Charlie and his staff had those digits next to them in the dugout.

Right?

Yet after Madson struck out Craig Biggio for the second out in the ninth, the right-hander’s night should have been over. With switch-hitter Lance Berkman coming up, surely Charlie knew that the Astros’ slugger was hitting .270 against lefties as opposed to .322 against righties… right? Never mind the fact that Madson has a documented weakness against lefties. Following my long drive which left me a bit wired after dodging trucks and construction on the Turnpike, I dug up a little info before I was finally able to sleep. So thinking back on that hanging curve that Madson threw Berkman with two strikes, two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth, I read this from the annual Baseball Prospectus yearbook:

… The difference between his somewhat lucky 2004 and his slightly disappointing 2005 was that left-handed hitters figured out the tall righty, but he should be able to recover if he returns to throwing his fastball inside to lefties to set up his plus change outside. He also features an average curve with a slurvy break.

Interestingly, here’s what Charlie said when asked about Madson offering that slurvy curve with two strikes to Berkman:

“I would have liked to see him bust him hard in,” Charlie said after the game.

Of course the big question was why was Madson in there to face Berkman to begin with. Why didn’t Charlie turn to closer Tom Gordon? Well, Charlie wanted him to start the 10th inning. How about 21-year-old lefty Fabio Castro or slightly more seasoned lefty Eude Brito?

“I thought about [Castro], but I thought maybe that he would walk the guy,” Manuel said. “I thought it was putting him in a tough situation.”

Lefty Aaron Fultz? He’s nursing nagging shoulder soreness.

So how about 16-year veteran Arthur Rhodes? He’s a lefty and been around long enough to know that the situation was tailor made for him to come in and get the Phillies out of the jam. Besides, wasn’t Wednesday night’s game the perfect example of why the Phillies traded away Jason Michaels to get Rhodes?

So Charlie, why not bring Rhodes in to face Berkman?

“Rhodes told me he couldn’t go… “

What?

“He said his shoulder was sore.”

Let’s get this straight. The veteran lefty specialist couldn’t come into a September game that very well could affect the Phillies’ playoff chances because he shoulder was sore? He’s getting paid $3.7 million this season to pitch in those types of situations and his shoulder is sore?

Isn’t Rhodes the same guy who called out Cory Lidle for eating ice cream after games and pursuing off-field interests like poker and flying airplanes? Forget the fact that Lidle never missed a start during his time with the Phillies, except for the time when he had one pushed back to take care of a family emergency. In the end, it was Rhodes who didn’t answer the call.

If the Phillies fail to make it to the playoffs for the 13th straight October, they can blame the bullpen.

Charlie vs. Dallas

Anyone who saw Jim Salisbury's story in the Inquirer this morning certainly has an opinion on the little dust-up between Charlie Manuel and Dallas Green, or "Coot-off" as it has been called in these parts. I'm not going to weigh in on either end, but Manuel is one tough dude. He's already survived cancer and a heart attack so he's going to be hard to beat in a urban combat setting.

As far as the tale of the tape goes, Dallas Green was 454-478 as a Major League manager (169-130 for the Phillies), while Manuel is 366-325 and 146-134 with the Phillies.

Dallas has that ring, though as the honeymoon reaches its 26th year.

Manuel and Gillick on Myers

MANUELWhen I listened to him, it was something that comment they put out described it so there’s nota whole lot more I can add to it.

I didn’t say too much too him.

I think getting back on the mound will be good for him and I think he’s ready. I don’t think this is going to be a big distraction at all for him.

(matured) I don’t know what I want to say about that.

(Belle) Not to our players it wasn’t. We faced different problems in Cleveland. Usually when a guy played, he played good. A pitcher pitched god and a player played good.

This morning around 8 a.m.

Gotta be able to take it I guess and handle it.

(Team) I think they’ll definitely rally behind him. I think if they like him, they’ll get behind him and I think they have respect for him.

(Reaction) My first reaction was I wanted everything to be all right.

(25 stay with through career) I think these things have a way of working themselves out.

(Michaels) I think that we handled that pretty good.

(reflection) I want our team to be perceived to be what it is. Of the teams in the big leagues that I’ve been around, I think we have an outstanding group of guys. You have problems with every single one of them. Problems are a part of life. Problems are something you work through.

(on Manuel) Do I think it reflects on me? Absolutely not.

GILLICK How troubling is this for you and the team? At this point, it's a sensitive issue, and I certainly think that anything affects the players or our team, we take it very seriously.

Expect Myers to be mentally ready? I think he will be. I think he's the type of guy who, when he gets between the stripes on the field, I think he'll certainly be competitive. One of the things with Brett is sometimes he's a little too competitive and overthrows a little bit. I think he might be a little emotional tomorrow.

Support for Brett? Again, we offer whatever support for he and his wife. Whatever needs they might have, the Phillies are her to support not only Brett and Kim, but any of our players.

Skipping him tomorrow? You'd have to ask the manager about that. I don't make that.

As a longtime baseball man, do you think it's a good idea for him to pitch? I think he'll be fine and it's in the best interests of the club. He's been our best pitcher. I think it's in the best interests of the club that he pitches tomorrow.

Spoken to him? Yeah, I've had an opportunity to talk to him.

State his mind? I can't comment on that.

Did he tell you what happened? I can't comment on that, basically, because this is ongoing from a legal standpoint.

I found out early this morning.

My indication was that he wanted to pitch tomorrow. You'd have to talk to Charlie and Rich, but I don't think there was much thought about skipping him.

Significant distraction? I think our players are professional. When you go out on the field, you try to put any distraction behind you, whatever it might be. When you're on the field, there's intensity. I think that's what our players will do.

Reaction? It's an unfortunate situation. I wish whatever did occur didn't occur.

Embarrassment? I don't know that it's an embarrassment. It's certainly something that we're very sensitive to. We're going to be supportive of the players no matter what the situation is.

Discipline? There have been some charges made, and I think we have to wait until the outcome of whatever proceedings the commonwealth of Massachussetts brings forward. I think you have to wait until the outcome before you think about discipline.

Manuel safe... for now

One of the more popular questions I’m asked these days is whether or not Charlie Manuel’s job is in jeopardy. Say, for instance, the Phillies’ skid continues to the All-Star Break and the team falls deeper into the middle of the pack – does the plug get pulled on Manuel? People are always surprised by how quickly I answer.

"No," I say.

Of course, anything can happen. Who knows, if things continue on the current path, general manager Pat Gillick might have no choice but to make a change. And you can’t fire 25 guys who are playing without much passion, right?

Nevertheless, I don’t get any indication from anyone with the Phillies that Manuel is on the proverbial hot seat. Along those lines, I get the impression that Gillick had already chalked this season up as a “throwaway year” where he can gauge the organization, what he has and what he needs. Since the players all love Charlie so much, why rock the boat? Gillick is smart enough to realize that firing Charlie is a good way to start a mutiny which would make it very difficult for players to want to come play for the Phillies – or stay.

Besides, there is nothing in Gillick’s past that indicates that he will make a change in the middle of a season. In fact, just once during the venerable GM’s long career has he switched managers mid season and that was in 1989 with the Blue Jays when he removed Jimy Williams and replaced him with Cito Gaston.

That team won the AL East, too.

So, fans, get used to Manuel in the dugout for the rest of this season (and maybe next year, too).

Playoffs? More important than whether or not Manuel remains on as the Phillies manager is whether or not the team has a shot at the playoffs. Well, yeah… of course they do.

There are still 95 games left in the season and though the Phillies really have no shot at winning the NL East – at least realistically they don’t – the team made a run at the playoffs last year when they were done and buried at the All-Star Break.

That’s where the Phillies checked in at 45-44, struggling to barely play .500 ball. Actually, at game 102, Roger Clemens beat the Phillies in Houston to send them to 52-50, yet the team still played for a playoff spot on the last day of the season.

Then again, it took a 43-30 record in the second half – 36-24 from game 102 on – just to get back into contention.

Is that the way it’s going to be again this season?

Rained out

If there was ever a day when the Phillies needed a rain out, Saturday was the day. We’re not sure, but it appeared as if Charlie Manuel was doing some sort of rain dance during his argument with third-base ump James Hoye last night. Maybe that’s why Charlie couldn’t get ejected – he was dancing instead of dropping the magic word.

Actually, the Phillies brass deserves a rare kudos for doing the right thing and calling Saturday night’s game before anyone showed up at the park. There have been way too many nights when the club would open the doors, get everyone in the park to wait around for an hour or two just to pull the plug.

That’s no fun for anyone. The players don’t like it, the media doesn’t like it, and the fans certainly don’t like it either.

With the escalating costs of going to a game for regular folks – not to mention the spiking gas prices – it’s nice to see that the Phillies thought ahead and let everyone stay at home to watch the hockey game on CSN.

Or…

Maybe they TiVo-ed it and tuned in to Henry Rollins’ new show on IFC. Rollins, of course, is the “aging, alternative icon” and media gadfly better known for work as the singer for the Rollins Band (and Black Flag) as well as a riveting spoken word performer.

Plus, Rollins is from D.C., which isn’t a bad thing.

Nevertheless, it’s apparent that the Rollins show is still finding its way, though it certainly has the potential to be as entertaining as IFC’s other show, “Dinner for Five,” hosted by actor/director Jon Favreau.

On the other hand…

As far as the other Rollins goes – Jimmy that is – his hitless skid reached 13 at-bats and 14 plate appearances. Since the club left Atlanta for Colorado last week, Rollins has just four hits in 28 at-bats (.143) and says his swing is a bit out of whack.

Plus, because of some blisters and callouses on his thumbs that sting when he swings right-handed, Rollins took Friday night off against lefty Scott Olsen. But he’ll be back in there against righty Sergio Mitre on Sunday afternoon.

“He's in a little funk right now,” Manuel said on Friday afternoon. “He pulling off the ball right now, dribbling it off the end of the bat. He'll sit and get a breather. When he's hitting line drives, he's short and quick to the ball. During the streak, he was pretty consistent with that. He'll get it back.”

See, the rainout was good. Everyone got to take a break.

Red-hot Thome Not only did Jim Thome smash his ninth homer of the season in last night's win for the White Sox over the Twins, but also, the slugger scored another run on Saturday to keep his perfect streak going.

The streak? Thome has scored a run in every game this season.

It sounds like Thome is healthy.

One down, 161 more to go...

Last year on Opening Day, Charlie Manuel sat on top of the bench in the middle of the dugout and fielded question after question about why he chose to start Placido Polanco at second base over Chase Utley during his pre-game meeting with the writers. Actually, if an interview session were a prize fight, someone would have come in and stopped it.

But no more than 30 seconds later, Manuel walked up the dugout steps to talk to the TV folks who asked wistful inanities like, “Charlie, does Opening Day ever get old?”

This year, Manuel was asked why he chose to start Abraham Nunez at third base over David Bell, but there was none of the rancor or a challenging nature to the questions. It seemed as if everyone was OK with the skipper’s decision even though Bell was a little unhappy with sitting on the bench.

What a difference a year makes.

Either way, Opening Day always reminded me of going to church on Christmas. The press box is always packed with people who aren’t going to be back next time. They take care of their yearly obligation early and might show up at the end if there is a pennant race.

Etc. Jim Salisbury had an interesting story in Tuesday’s Inquirer about Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa’s role in Jimmy Rollins’ final at bat. According to the story, LaRussa told his pitcher Adam Wainright to quit nitpicking and throw something around the plate after the count had reached 3-0.

Also in the Cardinals’ clubhouse, Scott Rolen heard sarcastic boos from some teammates when he exited the training room and headed toward his locker. It seems as if they find the Philly fans’ treatment of the former Phillie very funny.

Which, of course, it is.

Rolen told me that he thinks his former teammate Jimmy Rollins has a really good chance to threaten Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. The reason, Rolen said, is that Rollins has the ability to beat out an infield hit with his speed, and he can bunt for a hit.

“He has all the tools,” Rolen said.

But, it’s not all about simply having the tools. There’s a mental part to it, too.

“Give him credit because he has to go out there and do it.”

When with the Phillies, Rolen and Rollins had different ways of doing things that sometimes caused a bit of (very minor) friction between the pair, but one thing for sure is that Rollins has a ton of respect for Rolen. Before a game in Washington last season, Rollins talked about how much he admired his former teammate as a player.

Then again, Rollins is a true fan of the game and anyone who is a fan of baseball has a real admiration for Rolen.

Apropos of nothing, Rolen and Randy Wolf are probably the most interesting and entertaining ballplayers to talk to. Rollins is up there, too, especially when talking about certain minutia of the game. Once, probably in late 2001 or 2002, he demonstrated to this writer how to come to a quick stop after running at full speed. It seems as if there is a proper technique and form to everything in baseball.

He has a point… Before Sunday’s exhibition against the Red Sox, Manuel talked candidly about his lack of double switches last season. It seems as if Charlie didn’t think he had the artillery to yank a starter out of the game.

In fact, when Manuel contemplated a double switch, he said, he’d look to his right from the corner of the dugout and didn’t think Tomas Perez or Endy Chavez could get it done.

It’s hard to disagree with that.

Writing for free

I was chatting with Palmyra, Pa. and the Wilmington News Journal's Doug Lesmerises while standing on the field at Citizens Bank Park prior to the Opening Day game between the Phillies and the Washington Nationals. Aside from the normal standing-around-and-waiting banter that is the lifeblood of the baseball writer, I made some sort of crack to Doug about the blog he and the other staff writers keep on the paper's Web site; I kind of liked the feature and thought it was a good way for the paper to develop a rapport with the readers. But when added that perhaps Doug should start a blog of his own, he gave me the best answer I had ever heard regarding "real" writers and the trendiest part of the Web:

"Why would I want to write for free?"

You're damned right, Doug. Thanks.

After that, we went back to tlking about why we hated Opening Day, unlike the touchy-feely, baseball-as-a-metaphor-for-life and time-starts-on-Opening-Day sissies who listen to NPR and read crap like Roger Angell (yeah, that's right... he sucks!). We hate Opening Day for the same reason a devout church goer dislikes mass on Christmas.

Sure, it's petty, but whatever. Without writers, TV people would have no idea what to do. And speaking of pettiness, here's an excerpt from a story I wrote describing the scene on Opening Day:

As an interesting aside, it is kind of funny to note that after Manuel was grilled by the writers for nearly 30 minutes, he walked up the dugout steps for a brief session with the gaggle of TV reporters on hand where he was greeted with smiling faces and innocuous questions like, "Charlie, the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. Does opening day ever get old?"

Am I arrogant enough to think I know more than TV reporters and people of that ilk?

Yes.

But then again, I'm the one writing for free.