Manuel's Leash Getting Shorter
Once again the Phillies have spent at least the first of the opening month of the season digging a hole for themselves. I’m finally on the “fire Charlie Manuel” bandwagon with both feet.
This team is ridiculously undisciplined. Guys swing at the first pitch in bad situations with regularity and it’s accepted without question. Running the bases looks like a physics course to this team. The one creative thing Manuel actually did — moving Ryan Howard up in the lineup — he bailed on in the first week.
Some day someone will have to explain to me why Jimmy Rollins is so revered in this town. He’s an average fielder, a lead-off hitter that wants to hit for power, and despite the speed to hit an inside-the-park home run he never steals. That, of course, may be the coaches’ fault. With Rollins and Shane Victorino at the top of the lineup, the team should terrorize pitchers on the base paths.
Everyone already knows the bullpen is attrocious, but I can’t pin that on Manuel. Howard and Chase Utley need to snap out of slow starts as well. It can even be argued that pro baseball players should take a pitch after a run has been walked in and/or a pitcher just came into the game.
But when the same stuff keeps happening year after year, something has to change. And bottom line, it’s easier to change the manager than the roster at this point.
With Houston in town this weekend and Washington on the schedule twice in the next couple of weeks, the Phils can turn things around quickly. If they don’t, it’s time to send Manuel packing.
Week-in-Review:
· I guess if you have a sports blog, you almost have to mention Don Imus this week. Calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy headed hoes” was obviously stupid, ignorant, etc. Yet before his firing is celebrated, I think there should be concern over the precedent of firing even an idiot for what he says. I also question whether any of this becomes what it became if it was purely sexist without being racist.
Imus worked for CBS, and they had every right to fire him. As a solitary thing, I have no problem with the firing. But the people that were crying foul ought to ask themselves why, for example, a black comic can make racially insensitive comments about whites without being protested against as a racist. (Hint: there’s no answer that doesn’t involve a double standard.)
· The Sixers are fulfilling the nightmare scenario of winning enough to just miss the playoffs. The one good thing will likely be that they won’t get to draft Kevin Durant — I just think he’ll end up a small forward, and Andre Iguodala and Rodney Carney are enough slashing forwards for one team.
This team is ridiculously undisciplined. Guys swing at the first pitch in bad situations with regularity and it’s accepted without question. Running the bases looks like a physics course to this team. The one creative thing Manuel actually did — moving Ryan Howard up in the lineup — he bailed on in the first week.
Some day someone will have to explain to me why Jimmy Rollins is so revered in this town. He’s an average fielder, a lead-off hitter that wants to hit for power, and despite the speed to hit an inside-the-park home run he never steals. That, of course, may be the coaches’ fault. With Rollins and Shane Victorino at the top of the lineup, the team should terrorize pitchers on the base paths.
Everyone already knows the bullpen is attrocious, but I can’t pin that on Manuel. Howard and Chase Utley need to snap out of slow starts as well. It can even be argued that pro baseball players should take a pitch after a run has been walked in and/or a pitcher just came into the game.
But when the same stuff keeps happening year after year, something has to change. And bottom line, it’s easier to change the manager than the roster at this point.
With Houston in town this weekend and Washington on the schedule twice in the next couple of weeks, the Phils can turn things around quickly. If they don’t, it’s time to send Manuel packing.
Week-in-Review:
· I guess if you have a sports blog, you almost have to mention Don Imus this week. Calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy headed hoes” was obviously stupid, ignorant, etc. Yet before his firing is celebrated, I think there should be concern over the precedent of firing even an idiot for what he says. I also question whether any of this becomes what it became if it was purely sexist without being racist.
Imus worked for CBS, and they had every right to fire him. As a solitary thing, I have no problem with the firing. But the people that were crying foul ought to ask themselves why, for example, a black comic can make racially insensitive comments about whites without being protested against as a racist. (Hint: there’s no answer that doesn’t involve a double standard.)
· The Sixers are fulfilling the nightmare scenario of winning enough to just miss the playoffs. The one good thing will likely be that they won’t get to draft Kevin Durant — I just think he’ll end up a small forward, and Andre Iguodala and Rodney Carney are enough slashing forwards for one team.
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