Charlie Manuel
THE FALL GUY
By John Leon
Let me start by saying that I am not, never will be and don’t want to be a fan of the managing style of Charlie Manuel of the Phillies. Charlie, by all reports, is a wonderful man and has no ill will toward anyone, and for that he has my respect. I just don’t care for his managing style that’s all. The players love him and that’s great, but winning is the bottom line and he got lucky this year. The players played hard all year for him, but he still does some stuff that you have to question.
He signed a two-year deal with a club option for a third year, to continue managing the Phillies. Was this the right deal for the Phils and the fans? I believe that Charlie is being set up to be the fall guy if the Phils do not continue to progress after the year that just had.
Follow along with my theories and see if they don’t make sense.
Number one is the fact that the General Manager Pat Gillick, has already stated that 2008 will be his last year at the helm of the Phils. That leaves Charlie in the unenviable position of being the manager for a new GM, who may or not be a Charlie fan. How would you like to be a new boss that is stuck with workers that you didn’t hire? Wouldn’t you want to bring in your own people? Gillick by his own admission said that the pitchers in the farm system wouldn’t be ready until 2009.
Anyone want to wait for that? By then, Howard will need to be paid, along with Hamels. It’s a revolving door that never stops.
The second point is the frugal nature of the Phils and their ownership. With over 17 million dollars that’s available to spend this off season, they will not attempt, in my opinion, to re-sign CF Aaron Rowand, P Kyle Lohse and maybe P J.C. Romero. Instead they will try to replace them with lower priced players, such as Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Kyle Kendrick and J.D. Durbin.
All of those players above contributed to the success of the team this year but in a part-time way. By taking Rowand out of the equation, you not only save a possible 30 million over 3 years, but you lose big time in the clubhouse. If you don’t think that’s not important, all you have to do is look across the street and ask the Eagles how that’s working for them without number 54 in there.
So again, you have bad combination adding up:
A- A lame duck GM
B- Not being willing to spend the necessary cash to keep vital players &
C- trying to scrape by with less and hoping that nobody gets hurt. That worked well this year huh?
Curt Schilling may be a one-year rental at 41 years old. The bullpen had breakdowns in Madsen, Myers and Gordon. Garcia, Leiber and Eaton were busts, and now the clubhouse will be without a leader. Howard, Rollins and d Utley are not chicken feed but even Utley and Howard went down this year, and by all accounts other than Rollins, they are not comfortable speaking up. Hence, Rowand’s value.
There isn’t a pitcher out there worth the money but that’s the market this year. Rowand is going to get Eric Byrnes money and deservedly so. The catching situation is solidified with Ruiz and Coste, but does Mike Lowell excite you? He’s a solid 3B but would you leave Boston for Philly? Nah, me either.
So that leaves poor Charlie twisting in the wind. The scenario could be uglier than it was this year. Barring another Mets collapse, does anyone think that the Phils will be better next year? The Braves will be right there, and you know New York will spend the cash. Let’s not forget that Washington is on the upswing with their young players and Florida’s always a pain in the ass.
I’m not a big Charlie fan, but this is not fair to anyone to be put in this position. You won’t fire the players so guess who goes of the Phils don’t provide him with the tools to work with?
The Fall Guy.
