The Phillies’ pursuit of longtime baseball exec Andy MacPhail for a position in their front office is “quite real,” a source tells Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. (CSN Philly’s Jim Salisbury first reported Philadelphia’s interest in MacPhail.) Rosenthal writes that adding MacPhail could create an interesting scenario, as it would potentially put MacPhail, who served as the Cubs’ president when Ryne Sandberg was inducted into the Hall of Fame, in position to fire Sandberg as the Phillies’ manager. Rosenthal writes that many within the industry feel that Sandberg is overmatched, but he adds that if current president Pat Gillick were going to dismiss Sandberg, he’d probably have done so by now. As such, the decision may fall to Gillick’s successor, who could make the move himself or hire a new general manager to do so.
A few more notes on a Phillies team that seems destined for change on the roster, in the front office and in the dugout in the coming months…
- GM Ruben Amaro Jr. told reporters, including MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, that he’s “fully supportive” of Sandberg and expects him to finish out the 2015 season as the team’s manager. Sandberg added that he’s not concerned about potentially being on the hot seat, telling reporters, “I worry about the game today and what has to be done today. That’s the focus and the mindset for me.”
- The Phillies placed Jerome Williams on the disabled list and have yet to announce a starter for Sunday’s contest, but Salisbury writes that it won’t be top prospect Aaron Nola. The No. 7 pick in the 2014 draft, Nola is slated to make his Triple-A debut tomorrow evening and will continue on that schedule. “We have to do what’s right for Aaron Nola and his development and that’s not going to change,” Amaro said of Nola. “And he’s going to be in the big leagues at some point this year. I don’t think there’s any question about that, if he continues to progress the way he’s progressed so far.”
- Within that piece, Salisbury also provides an update on the injured Cliff Lee. Following an exam on Tuesday of this week, it was recommended that Lee hold off from throwing for another three to four weeks. Amaro said that in about a month’s time, the team will have a clearer image of Lee’s future. The former Cy Young winner has been resting a small tear in his flexor tendon in an attempt to avoid a surgical repair that would come with a nine-month recovery timeline.
Why have Nola debut this year at all? Why not wait until the second week of June next year which will ensure he isn’t super 2 and they get an extra year of service from him.
It’s not like the Phillies are going to be competing before then.
Totally agree, no reason to rush Nola at all. They should just go ahead and stretch Francoeur out and make him a starter. What did he throw the other night? Close to 50 pitches?
48…89mph on the gun with a filthy slider… and by filthy I mean a good one and then one that can be hit for home run derby. Those 50/50_odds do give him current #4 stuff for the Phillies. He successfully walked to the mound 8 times with El Paso last season. I think we all know a winner when we see one. He gets the fastball up there much quicker that noted flamethrower Tim Wakefield
I’ve got to upvote these two comments. I’m sure Jason Lane can be had for almost nothing and then they’ve got #4 and #5. Can’t be any worse than what they’ve been trotting out there…
Last in the National League, but 1st in entertainment.
Not only that, but why allow him to get losses with no run support, and run the risk of losing confidence?
If a pitcher cannot deal with losses then he needs to change professions. Especially losses due to lack of run support. A pitcher’s main concern should be limiting the number of runs he allows and keeping those at a minimum thereby giving his team a chance win. If the team does not score enough runs, then yes the pitcher can be upset but if it shakes his confidence and that’s a bad sign.
I agree. We also have to consider that these pitchers don’t come out of nowhere and deal with lack of run support along the way. That said, the money issue does need to be considered. An extra year of control might be huge..
Even though I don’t like that style of roster management myself. I’d like to see MLB work this out so that players can take the field to help win games when they are ready
Living in Baton Rouge, and being a HUGE LSU fan, I got to see Nola when he was in high school and college. Absolutely NO WAY the Phillies should rush him to the big leagues now.
I have no “dispute” over the money/call-up issue. I just wanted to point out that if I pitcher knows his job and has his stuff working he will not lose confidence because of losses he can’t control…if he does he needs a new job or maybe a shrink.
Or he’s Zack Greinke
ok
How can you judge that Sandberg is overmatched? The Phillies are basically a AA team, they have no talent whatsoever. They have no hope of competing. The only way they can win a game is if their opponent loses by accident somehow, committing an error or something similar. The Phillies are a very bad ballclub, and no manager could possibly win with those players.
Wrong. Jeff Francouer is a AAA talent on the mound and with the bat.
I agree that no manager could win with this team, but that does not excuse Sandberg from being an utter dolt. Only an organization that would put together a team as bad as this with an astronomical payroll would have hired him in the first place. Poor planning, horrible allocation of resources, and stale, outdated thinking from top to bottom. The best thing that could happen to Phillies fans is a new ownership group.
Sadly the only way the Phillies are getting new ownership is by waiting for the current owners to die out.
So you are saying that what you believe to be a bad organization hired an ‘utter dolt’ to be their manager and that makes it true. I say give him some players to work with other than the two or three that still show promise and see what he can do. Otherwise, anybody they hire to replace Sandberg will be, in your view, another ‘utter dolt.’
When they change directions with young talent, Sandberg will likely be gone so that the “developmental bridge manager” can do his thing…the Kevin Cash thing. Ryno was my hero growing up…but he’s really done nothing to show he can manage…even with a bad roster…he had minor league experience…but if he wasn’t Ryno…he doesn’t get bumped along. The Phillies hired him for this position during this state of their franchise…they’ll move along soon…with Amaro and he will be gone…too many obvious ways to move in this current environment. Great market….rebuild and come back strong.
Sandberg retired, for the first time, in June of 1994. When he wanted to come back, for the 1996 season, according to local knowledge MacPhail DID NOT want to bring him back into the fold. His hand was forced by the executives at the Tribune Co.
MacPhail is not tied to Sandberg by history.
Sandberg has been working with next to nothing. Nobody can argue that. However, that doesn’t excuse his terrible decision making regarding the lineup, or leaving pitchers in for far too long once they’re tired earlier in the season (we’ll pardon Frenchy).
I feel badly for Ryno. He’s getting the blame for all of Amaro’s bad personnel decisions. Their window has closed.
Seems a little like Ventura in Chicago… doesn’t seem to be able to motivate a mediocre team. Every team can outplay their potential… Maybe for the Phillies that’s still 90 losses….but its been ugly…that Francouer outing was.the bottom…that was like a ship hitting the bottom of the ocean….fans can look back at that after they are good again and laugh.
I know Mets fans look at Francouer and laugh now, and he wasn’t even this bad for them.
Not that Mets fans need to laugh at anyone
Phillies might be paying Frenchy…but Mets still have Bobby Bonilla on the payroll
Bonilla has zero pinch-relief value in a blowout….Frenchy is the swiss army knife of baseball
The haul for Hamels and Francouer as a reliever will be huge now. Package them together. Having an extra long reliever around that can close out those 18-1 games is something not many teams have discovered yet.
Not only that, but no need for a pinch hitter when his slot comes around
The Phillies did some awful things on Tuesday, and I’m not even including the 8 HR they gave up (or the 19 runs, or…). First – it’s nice to be able to use a position player in a blowout so you don’t have to use up your BP. It’s kind of dumb to leave him in there when he’s obviously gassed. 48 pitches is really dumb.
They had other options – both Giles and Papelbon were available, but the phone was apparently off the hook. How that even happens in 2015 is beyond me. The BP coach, who’s ostensibly watching the game unfold, never thinks it odd that Francoeur is being left in? The pitching coach, who has the task of telling the BP coach to get someone ready, never connects the dot that a busy signal means something’s wrong? Why would there be a busy signal? Who else is the bullpen talking to? And if you DID get a busy signal and thought something was amiss, wouldn’t you send someone down there to find out?
And then, finally, they kept leaving him in despite the wishes of the veterans in the IF, particularly Utley. I get that Francouer is pretty much dispensable, but come on. It’s just not his job to pitch, and he’s not trained/conditioned for it. He’s going to get tired. Embarrassing. (And there’s the possibility of being so spent after that mound outing that he wouldn’t be of much use for a few days, thus shortening the bench even further.)
So yeah – Amaro & co. put some bad players around Sandberg, but it’s the skipper who’s misusing them in games. Doesn’t look to me like he has control of the situation at all.