During the first few months of this aging baseball season, nearly everything Phillies manager Charlie Manuel touched turned to gold. Charlie Midas Manuel. He pulled starting pitchers at the right time, arranged the lineup just the right way, brought in the right reliever to face the right batter... The list goes on and on and the results were a Phillies team that was on the cusp of running away with the NL East division.
But the last few weeks have seen the division lead shrink to zero and the Phillies now find themselves tied for first with the dreaded New York Metropolitans [call the National League team from New York by their full name, after all, you wouldn't call your worst enemy Billy or Tim] as they head to New York for a three game series. The Florida Marlins, who just took two of three from the Phillies are just a half game back.
The biggest reason for the stretch of hard times has been a sputtering of the once vaunted Phillies offense. Through much of the summer, getting the Phillies to score runs has been like getting your grandfather to go see an audiologist. Drying paint provides greater entertainment.
Today's newspapers bring quotes from Manuel that he's unhappy with the teams situational hitting. He wishes the hitters would hit behind the runner more, move the runner over, make productive outs, etc., etc., basically advocating small-ball to get the team out of their offensive rut.
Here's an idea: Just let them just hit the ball. Forget about "the right way". Maybe the strikeouts will rise and I'll be the first to say there are too many of those already, and maybe there will be some instances where tactics from The Book are neglected. But the hitters on this team are hitters, mashers even, and there is no sense making them into something they are not.
Clearly, there's a lot of paralysis by analysis going on for a group of hitters whose job it has never been to be role players. Shane Victorino or Carlos Ruiz were probably bred for supporting roles and so maybe they should be a bit more adept at bat control, but consider the career histories of Geoff Jenkins and Pedro Feliz. These two were called upon to supply a lot of the power on their previous teams. Jenkins was a middle-of-the-order man in Milwaukee and Pete Happy was charged with the task of making pitchers pay for intentionally walking Barry Bonds. Perhaps they were miscast in those roles, but that doesn't mean they should be expected to be the baseball equivalent of John C. Reilly or Stanley Tucci all of a sudden after attempting to be Clint Eastwood or John Wayne their entire time in the big leagues.
When the Phillies began slumping in June, it was nothing more than that, a slump. But all this talk of situational hitting has made a mountain out of a mole hill.
Charlie's lost his calendar, after all he would normally be the first to tell you, this is hitting season.
