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How the HELL Did the Phillies Lose?

B-Dub Written by B-Dub, Saturday October 08 2011
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I am going to apologize now because I have a feeling this article is going to nothing but a rambling diatribe regarding the Philadelphia Phillies shocking loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series.  I don't even know how to feel.  Mad, sad, disappointed, shocked, depressed, all of the above?

 

Let me just start by say that, yes, I think this is easily the worst choke job in the history of Philadelphia sports.  It may be the biggest choke in the history of all sports, but I haven't even had time to think about that yet.  I wasn't alive in 1964, when the Phillies had their infamous collapse to miss the playoffs, but that can't compare to this.  This Phillies team was favored by everyone, including all of the national media, to win the World Series and anything less than a championship had to be considered an epic failure.  Well, they didn't win.

 

The Phillies had a starting pitching staff for the ages and while it did get them the best record in baseball with a franchise record 102 wins, that means absolutely nothing.  Cliff Lee was the biggest free agent signing last offseason and he did not deliver in this NLDS.  He was staked to a four-run lead in Game 2 and coughed it up.  I don't care that he was virtually unhittable in two separate months during the regular season.  Lee got paid a king's ransom to win games like that in the playoffs and he didn't do it.  Sorry Cliffy, the gloves are off now.  You better lead this team to a World Series Championship next year or those fans you called the greatest in sports are going to start booing you.  And they would be justified in doing so.

 

While I'm on Lee, I think Charlie Manuel should have taken Lee out of that Game 2 an inning earlier than he did.  Lee obviously didn't have his best stuff and was left in too long.  But that was only one of the many things Manuel has done wrong since he led the team to a World Series win in 2008.  In the three seasons since that wonderful championship, the Phillies have lost in the World Series, lost in the NLCS and now lost in the NLDS.  In case you aren't paying attention, that shows that this Phillies team is going in the wrong direction. 

 

I don't care about regular season win totals.  I get enough of that useless crap from the Eagles every year under Andy Reid.  This team has the third highest payroll in MLB and was built to win it all.  Sure, there were problems with the lineup, like too many strikeouts and an inability to adequately hit left-handed pitchers, but Manuel is supposed to be a hitting guru.  Well apparently his idea of managing his players is to do nothing.  That's fine when the team wins, but this team hasn't won a World Series in the last three years.  Is that unfair of me to hold Manuel to such an impossibly high standard?  No.  He was given a roster full of All-Star talent and he decided to just sit there and do nothing this series while his hitters were not producing at the plate.  Is it time to start questioning the man who helped deliver only the second baseball championship in the 129 year history of the team?  I say damn right it is.

 

I wasn't going to even do this, but now I want to see what the regular Phillies hitters actually did in the series, so here are their averages and other relevant stats..

 

Jimmy Rollins          .450, 6 runs scored, 2 SB

Chase Utley            .438, 5 runs scored

Hunter Pence          .211, 3 runs, 4 RBIs

Ryan Howard         .105, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 6 SO

Shane Victorino      .316, 2 runs, 2 RBIs, 0 SB

Raul Ibanez             .200, 1 HR, 4 RBIs

Placido Polanco      .105, 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 RBIs

Carlos Ruiz             .059, 1 hit, 1 run

 

That is just pathetic and explains why the Phillies are no longer playing.  Howard and Ibanez did almost all of their hitting in the first two games of the series, then disappeared.  Pence came up small for a guy who played so well after he was acquired at the trade deadline.  Utley hit well, but got caught stealing and thrown out trying to reach third base on an infield hit.  Victorino had some hollow stats helped by 2 of the 3 hits off Chris Carpenter in Game 5.  And Polanco and Ruiz couldn't have played any worse if they tried.  Heck, if it weren't for Ben Francisco's pinch hit three-run homer in Game 3, the Phillies could have lost this thing in four games instead of five.  Ugly all the way around for the hitters.

 

Lee wasn't alone in pitching poorly in this series.  Roy Oswalt got smacked around pretty good in losing Game 4 as well.  As a matter of fact, the only pitchers who pitched well were Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Ryan Madson.  Yes, Halladay took the loss in the deciding Game 5, but he only gave up one stinking run in eight strong innings.  He deserved better and the hitters didn't deliver. 

 

Ryan Howard may have ruptured his left Achilles in making the final out of Game 5, which may force him to miss a good portion of the 2012 season.  That would be the same 2012 season when his big $25 million per year contract kicks in.  Look, I like Howard and understand that his job is to knock in runs and he does that well, but he is going to be horribly overpaid.  The man made the last out in the last two losing playoff series for the team.  Unless Howard leads this team to another championship, that might be his lasting legacy.  That would be a shame, but it would be reality.

 

Rollins, Madson, Oswalt, Ibanez and Brad Lidge are all free agents.  I think they only keep Madson, unless he wants crazy money.  In that case he's gone and they sign another lesser closer for next year.  Rollins wants a five-year contract and I say good luck finding a team that will offer you that Jimmy.  I'm betting he doesn't find a sucker out there willing to give a player in obvious decline a long-term contract.  If he settles for a three-year deal, he's back.  Otherwise you'll see either Wilson Valdez, Michael Martinez, minor leaguer Freddy Galvis or a free agent signing at shortstop next season.  Ibanez is gone.  Who cares?  John Mayberry, Jr. and one-time untouchable uber-prospect Domonic Brown will platoon in LF.  Lidge is gone too.  Thanks for the perfect '08 Brad.  We'll love you forever, but you can't pitch anymore.  There is a mutual option for Oswalt for $16 million that the team will not pick up.  I fully expect Oswalt to be wearing Yankee pinstripes next season.  Next year's rotation is Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Vance Worley and Joe Blanton.  No, nobody is going to take Blanton's contract off the Phillies hands.  And yes, that will probably still be the best starting rotation in baseball.

 

There is also the little matter of arbitration for Pence and Hamels.  Both are going to get major raises, which is the main reason Oswalt's option won't be picked up.  The team should try to sign both young players to long-term deals.  And besides Howard, a few other players like Lee are getting major bumps in their average salaries as well.  Yes, the team is making a ton of money, with over 200 consecutive sellouts, but no they won't become the Yankees with their payroll.  They refuse to pay the luxury tax, which sat at approximately $176 million this season, which is what the Phillies payroll was.  If GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. can't build a World Series winner with that much money, then maybe he deserves to get fired.

 

The Phillies are done too early in the playoffs once again because they couldn't hit.  At least last year you could rationalize it by pointing out that they were being shut down by the likes of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and the great San Francisco bullpen.  You can't use that excuse this year.  Sure Carpenter is an elite pitcher, but the Cardinals bullpen stinks and how the hell didn't this Phillies team smack around Edwin Jackson like a red-headed step-child?  Jackson stinks and he's not even left-handed. 

 

I'm still mad, sad, disappointed, shocked and depressed and now I'm downright dizzy, from talking in circles trying to figure out what went wrong with a team that should have won the World Series.  There is absolutely no excuse for what happened here.  The Phillies choked.  They choked like no other team in Philadelphia ever has.

 

This Phillies team had the talent to win and didn't.  I'm not exactly sure where to pin the blame here, but my best guess is that there is plenty of blame to go around.  Almost all of them deserve a piece of this crap pie.

 

What that means is that there won't be any sweeping changes among the players, the coaches or the front office.  I guess that's a good thing, but seeing as how this team is going backwards since their World Series win in 2008 maybe it's not.  If they keep up that trend, they won't even make the playoffs next year.  If that happens, it will be nuclear winter here in Philadelphia and there will have to be drastic changes.  Most likely that would cost Manuel his job, fair or not.

 

This Phillies team is built to win now.  Heck, they have been built to win now for the last three years and they haven't gotten it done.  The core of this team is aging rapidly before our eyes and if they don't start winning more rings next year, they will be lumped in with the Atlanta Braves teams that won 14 consecutive Division titles and only won a single World Series. 

 

I can't even bring myself to think about that right now, because I'm still trying to process how this Phillies season is over already.  Where is my parade dammit?

 

The Phillies will re-tool and make another run at a championship next year.  If they don't win then, it might just be time to blow this team up and start over.

 

 


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