Phillies 10, Giants 2 epilogue

Three more points about last night's game.

• We’ve all read about the success Jon Lieber has with Todd Pratt as his personal catcher. In general, the rotation prefers the quick pace and big target Pratt sets to that of Mike Lieberthal. But what about the combination of Vicente Padilla and Lieberthal? Lieberthal seems to have the magic touch handling the enigmatic pitcher.
• Playing manager, after Jimmy Rollins popped up the first pitch of the game, I would have issued a warning. After he swung off his heels his second at bat - obviously going for the long ball - I would have yanked him. That was terrible.
• Just as I’m adjusting my grade of Charlie Manuel from a "B-" to a "C" for his situational use of certain players and handling of Rollins, Manuel needs to make some adjustments to the lineup, including leadoff spot and finding more opportunities to get Jason Michaels into the lineup.

Comments

[David]

Can't believe the last place team in the East is 5 games above .500. I wonder if that's ever happened in any sport this late in the season.

[Tom Goodman]

I have never seen one at-bat consisting of a single swing draw so much ire, all of it justified. I like J-Roll, but I am beginning to think he needs a serious talking to. The problem is he needed it months ago, not in the heat of the pennant chase with 25 games left.

[Tom Goodman]

35 games.

[Deanna]

I can't believe the last place team in the East is above .500 and the first place team in the west is below .500.

I also can't believe Roger Clemens hasn't gotten a win for the Astros since the Phillies became a serious threat to the Wild Card.

(I'm now totally imagining Jimmy Rollins being like Willie Mays Hayes in the movie Major League, having to do 50 pushups every time he pops a ball up, heh)

[Tom G]

We are all wondering why CM hasnt talked to JRoll about all this...how do we know he hasnt? Maybe he has and Rollins isn;t listening.

[George S]

I also fell for that "B-" grade.

But even then, my biggest criticism of CM was that he allows veteran players to play through their slumps, costing the Phillies games. He kept putting Adams out there, Worrell out there, Offerman out there, Bell out there, Thome out there, Cormier out there, and Padilla out there when all of those players were struggling for prolonged periods.
JR follows the same pattern; no change in PT, no move from the leadoff spot. Let him work it out.

It's fine to have confidence in a veteran player. They usually do come out of it fairly quickly. But as manager you do reach a point where a slump becomes prolonged and starts to erode the confidence of the whole team (not to mention directly leading to losses). In some cases it's not a slump at all, it's a general decline in their game, or a flaw in their swing/delivery, or a nagging physical problem.

This is a team in a desperate pennant fight. This is an offense that cannot overcome 2-3 holes in the lineup offensively night after night. This is a team that cannot make up 4-5 run deficits while ineffective pitchers work it out.

This is clearly the expectation, however, when the above players continued to play regularly, stay in the rotation, or be brought into the game in critical situations.

[David]

Now the worst team is SIX games over .500

Amazing