and replace him with Sanjaya Malakhar, who's available now that he's been voted off American Idol.
It would make about as much sense as the Phillies' latest move, that's for sure. Heck, after the front office's desperation following a season where they spent way too much money on Adam Eaton at the expense of adding another powerful bat in the outfield and fortifying their bullpen, Manuel might welcome being fired. And hey, Sanjaya would help attendance -- millions of Americans voted for him, after all.
ESPN.com reported tonight that the Phillies have relegated #1 starter Brett Myers (who has struggled) to the bullpen (with Myers' agreement) and have inserted former #6 starter Jon Lieber into the rotation. As Jayson Stark commented, it's a desperate move.
What is The Puppetmaster, Pat Gillick, thinking? What must Charlie Manuel be thinking? First, he calls out the local prima donna sports talk show host. Now, he has to take a promising #1 starter who recently had his contract extended and hopes to cure him in the set-up role in a combustible bullpen. In my family, we tend to think that bad things happen in threes. What's next for Charlie Manuel -- will the Phillies ownership bail Ugueth Urbina out of a Venezuelan jail and put him back into the bullpen mix?
3-9 and counting.
Some pundits are throwing Charlie Manuel under the bus.
They'd better check first, though, to make sure that the wheels haven't fallen off of it.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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2 comments:
I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:
www.americanlegends.info
If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.
Thanks,
David
Earth to Sportsprof:
Sydney Johnson has an offer on the table from PU. Please discuss.
Is he a second tier choice? He was one of your original # 2s along w Mitch Henderson. Your old #1 Craig Robinson seemed out for the obvious (to a non PU alum anyway) honorable reasons of not bolting a job he had commited to at Brown.
The talk of Larry Brown and Phil Jackson was really just wishful thinking.
Getting the Tigers jump-started is going to take serious energy and commitment from a coach. Maybe youth IS the answer. Maybe the Princeton A.D. is reading the tea leaves better than he did w Joe Scott. IF (not a done deal yet, which is why perhaps [?] out of loyalty you haven't commented) Johnson accepts, he fulfills the criteria of connection to the old Capon, Carril + Carmody line. He was a b-ball hero at PU. He's at a successful place now.
Joe Scott was all these things too--and of course a head coach, not an asst. Johnson also has shown he can work with big time black players at G'town and his connection is to the most successful recent PU coach from a famous b-ball coaching family.
Seems like a good choice to me. But will he take it? Those alums are pretty demanding and awfuly persnickety (SP?) about correctness of the system and lineage. My guess is they have no choice but to be supportive now that the chips are down. A bit like Joe Scott at Denver, there's no place to go but up in Tigertown.
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