PHILS PHACTS:
On The Same Page – Matt
Klentak and Pete Mackanin seem to be getting along just fine since they first
met in October. The Phillies named
Mackanin their manager in 2016 before they hired Klentak as general manager in
October. General managers often prefer their hand-picked men in the dugout, but
both said Tuesday they expect no problems next season. "I think if we're
collectively doing our jobs the right way and communicating the way that we
need to that there should never be an issue," Klentak said. "There
should never be a time where I want something to happen that he's doing the
other way. As long as we're communicating, which we will, there shouldn't be an
issue." "We're always going to talk," Mackanin said. "I'm
open to any suggestion. He gets the players for me, and I run the team with his
input. And I give him input on which players I'd like to have, so he makes that
final decision. Ultimately he ends up making my decision too. If he tells me he
wants this guy playing a little bit more, I'm open to it. I get it. I might not
agree with it, but in the end if he tells me to do it, I'll do it." Mackanin
later discussed numerous topics during his media session at the Winter
Meetings: Who's in center field? Mackanin called Odubel Herrera one of the
better defensive center fielders in the National League, but he knows the
Phillies just acquired Peter Bourjos
last week. Bourjos is regarded as one of the best defensive center fielders in
baseball. So who plays center? "In my mind right now, [Herrera] is the
incumbent center fielder, which doesn't mean it won't change in the
spring," Mackanin said. "As hard as he worked towards accomplishing
his goals defensively last year, I want to make him -- I don't want to
discourage him after doing such a good job for us." Interestingly,
Mackanin also said Herrera could get some time at second base in Spring
Training. Herrera played primarily second base in the Minor Leagues before
joining the Phillies last season. But the Phillies have other outfielders
coming through the system, so if they need to make room for somebody, Herrera
could transition to second to keep him in the lineup. "It might come to
that," Mackanin said. "I'm not looking to do that right now, but it
may happen. But I don't want to. He had such a great showing defensively that I
don't want to, like I said, discourage him from making him think it was all for
nothing." Bourjos will play: The Phillies did not acquire Bourjos
to sit on the bench. The Phillies believe he will perform better offensively if
he plays on a more regular basis. "There's a lot of people that feel that
he's better than the way he's played the last few years," Mackanin said.
"I'm one of them." Franco's D: Third baseman Maikel Franco had a fine
rookie season offensively, but he struggled defensively at times. He committed
10 errors in 75 games at third. "I think he got a little careless, and
we're going to see a Gold Glove-type performance out of him defensively,"
Mackanin said. "He felt like he let himself down last year. We know he's
better."
One On One With The Manager – At the end of the season, you
kind of talked about how getting a full-time job, how you could maybe do some
more stuff, implement some things and that you would take some time in the
off-season to kind of think about what that would be. Have you given much
thought about any specific things or adjustments? Well, I constantly find myself thinking of new
things, things I'd like to do, but I keep fighting the urge. I'm trying to
enjoy my off-season as much as possible before we start that grind of seven
months. But I've got some good ideas about just the way we're going to execute
drills. We're going to put a lot of emphasis on baserunning, for one, which is
why I eliminated your typical coach who is an outfielder/baserunning guy. Juan
is going to remain the outfield guy, and Mickey Morandini is going to take over
strictly baserunning and we are going to zero inasmuch as we can. I know
everybody talks about fundamentals and how we are really going to pay attention
to those things, but this is one way I feel we can really do that. Defense is a
very important part of the game, and I'm very happy that we've got some
outfielders that can cover a lot of ground and they are sure-handed
outfielders. That makes the pitching better which takes runs away. In a couple
areas, I feel we've already improved in that respect. A few more things like
that, we're going to introduce a few more different ways of going about doing
things. You had talked at the end of the season about how you've been in
different situations whereas part of scouting, whatever, you talked about you
look at free agents and which one are we going to get and sometimes you have to
flip the page to lesser guys. How much of a role have you had at the Winter
Meetings and looking over free agents? We gather in that suite every day
and just hash things out. We just talk about different players, who you run
into. You kind of walk around and talk to people that you know and get a
feeling of what other teams are looking for. You kind of have an idea, but it's
just about schmoozing people and trying to get some information, and they get
information from you. As I said, when I was with, for example, the Expos, we
would go over in our group, we would go over the list of free agents. And by
the time we would flip most pages to the back page, guys we can afford to get.
But then when I was with the Yankees as a scout, it was anybody. We could look
at anybody. The Phillies, and Matt, they have a certain way they go about doing
things. So we are discussing more than anything. I can't really comment much on
his attack, so to say. We just all give our input and they make the decisions. Given
where the roster is in terms of rebuilding, when you get to Spring Training,
how do you convince the players and the fan base, even, that there's any chance
to be competitive? The first thing I want to get across to the players is
that I'm looking for positive energy. I start with that. I tell them that --
I'll give you an example. Freddy Galvis
hit .260 something and he showed some promise there, and I think he's capable
of doing better. César Hernández started playing finally, and he showed a lot
of promise. We always felt like these guys were going to play well enough and
hit well enough to be part of the future, but now they finally have an
opportunity to do that. Maikel Franco
stepped into his role and showed us that he was going to be a solid
middle-of-the-order guy. Now that being said, all I can do as a manager to keep
these guys pointed in the right direction is make them feel like how good they
are, reinforce how good they are, and explain to these guys that in baseball,
it's not necessarily always going to go their way and when you get knocked
down, you're going to get knocked down during the course of the season, it's
how you get back up, rather than staying down on the ground. So my approach is
just to remain positive; at the same time, demand results. How about the
fans? The fans, well, let's put it this way: Somebody asked me how I was
going to manage the team knowing that we weren't really at the place we want to
be. Well, I manage -- I only know one way to manage. I just want to manage each
day to win that game. And if I can convince the players to worry about how they
compete on that given day, and let the fans know that we are competing and
doing the best we can with what we have, I don't see how -- I think the way the
players play will convince the fans that these guys are really trying and for
real. What's the biggest thing you're looking forward to in terms of next
season compared to last season where you had a lot of young guys and a lot of
guys showing that they could do things, but what are you looking for in terms
of a next step in terms of the guys that were on the roster last year? Well,
you take a guy like Galvis and Hernandez and Franco, and Cameron made some
strides late in the season, and he's a solid, strong-arm catcher, we've seen Odubel Herrera come out of
nowhere to start off pretty good. He faltered a bit and went back to .250,
.260, but then he battled back and hosed in right at .300. For me he's going to
become a perennial .300 hitter. He's one of the better center fielders in the
league in my opinion. That was a plus. Aaron Altherr, he made a
good impression. He still needs a ways to go. But he made a great impression,
as well as Cody Asche.
We feel strongly that he's better than he's shown. We want these guys -- the
next step is for Freddy to improve even more, for Hernández to improve. They
have to incrementally have to get better. That's what we're looking for all of
them to do, get better each year because we are counting on them to be part of
the future. You mentioned Herrera defensively. Bourjos, I guess, arguably,
is probably one of the guys that might be better than him defensively. How do
you see those guys working and in terms of rotation, playing time? You
know, I know that I've scouted Bourjos in the past, and I know that he's a
premiere center fielder. I'm told, although I haven't seen them play that much,
Aaron Altherr is an outstanding center fielder. What I saw out of Odubel this
year was very impressive. He made some mistakes, but he outran his mistakes.
He's flamboyant. He's not afraid to dive. He takes charge out there. To me a
center fielder, my opinion of a center fielder is that he catches every ball
that's hit in the air until he can't get it, and then the corners help him out.
And that's how Odubel plays. You saw it. If they are all three close to being
as good as Bourjos is, we have three center fielders, no matter where they
play, it's going to cover ground and help the pitching and take hits away and
we have improved that way. Do you see him playing more than Frenchy played
last year? Well, under the circumstances with what we have, he's going to
get a lot of playing time. There's a lot of people that feel that he's better
than the way he's played the last few years. I'm one of them. I like Peter Bourjos. I think
he's got an upside to him, and I'm looking forward to seeing him in the spring
and have Steve Henderson work with him and get him back on the right track. If
he gets enough playing time, that's what players need in order to get some kind
of a rhythm going. You made the deal for Hellickson from the Diamondbacks.
What do you like about him? He's a solid strike thrower. He's going to give
us some innings. He's got some experience. I know he started off extremely well
his first couple years and hasn't been quite the same since, but, once again,
we feel he's a guy that's going to pitch better than he has the last couple years.
I thought Matt made a great deal getting him. When you look at Nola and how
he kind of handled things last year, what do you expect from a second act from
him going forward? The thing about Nola, a lot of young guys, especially
Nola, I recall my first time in the Big Leagues, I was scared to death. When
Nola pitched, it's like he knew he belonged there from day one. He never showed
fear. He's got a great presence on the mound. He made some mistakes with pitch
selection and/or location, but he knew it and he adjusted immediately. The guy,
he's a cool customer. This guy really is an intelligent pitcher. The thing he's
got going for him the most is his ability to command his fastball to both sides
of the plate. And you can't teach that. If you've got that, plus you add in his
other things -- and I think his changeup we didn't see as much; that he could
have thrown it more. I think once we see that, he's going to become even
better. I'm not by any way comparing him to Greg Maddux, but Greg Maddux became
a premier pitcher because he figured it out. He read swings. He knew what he
had to do to get hitters out, and I think Nola has got the capability of being
that kind of a guy. What strides would you like to see Franco make in what
will be his second full season? The one thing, the first thing that comes
to my mind is, No. 1, he's going to be a solid, three, four, five hitter in my
opinion. He's aggressive. He's a run producer. This past season, he did not
play the defense we expected him to play. He made some careless errors, and I
think the year before in AAA, he made -- it was something like five errors and
they were all throwing errors. The guy doesn't miss. I think he got a little
careless, and we're going to see a Gold Glove-type performance out of him
defensively. He felt like he let himself down last year. We know he's better.
Larry Bowa worked with him quite a bit and they both talked, which was a nice
sign for Maikel to talk about it and say, I know I'm better than that. So
that's the thing I'm expecting from him. How much time, if any, have you
really gotten away from thinking about baseball? I'm sure when the season ends,
you're thinking about what's coming up. I've been in the game 48 years and you
never stop thinking about it because something always comes up. Especially
nowadays, every time you turn on the TV, there's another media outlet, MLB and
ESPN and all these sports channels and you can't get away from it. I try to
avoid it because I'd like to have a week or two where I just don't have to
worry about it, because, like I said, once you start that first day of Spring
Training, it's all systems go for seven months, hopefully eight months. And
you talked a little about Cameron Rupp,
a guy that you saw improvement from offensively at the end of the year last
year. Is he a guy that can catch a hundred games? What do you see? It's
hard for me to project that, but let's put it this way: This guy can catch and
throw, he's got plus power, above average power potential, and that's the kind
of guy you're looking for at catcher; that cannot only do a good job handling
pitchers but he can catch and throw runners out. He's got a bazooka for an arm
and he's accurate with it. Now the next thing is getting his average where
you'd like it, and he started hitting home runs later on in the season. I think
with a few adjustments to his approach, I think he's going to be capable of hitting
even more home runs and improve more as a hitter. Once again it, was his first
full year in the Big Leagues, so you have to keep that in the back of your mind
that it's not that easy just to jump in and hit .280 and 25 home runs and knock
in 80 runs. There's an adjustment to be made. Getting back to your previous
question, we are expecting these guys to get better than they showed they were
last year. And how would you describe so far your relationship with Matt?
Obviously it's one that's a very important relationship. How do you think
things have gone and what have you learned about him? He's a genuine
person. He's very easy to talk to. He's intelligent. And he's congenial. This
guy knows how to relate to people. At least he and I get along very well. I can
say what I feel to him, and we can banter back and forth. I'm being paid for my
opinion, all of us in baseball, at some point or another, we're paid for our
opinions, and he solicits those opinions and he makes his decisions based on
knowledge of the game. When you first saw him -- Everybody wants to be
liked. At some point you like -- you like me, don't you? (Laughing.) Sure,
there's always that little anxious moment, but at the same time, I know I get
along with people very well, and it is what it is. He's my boss and I try to
get along with him, which is easy. Being on the same page with the lineup,
do you feel like you already have that understanding of what you guys are
aiming for? He's been great. He has not sent me any mandates or made any
demands from me or told me who I had to play. Once again, we talked about this
earlier, I'm certainly going to discuss the team and what I'd like to do with
them and he might have an idea that I might say, you know what, that's a good
idea, we'll use it. So far as I'm concerned, I'm making out the lineup and
until I'm told any differently, I'm going to continue making it out. There
have been a few guys added for the bullpen, or at least potentially for the
bullpen. Do you view it as kind of open competition or do you say, hey, I
already have Gomez, Garcia, Giles, so now I have to fill in the rest? No
question about it. It's open competition. As I said, we've got some speed in
the outfield, which makes any pitchers better. Takes away hits. We've got more
pitchers with some backgrounds to them, which is going to increase the
competitive environment of Spring Training, and these guys are going to know
that, hey, if you want to play at the Big League level, we are looking for guys
who can help us win. You've got to be better than the next guy. You're going to
have to compete to make the team. It's a great environment to be in. So these
guys who maybe thought they were doing okay, might get a wake-up call. Are
you thinking about Giles as your closer at this point, or is that still pretty
much an open question? He's my closer right now. I like what he did last
year. You talked about having three center fielders in the outfield
potentially at the same time, to cover all that ground, is it Odubel's job or
is it going to be an open competition as far as center field itself in Spring
Training? We've just been discussing that, and I know as we said, I know
how good Bourjos is and I know how good alter can be in center field. But I
also saw Odubel play last year. In my mind right now, he's the incumbent center
fielder, which doesn't mean it won't change in the spring. As hard as he worked
towards accomplishing his goals defensively last year, I want to make him -- I
don't want to discourage him after doing such a good job for us. But I'll talk
to him. Juan Samuel and I will talk to him, and we'll talk to all three of
those guys, and even Cody Asche will be in the mix, and Darin Ruf will be in the
mix. I'm just going to talk to these guys. That's the best way I know how to
manage is talk to them. Are you going to have Herrera get any reps at second
base in the spring or use him solely as an outfielder? We'll probably work
him out there. You never know, there's always guys coming up behind him, and,
once again, as I said, when you're a three- or four-year player, there's always
that young kid that everybody's talking about. So you've got to continue to compete
and to keep your job. So let's put it this way: If somebody comes up that has
to play center field for whatever reason, then we want -- I certainly want
Odubel's bat in the lineup. It might come to that. I'm not looking to do that
right now, but it may happen. I don't want to -- he had such a great showing
defensively that I don't want to, like I said, discourage him from making him
think it was all for nothing. With Matt coming in, he's going to bring more
of an analytic angle to the club that's been there before. How will that impact
you as a manager? I scouted for the Yankees in 2008 and 2013. We used a lot
of the analytics, and really it was the scouting director. We used a lot of the
analytics and I used them to write my reports. There was a lot of information
in there. I, for one, believe that anything that can help you make a decision
on a player and evaluate a player is invaluable. I believe in it
wholeheartedly. That doesn't mean that instinct doesn't come in. For example, you
can look on an elementary level, during the course of the game as a manager,
you look at matchups and so-and-so is 15 or 20 off a pitcher. But your hitter
might be in the midst of the worst slump of his career, even though he hits
this other guy well, so you might choose not to let him hit for him, because
he's in such a bad slump. So the analytics tell you you should use him, but
your gut kind of tells you, you know, not right now, he's not going to hit him
right now. That type of -- that's not a good example maybe. So you can combine
the two. A follow-up on that, data shows that pitchers are far less
effective a third time through the order and now there's a school of thought
that maybe you shouldn't put most of your pitchers in that situation. That
might appear to be a new concept, but over the years that I've managed,
starting in 1985, you're always tentative when you get into that sixth inning.
It always seems to happen late in the fifth or sixth inning where you have to
keep your eye on your starter. It wasn't really one of those things that was
written down or talked about, but that's always the time I, as a manager, would
start getting a little nervous and be a little bit more -- and watch my starter
a little closer and maybe get a guy up throwing. So it makes a lot of sense. It
doesn't mean you'll always take your -- you will never let your guy face the
lineup three times or four times, depending on how he's pitching. You've seen
games where I think Nola went into the eighth inning, he could have thrown nine
innings one night, he was just making adjustments as they came along. I think
all of that is invaluable stuff, but it's nothing set in concrete for me.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies finally put an end to the season finishing in last place in the NL
East with a record of 63-99. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and
bipolar performances, this has ended up being one of the worst seasons in
franchise history! However, at least Ryan Madson got another ring this year.
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