GAME RECAP: Phillies Game Postponed Due To
Rain
The Phillies and Cubs will play a single-admission doubleheader
Friday at Citizens Bank Park. Rain postponed Thursday night's series opener
between the two teams. The doubleheader will begin at 5:05 p.m. ET. Phillies
left-hander Adam Morgan (5-5, 4.42
ERA) will face Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta (18-6, 2.03 ERA) in Game 1. Phillies
right-hander Alec Asher (0-2, 10.61
ERA) gets the start opposite Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks (6-6, 4.08 ERA) in Game 2. Fans
holding tickets to Thursday's game may exchange them for tickets to any
remaining Phillies home game this season, including Friday's doubleheader. The
tickets may also be exchanged for any 2016 home game, when single game tickets
go on sale in February. Exchanges should occur by May 31, 2016.
OTHER
NOTES FROM THE DAY:
- Andy MacPhail announced Thursday that
Ruben Amaro Jr. would not return next season as general manager. MacPhail
has begun a search for Amaro's replacement. Scott Proefrock will serve as
interim GM until MacPhail announces a hire.
- This will be Hendricks' first career
start against Philadelphia, the only National League team he has not
faced. Hendricks has a 3.56 ERA in 13 home starts this season, but a 4.56
ERA in 14 road starts.
- Arrieta is 12-1 with a 0.99 ERA (12
earned runs in 109 innings) and 108 strikeouts in his last 15 starts. His
only loss came against the Phillies on July 25, when former Phillies
pitcher Cole Hamels threw a no-hitter at Wrigley Field. Arrieta also has a
17-inning scoreless streak.
NEXT
GAME (x2):
The Cubs will continue their postseason pursuit with a
doubleheader Friday against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Rain postponed
Thursday night's series opener between the two teams. The single-admission
doubleheader will begin at 5:05 p.m. ET. Phillies left-hander Adam Morgan (5-5,
4.42 ERA) will face Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta (18-6, 2.03) in Game 1.
Phillies right-hander Alec Asher (0-2, 10.61) will face Cubs right-hander Kyle
Hendricks (6-6, 4.08) in Game 2. Fans holding tickets to Thursday's game may
exchange them for tickets to any remaining Phillies home game this season,
including Friday's doubleheader. The tickets may also be exchanged for any 2016
home game, when single game tickets go on sale in February. Exchanges should
occur by May 31, 2016.
PHILS PHACTS:
Finally! – Andy
MacPhail said Thursday afternoon that he expected the decision to be easier.
But in the end, MacPhail still made the decision he believed he would make in
June, when the Phillies announced MacPhail would replace Pat Gillick as team
president after the 2015 season. MacPhail told Ruben Amaro Jr. on Thursday
morning that he would not return as general manager, initiating a GM search for
an organization in the early stages of a lengthy rebuilding process. Amaro left
Citizens Bank Park a short time later. Assistant general manager Scott
Proefrock will be interim general manager until Amaro's replacement is hired.
"I didn't think this one was going to be as hard as it turned out to
be," MacPhail said. "I've read everything I could read. I've listened
to try to help me understand as much as I could about the past, and I've
learned as much as I think I could over a two-month period about an
organization and those changes that have impacted the game over the last few
years, all with the intent of finding a way to return the Phillies to
consistent contenders, a place they enjoyed in the not-too-distant past.
Unfortunately to accomplish that goal, the conclusion that I reached was that
we needed a fresh perspective in the baseball operations department, a fresh
approach." MacPhail said he made up his mind to remove Amaro two or three
days ago. After informing Amaro and then meeting with the baseball operations
staff, MacPhail and Phillies owner John Middleton answered questions about the
decision during a news conference. "You look at any business, the
decisions made are made not exclusively by one person in isolation, but from
everybody else in the organization," said Middleton, who revealed the
conversation about Amaro's fate began in December or January, when ownership
interviewed MacPhail for the job. "But that doesn't mean in well-run and
successful companies there isn't accountability. So even though people are
making decisions in groups, there is still a person who is primarily responsible
for that decision and has to be held accountable. So I think we recognize that
we had a problem, and we're trying as fast as we can to get out of that problem
and get back to winning." MacPhail said it would be ideal but ambitious to
hire a GM before the team's organizational meetings at the end of next month.
He said he had not contacted any potential candidates, although he certainly
has been thinking of them. MacPhail should have no shortage of interest. The
Phils are a team willing to spend money, and MLBPipeline.com ranked their
farm system as
the seventh best in baseball, which means talent is percolating to the big
leagues. Amaro played a role in resurrecting the once-barren farm system with a
slew of trades in the past nine months, deals Amaro finally got permission to
make once Gillick issued the order to rebuild in August 2014. But before that,
the Phillies fell from a franchise-record 102 victories in 2011 to a team on
pace for the worst record in baseball, despite one of the highest payrolls.
Amaro could not escape that. Fans' sentiment turned against him as the team
continued to lose. He also made comments regarding the fan base and iconic
players like
Chase Utley and
Ryan Howard, which Middleton said ownership noticed.
"We were certainly aware of the fans' feelings," Middleton said. So
who is the ideal candidate to replace Amaro? "He needs to hire
himself," Middleton said of MacPhail. "And I say that because, 30
years ago, a very young Andy MacPhail was general manager, a newly minted
general manager [with the Twins]. This guy was sitting in an office in
Minneapolis and he was playing with mathematical, statistical, analytical
tools. And he was using them to try to figure out how he could make better
evaluations, therefore, better personnel decisions." "I intend to look
at a wide spectrum of candidates," MacPhail added. "I would think it
would be a mistake if we pigeonhole ourselves into saying, 'We're going to go
for young analytics,' or 'We're going to go for an experienced baseball guy.' I
see that out there with other clubs. Why would you restrict your ability to
talk to whoever you want? I think you have a responsibility. Like I said two
months ago, let's look at everything. And it's the same philosophy here. Let's
look at a wide spectrum of candidates. You might be surprised." But once a
new GM is hired, how will it work? The Phillies hired MacPhail to mostly work
with the baseball operations staff. He will make the final decisions on major
matters, although ownership always has the final say when it comes to payroll,
etc. "I'm not here because of any marketing acumen," MacPhail said.
MacPhail insisted the next GM would not be his subordinate. "I've been in
this role before," MacPhail said. "I've had GMs under me before. If
you talk to them, I think they feel like they had a fair amount of
autonomy." Regardless, change is coming to an organization many think has
been slow to adapt to change. "When Tiger Woods decided to change his golf
swing in the prime of his career and people were going, 'Are you crazy? You're
the best golfer in the world,'" Middleton said. "He said, 'Well, I
need to be better.' Their questioning was about the risk associated
with somebody at that level going out and trying to do something different. So
it's hard sometimes to convince people when they are highly successful as the
Phillies have been that maybe the world is changing and maybe you need to look
at it a little differently and do some things differently, and that's a hard
thing to do."
Additional Analysis – If it had just been a matter of not renewing the contract
of the general manager, that would have been difficult enough. It's never easy
to let somebody go who has been part of the organization for years. The
Phillies' decision to
part ways with Ruben Amaro Jr. was
particularly fraught, however. Amaro was more than a guy who kept a
high-profile seat warm for seven years. He was more than the steward of a team
that won three division titles on his watch. He wasn't perfect. He made some
moves that backfired, which made him just like every other general manager who
ever lived. Otherwise, incoming club president Andy MacPhail wouldn't already
be making calls, putting together a list of potential replacements. To an
unusual degree, though, he was part of the fabric of the team. He was born in
Philadelphia. His father, Ruben Sr., played and coached for the Phillies. He
grew up and attended prep school in the area. He also played for the Phillies.
He was a bat boy for the 1980 Phillies team that became the first in franchise
history to win the World Series. He was the assistant general manager for the
2008 club that became the second to take home the big, shiny trophy. John
Middleton, spokesman for the ownership group, acknowledged all that.
"Moments like this are also occasions for reflection and gratitude,"
he said. "Ruben has a long history with the Phillies. He started as a bat
boy in 1980, continued as a player. He was here for our glory years. As an
assistant general manager [under Ed Wade and Pat Gillick] for 10 years, he
helped and contributed significantly to rebuilding the organization from the
depths of the late '90s that led to the World Series championship in 2008.
"I'd like to thank Ruben personally for his years of service to the
organization ... and for the scores of memories that all of us will cherish
forever." As a general manager, Amaro will be remembered for being bold
and unafraid. He signed free agents like
Raul Ibanez, Pedro Martinez,
Jonathan Papelbon and
A.J. Burnett and traded for big names such as
Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt,
Hunter Pence and Michael Young. He traded for, traded
away and re-signed
Cliff Lee. He assembled
the Four Aces rotation in 2011. He did all that with the full encouragement of
the organization that was trying to win as many championships as possible with
a once-in-a-lifetime nucleus that included
Chase Utley,
Jimmy Rollins and
Ryan Howard. And if it had worked, if the Phillies
had won one or two more World Series, who knows? Maybe the inevitable decline
that followed because of the draft choices that were lost as compensation for
free agents signed and the prospects traded away for established stars wouldn't
have been viewed as harshly. But after losing the World Series to the Yankees
in 2009, Amaro's first year on the job, the Phillies never got that close
again. They were eliminated by the Giants in the NLCS in 2010 and by the
Cardinals in the NLDS in 2011, despite winning a franchise-record 102 games.
Now they have baseball's worst record. Once the franchise decided to rebuild,
Amaro did an impressive job of restocking the farm system. MacPhail, who came
on board in July, was impressed by what he was able to get back for Hamels,
Utley,
Jonathan Papelbon and
Ben Revere. "Ruben Amaro ran that Trade
Deadline. Ruben Amaro didn't do anything that Ruben Amaro didn't want to
do," MacPhail said. "I think, in fairness, it would be difficult to
make the case that Ruben Amaro did not do good work when I was here. I think he
really did." None of that changed the ultimate decision in the end. But
that, and Amaro's long history with the organization, did make that choice more
difficult than it normally would have been.
So, Who Stays? – Andy MacPhail told Ruben Amaro Jr. on Thursday that he
would not return next season as general manager. Perhaps the first question on
the minds of people in the Phillies' front office and coaching staff: What does
this mean for them? As MacPhail illustrated, a new team president often wants
his own general manager. And a new general manager often wants his own people
working underneath him. But MacPhail said that is not the case here. He expects
the baseball operations staff to return, at least through next season. And it
sounds like Phillies interim manager Pete Mackanin has a good chance of
returning, too. "I went to some effort to assure them that in the event
there is a new hire and when that happens we're not going to allow a bunch of
changes just so they can bring in people that they're familiar with," said
MacPhail, who met with the baseball operations staff before Thursday's news
conference at Citizens Bank Park. "That's not going to happen. These
people have earned the right to stay here. They've distinguished themselves in
my mind. It was the first thing Ruben asked about. I think they should feel
their immediate future going into the '16 season is secure." Of course, the
next general manager seems likely to use next season to evaluate his staff.
After that, who knows? MacPhail indicated Mackanin has a good chance to return.
Because of the time it will take to hire Amaro's replacement, he might want his
new GM to begin working immediately on player personnel, instead of beginning
an exhaustive managerial search. "I would encourage everybody not to make
any assumptions about what's happening today to have any domino impact on the
manager," MacPhail said. "I think that's something that's still under
review. I know the tradition is that the GM picks his manager. I'll just go
full disclosure here, if that happens, and it takes you a while to find a GM
and then he gets consumed the first month or two with a manager and coaching staff,
look how much of the offseason we've lost. That's a high price to pay. So we
have to keep that in mind as well." "The big way to measure those
things are energy, effort enthusiasm," MacPhail said about Mackanin's job
performance. "The manager doesn't necessarily have any impact on the
talent. The organization provides it to him. The best thing he can hope to do
is increase the level of energy, effort and enthusiasm. And certainly we had a
month-long streak where this team had the best record of anyone coming out of
the break, so he certainly has demonstrated that he was capable of doing
it." Said Mackanin: "I feel hopeful. … I think he's going to make the
decision based on a number of different things. I think, like he said,
everybody is still being evaluated. And certainly whoever comes in as the new
GM should have some say on who he wants to manage the team. That being the
case, I just have to see whatever happens. I can't do anything about it."
And The Search Begins – Andy MacPhail was hired by the Phillies in June. He'll
formally take over as team president at the end of the regular season. So it
was natural for him to be asked Thursday afternoon about his profile for the
team's next general manager in the wake of the announcement that the contract of
Ruben Amaro Jr. will not be extended. Before MacPhail could speak, John
Middleton reacted like a defensive back jumping a route and intercepted the
query. "Let me tell you what I think and what I've told Andy he needs to
do. He needs to hire himself," said the man who has emerged as the voice
of the ownership group. He was kidding. Sort of. He went on to note that
MacPhail was in his 30s when he got his first chance as a general manager with
the Twins. "And he was playing with mathematical, statistical, analytical
tools. And he was using them to try to figure out how he could make better
evaluations, therefore, better personnel decisions," an animated Middleton
said. "How did a young guy who never had the job before do that? The
answer is, because he was constantly pushing himself to get better. ... What is
crucial is that the person who is going to fill this job absolutely has to have
a passion for winning, be really competitive. Has to be able to think outside
the box. Has to be able to push himself and this organization to make it better
and has to be able to embrace change. Because you cannot sustain success unless
you're adaptable and flexible and able to deal with problems five years from
now. "Because the problems five years from now are going to be different
than the problems today. If you hire somebody today and they're a one-trick
pony and all they can do is fix today's problems, they're not going to be
successful five years from now. So what we have to do as an organization is
find someone who can drive that culture, who can drive that change." When
it was his turn, MacPhail smiled. "I'll give a more traditional
answer," he said. Which was, basically, that he doesn't intend really to
have a profile. "I intend to look at a wide spectrum of candidates,"
he said. "I would think it would be a mistake if we pigeonhole ourselves
into saying, 'We're going to go for young analytics,' or, 'We're going to go
for an experienced baseball guy.' Why would you restrict your ability to talk
to whoever you want? I think you have a responsibility to look at everything.
You might be surprised. You'll learn a lot of things." The only common
denominator, he added, was that the general manager should have a different
"horizon" than the manager. The guy in the dugout should focus on
what's happening right now. The GM has to consider both long- and short-term
objectives. For anyone trying to read tea leaves and figure out who might be on
the short list, that didn't provide many clues. But here's a look at some
logical candidates and why they could fit in. Baseball people will almost
always at least consider people they've worked with before. So the names of
35-year-old Angels assistant general manager Matt Klentak and Yankees special
assistant Jim Hendry naturally surfaced quickly. MacPhail hired Klentak in 2008
when he was president of the Orioles. And Hendry, 60, was his general manager
with the Cubs. Executives from successful organizations are usually seen as
attractive candidates. So one intriguing possibility could be John Barr, vice
president and assistant general manager scouting and international operations
of the Giants. San Francisco has won the World Series three of the last five
seasons and is a far more analytics-savvy organization than it generally gets
credit for. He's 57, but Pat Gillick was three years older when he put the
finishing touches on the 2008 World Series championship team. Plus, he's a
local native who still lives in New Jersey. Another who falls into that
category: J.J. Picollo, 44, Royals vice president and assistant GM of player
personnel. There are several former general managers with good reputations who
could be available, including Ben Cherington, who stepped down from the Red Sox
after Dave Dombrowski was hired; Jerry Dipoto, who resigned from the Angels;
and Twins special assistant Wayne Krivsky. There are young assistants who are
considered up-and-comers. Braves assistant GM and director of professional
scouting John Coppolella; Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler; and Angels
director of professional scouting Hal Morris would be examples. There are
outside-the-box candidates. Like, say, Dan Duquette. There have been reports
that his relationship with Orioles owner Peter Angelos soured when he was under
consideration to become the Blue Jays president, a position that has since been
filed by Mark Shapiro. Duquette is whip smart and has won wherever he's been.
Major League Baseball is strongly urging teams to consider minority candidates.
So De Jon Watson (D-backs senior vice-president of baseball operations), Billy
Owens (Athletics player personnel director), Deron Johnson (Twins scouting
director), Tyrone Brooks (Pirates director of player personnel), Ricky Bennett
(Pirates pro scout), Dana Brown (Blue Jays special assistant) and Kim Ng (MLB
senior vice president for baseball operations) could get looks. The Phillies
aren't expected to interview internal candidates, although Middleton did say
that MacPhail knows interim GM Scott Proefrock well enough from their days
together in Baltimore that a formal interview probably wouldn't be necessary.
So, since MacPhail isn't going to clone himself, he has a lot of names to
consider. That process started, he said, as soon as he stepped off the podium
on Thursday.
Something To Work With – So, just like that, the Phillies are in the market for a
new general manager. And they're not alone. The Red Sox, Angels, Mariners and
Brewers are also actively looking to fill that important position. Depending on
how things shake out elsewhere, other clubs could be added to the list before
the infield dust finally settles. In other words, it's not a given that the
Phillies will simply be able to tap their first choice to replace Ruben Amaro
Jr. on the shoulder and that will be that. There's the possibility that a
highly regarded candidate could have more than one option. And if that were to
happen? "There was a really interesting quote by, I think, an American
League executive," said John Middleton, who has emerged as the spokesman
of the Phils' ownership group. "[He] said, 'You look at that franchise,
you look at the farm system with the prospects they pulled in at the Trade
Deadline, you look at the Spring Training facility, you look at the fan base,
you look at the Major League stadium, you look at the money behind the team. No
wonder Andy MacPhail came out of retirement. What an opportunity.' And I think
I'd take that little blurb, cut it out and just hand it to somebody and say,
'This is why you should be here instead of somewhere else.'" All valid
points. There's no perfect situation, but a closer look at the Phillies shows a
lot more potential than might be expected from the team with the worst record
in baseball. What's tough for Amaro, of course, is that the strength of the
farm system has largely been built by the trades he's made since December, when
he began dismantling the nucleus that helped the organization win five straight
division titles, two National League pennants and a World Series from 2007-11.
By trading
Jimmy Rollins,
Cole Hamels and
Chase Utley (plus
Jonathan Papelbon,
Marlon Byrd,
Antonio Bastardo,
Ben Revere and
Jake Diekman), Amaro hauled in 15 players. Twelve are
ranked by MLBPipeline.com as among the team's
Top 30 prospects. And if those guys help the
Phils to their next run of excellence, it's the next general manager who will
bask in the applause and be soaked in the champagne. That's nothing new in
baseball, by the way. When the Phillies won it all in 2008, general manager Pat
Gillick took pains to point out all the good work that his predecessor, Ed
Wade, had done to make the title possible. It happened again to Wade, now a
Phils scout, after he was hired by the Astros. Much of what Houston has
accomplished on its road back to contention has its roots in deals he made
before being dismissed. The man responsible for identifying the person who
could inherit all of this is MacPhail, who has been observing since being hired
in July and will formally take over as club president from the retiring Gillick
at the end of the season. He is also bullish on what lies ahead. "I think
there are reasons to be enthusiastic about the position-player future of this
franchise, based on what's on the field now," MacPhail said, referring to
players like third baseman
Maikel Franco, second baseman
Cesar Hernandez and outfielders like
Odubel Herrera,
Aaron Altherr and
Darnell Sweeney. "Admittedly, it's flashes, but
what's on the field and what's in the high levels [is strong] -- even given the
attrition that is going to happen as they migrate up toward the big
leagues." MacPhail also acknowledged, and took pains to refute, the
perception that he'll retain most of the power and that whomever he hires will
be little more than a glorified assistant. "I can understand why that
is," MacPhail said. "Ownership has made it clear, [as when he was
hired], that they certainly want me involved in baseball operations. And, let's
face it, I'm not here because of any marketing acumen. "But at the same
time, I've been in this role before. I've had GMs under me before. If you talk
to them, I think they feel like they had a fair amount of autonomy, which I
think is important to them to be able to do their job. They can't be in short
pants running back to the president every time they have to make a decision. I
have to create a culture where they have some autonomy. They should keep me
apprised, but that is a balance I'm going to have to strike." Even if the
Phillies didn't appear to be well positioned to make a fairly quick turnaround,
MacPhail wouldn't have any problem finding someone to fill the opening. There
are, after all, only 30 of them. They pay well, with nice perks. But the truth
is that there are several factors that make the Phils an attractive
destination, which will make it that much easier to recruit the person they
finally decide they really want.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies have returned to their lackluster ways and regained their grip on last
place in the NL East with a record of 54-86. Given the departures, aging stars,
injuries, and bipolar performances this season, this could still end up
being the worst team in franchise history… at least that is something to hope
for this year! All time, the Phillies are 52-57-0 on this day.
