The Phillies fired off six wins in a row heading into this week. Winning baseball is always a fun thing to watch, and the Phillies should be proud. But, I'm not ready to dole out much more than a casual "congrats", and an only-slightly condescending, "good for you." In fact, before the series with the Diamondbacks, the Phillies and its skipper, Ryne Sandberg, had both been a marvel of consistency– in a mostly-bad sense.
What comes to mind is the phrase in Dennis Green's infamous NFL postgame tyrade-turned-meme, "They are who we thought they were!" Only, we could never expect to see that kind of fire and intensity from Sandberg. The Phillies averaged just three runs per game in the seven games prior to sweeping Arizona, compiling a 3-4 record. As usual, it was a mix of good pitching, very poor hitting, and remarkable inactivity from the manager.
What's different now is that five games is a legitimate winning streak, and Ryne Sandberg actually played an active role in seeing it to fruition. Here are a few things that stood out to me about Sandberg's performance this past week:
With Cody Asche being sent down to make room for Maikel Franco at third base, the shockwaves certainly extended to the batting order. While, from a statistical standpoint, I don't place much significance on an altered batting order, I recognize that it's a vital opportunity for the manager to be somewhat of a 'psychological mixologist'. Where a player bats in the lineup lets him know where he stands in the game, and with the team.
Ben Revere (.255) is still leading off, but he's the proverbial one-eyed man in this lineup. It's kind of creepy to have Darin Ruf batting cleanup behind Grady Sizemore, but I like the idea of shaking things up when things hit rock bottom. So far, it's working.
Clearly, the bullpen is the strength of this team, and Ryno has done a solid job putting his relievers in a good position to succeed. I like what he's been doing with Jake Diekman. Last season, The young, flame-throwing lefty was one of Sandberg's favorite bullpen arms to call on. After early struggles with his control this year, Diekman has seen his role diminished, and rightly so. There is a dearth of talent in the bullpen and Sandberg is handling it well. Unfortunately for him and his particular skill set, the same can't be said about the talent on offense.
With a nickname like 'Ryno', Sandberg seems surprisingly docile. We are at the point in the season where it might behoove a manager to show a little anger and frustration. I'm not saying he should go all Hal McRae on a bunch of beat writers, but I'd like to see more personality. When Sandberg first took over, he had a reputation for stressing fundamentals. Silly me for assuming he might have a little attitude as well.
In all, this manager, and these players… They are who we thought they were. But we can't let Sandberg off the hook. Brett Brown, coach of the Sixers, has been handed one of the worst rosters in basketball the past few seasons– with a not-so-secret front office agenda to lose. But he's still developing his young talent and actually managed to cultivate a respectable defensive scheme. Forget the winning streak. So far with Sandberg, there have been few pleasant surprises.
