When a player admits he was asked to do something he’s not expected to do, it does not look good on the manager. Perhaps because he thinks it is still the 1980’s, or perhaps he is just so clueless, Ryne Sandberg was expecting Kyle Kendrick, whom has a grand total of two runs batted in since 2009, to produce a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning of a tie game. Kendrick’s response after the game was frank, but correct.
"I'm not a hitter,” he pointed out. “That's not my job."
If Sandberg wanted to try that with his old teammate Rick Sutcliffe, that would maybe make an ounce of sense. Doing it with Kyle Kendrick suggests that despite managing the club for over 80 games, he still is not familiar with his personnel. This is very alarming when you couple that with the fact that Ruben Amaro Jr. is not very familiar or good at evaluating his personnel either, particularly the bench, outfield and bullpen. I am now beginning to think he is not good at evaluating his manager either.
What took so long: The most obvious mistake Sandberg has made all season, before rectifying it last week, was having Ben Revere, not Jimmy Rollins bat atop the order. Revere is a frail major league player, while Rollins is a former MVP, yet for reasons that have yet to be explained, Sandberg elected to have Revere lead off for most of the year. That changed Friday and since then, Rollins has thrived, posting a .481 OBP.
On the surface, this appears to be yet another case of Sandberg not being familiar with his personnel. Rollins clearly is the best option for the lead-off spot and offers the most return in production. He has also made it quite clear over the years that he prefers to bat leadoff and is most comfortable as the table setter. So being that he is the best man for the job and is more comfortable there, it is inexcusable why Sandberg was so late to make this obvious move. It’s not like Rollins has never done it before and he was concerned how he would handle it, Rollins won his MVP and was a World Champion in that role.
In another related lineup move, sliding Carlos Ruiz into the two-hole makes the most sense short term. Ruiz had been posting a solid OBP of , a skill he’s developed over the last few years, but that was being wasted in the seven-hole. In past years, the Phillies had Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth or Placido Polanco to bat second which made Chooch’s OBP and turning the lineup over in the bottom of the order a luxury. On this team, it has become a need to have him atop the order for when Utley, Howard and Byrd come up. I’m not a fan of catchers batting second long-term because I’d rather they have to rely on hitting less and focus more on the defensive side, but this is a move Sandberg has to make at this juncture. He gave Revere a look atop the order, but now is time to move on.
Something to keep an eye on: How much rope does Sandberg give Dom Brown? The struggling LF has posted numbers that would seem astronomically bad, if not for playing alongside Ben Revere whose slugging percentage is the only one worse than Brown’s .317.To make matters worse, Brown has seemingly mailed it in. He came nowhere near three straight fastballs down the heart of the plate yesterday, appearing disinterested. To make matters worse, he misplayed another ball in LF and dogged it on a play at first. Henderson Alvarez made a poor throw that would have resulted in Brown reaching base, had he hustled. He didn’t, and one has to wonder how much more Sandberg can play an ineffective player that isn’t even giving his all.
