Rich Dubee (left) with mustache-less former Phillies star Mike Schmidt.
Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee has been with the Phillies since Charlie Manuel took the helm as manager in 2005. From Terry Adams to Mike Adams Dubee has led the Phillies pitching staff. During his tenture the Phillies have won a World Series, National League Pennant, and five total division titles. He has developed the likes of Ryan Madson and Kyle Kendrick and squeezed some productivity out of the J.A. Happs and Vance Worleys of the world. But one former Phillies pitcher wants to see Dubee fired.
Mitch Williams is best known for giving up the game-winning home run in game six of the 1993 World Series to Joe Carter. After managing a bowling alley for a while, Williams began coaching then managing for the Atlantic City Surf before going into broadcasting. Williams currently serves as an analyst for MLB Network. Today he was a guest of the WIP Morning Show with Angelo Cataldi and was very critical of Dubee and would like to see him go.
Williams' comments are below, as transcribed by CBSPhilly.com's Spike Eskin.
“Well, that they’re not playing up to their capability is stating the blatantly obvious, but this is me—I had kind of a conversation, I would guess in Spring Training, with the pitching coach [Rich Dubee] and he didn’t like the fact that I spoke with his pitchers at all about anything. I see things now, in this pitching staff that as a pitcher you don’t feel, that’s why there’s coaches. Halladay is struggling—when he was earlier, it was plain as day what was wrong and it wasn’t fixed. You watch things go on—it may be time for a new voice with the pitchers."
So Williams is giving advice to Dubee's pitchers. I personally would not like someone coming in and interfering with my job, either. Could Williams be doing this out of spite? Later in the interview Williams stated that it was not personal.
One person who almost took it personally was Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay who rushed to the defense of his pitching coach. Todd Zolecki passed on Halladay's sentiments on MLB.com:
"Coming from the mechanical wonder, yeah, I strongly disagree. To come from a guy who's not around, who's not involved. He's not involved in the conversations. … [He] honestly has no idea what's going on. He really doesn't. He has no idea what's going on in the clubhouse, on the field between coaches and players. To make comments like that, it's completely out of line. It really is."
Halladay's adaptation to a new pitching style and the related struggles may have been what Williams was talking about.
It's hard to believe that Manuel and Dubee have led the Phillies for nine whole seasons now. That's quite a long run. If it does end soon, they have nothing to be ashamed of.
