We are often reminded… the definition of "insanity" is doing the same thing every time and expecting different results. With our beloved Phillies, we keep seeing the same scenarios play out over and over again with the same miserable results. Can we expect different results? As time goes on I believe that Phillies lame duck manager Charlie Manuel is well aware of we see from our couches. I think that he is sending his General Manager a message.
Today's game reminded me of a game just after the trade deadline in 2004. Then General Manager Ed Wade traded left-handed pinch hitter Ricky Ledee to get the Phillies bullpen piece Felix Rodriguez. The move left the Phillies without a left-handed pinch-hitting option as he was replaced on the roster by righty Marlon Byrd. So what did manager Larry Bowa do? Next time he needed a left-handed pinch hitter he sent Randy Wolf up to hit, although he had his right-handed pinch hitters sitting on the bench.
Today I was reminded of this with the Phillies' late-inning performance. A fan on our Facebook page today asked,
Ezekquiel Carrera batting with the game on the line in the 9th? Really?
It was a Larry Bowa-type move. What else does Charle Manuel have to use? At that point in the game, Michael Young and Laynce Nix were cycled out. On the bench was Ben Revere, Freddy Galvis, and Humberto Quintero. Quintero cannot hit a lick. Ben Revere has been scuffling so badly that he was no substitute for Carrera. Galvis had to bat in the pitcher's spot that was coming up.
That was not the only time in the game Manuel may have showed up Amaro. In 2008 the Phillies won the World Series because Chad Durbin cleaned up a lot of Joe Blanton messes in the fifth and sixth innings. Amaro signed Durbin for him to fill a similar role in 2013, several years later. Has Chad Durbin had an outing this season in which inherited runners did NOT score? Nope. So why does Manuel use him? That's who he has been given.
I always was a Chad Durbin fan. But I was also a Terry Mulholland fan and do not think he should be pitching for the Phillies anymore, either. Ezekquiel Carrera has no business on a Major League roster.
Charlie Manuel sits at the helm with no contract for next year, left a lame duck. So what else can he do and just use what he has been given.
