It was a very, very short week for the Philadelphia Phillies, but for the team that recently reached the .500 mark, and dipped a game over, the decisions do not end. Despite only playing one game in four days this week, Ryne Sandberg still had some decisions on his plate to make.
Sandberg, who I have found to be a bit too passive at times, made a tremendously aggressive decision in response to this week’s schedule that I think could be huge. Due to the surplus of off-days, Sandberg was given an opportunity to take advantage of it, and he did. It seemed to be the general consensus that Wednesday’s game had zero chance of being played because of the weather, so he did have some flexibility. Instead of aligning his rotation in the Mets series so that he would have Kyle Kendrick, Roberto Hernandez and Cliff Lee, Sandberg started Hamels on Tuesday and skipped Kendrick and used Hernandez out of the bullpen. As a result, he goes into the big series against the Nats with his three horses: Lee, A.J. Burnett and Hamels. The move took tremendous foresight, aggressive planning and sent a statement to his team about the importance of the series in the Phillies’ perspective.
That said, I only have one complaint about Sandberg’s work in the dugout this week in the only game they played. Hamels struggled through the outing, which lasted less than five outings for him. His fastball was awful, and sat in the 88-89 MPH range. The team had the previous day off, knew it was off Thursday and would almost certainly be off Wednesday as well. Plus, the weather was very cold and raining, and for a pitcher coming off a shoulder injury it was less than ideal. Finally, if all that was not enough, Sandberg had an eight-man bullpen to employ because of Hernandez being in there. All that being the case, he gambled in trying to stretch Hamels out in a cold outing he just did not have his best stuff.
The decision backfired significantly. Instead of cutting their losses and minimizing the damage, Sandberg stuck with his recovering lefty for six runs before pulling him. The inaction actually seemed to suggest that he was simply not watching the game. It was the second time this season in which I noticed he stuck with a pitcher for way too long. In each case, the other being when A.J. Burnett initially suffered the hernia, it was painfully obvious it was time to make a move as the pitcher was no better than any of the fresh relievers. Typically, managers are more reluctant to lift pitchers in the dog days of summer when the bullpen is exhausted or has been working often. The fact that Sandberg is already reluctant to use a fresh bullpen on full rest in a week of off-days is VERY concerning.
