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It's time to blow this team up.
It's really impossible to fully capture just how bumblingly atrocious this team is. But here's a short list:
- They have half as many wins as losses . . . 66 games into the season.
- They have lost 12 road games in a row and 14 of their last 15.
- Their run differential for the season is -111. Only two MLB teams had a worse run differential last year over the course of the entire season.
- They have a 73 team wRC+, worst in baseball.
But we knew the team would be atrocious this year. It's the incompetent bumbling (is there any other kind?) that is over the top. Last night was a perfect example:
- Jeff Francoeur pitched.
- The Orioles intentionally forfeited their designated hitter and put an atrocious fielder at third base.
- Chase Utley blew up at the coaching staff for leaving Francoeur on the mound for 48 pitches. (Just days after Ken Giles got into a heated argument with the same staff.)
- And the reason Francoeur was on the mound for 48 pitches? Because the coaching staff couldn't figure out how to communicate with the bullpen.
- The Phillies lost by two touchdowns . . . both with the 2-point conversion.
Watch that clip of the dugout trying to reach the bullpen. Then watch it again. Then tell me whether you would have a job the next day if that had happened to you.
In fact, look over everything you know about the Phillies this year and ask yourself the same question - if you were in charge of this kind of performance with your job, would you be able to show your face at work this morning?
Everyone who has some position of authority in this organization needs to be fired today. Ruben Amaro, Ryne Sandberg, Bob McClure, Larry Bowa, Steve Henderson . . . they should all be cleaning out their lockers as I type this.
Maybe you're more level-headed than I am. If you are, you're probably making one of the following arguments:
- Just as a team is never as good as its best winning streak, it's never as bad as its worst losing streak.
- We knew the team was going to be terrible this year.
- Ruben Amaro has been decent enough with respect to the long-term planning for the current rebuild. The on-field performance is irrelevant right now.
I'll admit it. There's some merit to all three of these arguments (though not much to the first half of the third one).
But, frankly, at this point, I just don't care. After watching this road trip and in particular last night's game, it's entirely clear that someone else needs to be put in charge of this sinking ship. Because the people in charge right now are embarrassing themselves with their incompetence.
Blow it up. Now.