Pete Mackanin given honor of managing Phillies for the rest of the season

In the wake of Ryne Sandberg fleeing the Phillies because they lost too much - something he apparently just did not see coming heading into 2015 - the team needed someone to take the reins.

Yes, even the bad teams need a manager, and once again, 3rd base coach Pete Mackanin and his remarkable penmanship have graduated to the role. This is the third time Mackanin has taken over as an interim manager, and the Phillies have announced that he will do so for the remainder of the 2015 season.

And already the differences are here. Odubel Herrera is leading off! Cesar Hernandez is the second baseman of the future! Wait, no he's not! God, the defense sucks around here!

Mackanin has proven his worth on the Phillies' coaching staff for years now, and was even deemed a worthy candidate for the Red Sox managing vacancy that eventually went to Bobby Valentine in 2012. He'd actually left the Phillies in that period after serving as their bench coach since 2009, but they brought him back in 2013 to be Sandberg's Advisor to Players When They Reach Third Base, a position largely obsolete for the current Phillies roster.

With a spot free on the staff, Jorge Velandia, an Assistant Minor League Field Coordinator for the Phillies, has been likely forced to join the Phillies' coaching staff. Velandia played pro ball in a variety of uniforms from 1997-2010, with his last hacks coming in the Phillies' farm system after signing a minor league deal in 2009. He finished his career with numbers that could get him in the 2015 Phillies starting lineup: .189/.274/.270.

It seems that no major changes will occur with this team until they are able to crawl into October and finally wash the stink of this season off of them, starting anew under the Andy MacPhail regime.

Have fun out, there Pete! It's a long season.