Phillies news & links — Sending a message

It’s tough to find anything new to say at the dawn of what feels like the Phillies’ quadrillionth loss in the past three weeks, so let’s get right to it.

Surprise, the Phillies lost again last night

My thanks and condolences to Justin Klugh, who had to cover last night’s latest shit show.

But Justin is a smart guy. He chose to talk about other things in his game recap. Read it and learn something!

Is Pete Mackanin trying to send a message?

This is an important question. Kevin Cooney thinks that by “benching” Maikel Franco, Michael Saunders, and Cameron Rupp, Pete is trying to send his players a message. But... it’s not like these guys don’t know how they and the team have been doing. (Spoiler: it’s not good.) But Cooney makes a few good points, like how Franco is the only one of the three who has a chance of sticking in Philly past this season. (Seriously, don’t get attached to Cameron Rupp.) And Cesar Hernandez is in the midst of a .222 slump since the beginning of May, and has perhaps earned himself a benching soon.

To me, Pete isn’t trying to send a message. He’s just trying to find something that works, while simultaneously letting the players know “hey, you’ve been pretty bad.” Which shouldn’t be news to them.

How about those IronPigs

I usually don’t like to step on Jay’s toes, so I let him handle any minor league highlights. But I hope he understands why I do this right now, as I stare at another morning of “well, the Phillies sure do suck” news.

Look upon that and don’t be scared: the feeling you’re feeling is joy.

The future is bright

Listen, I know this sucks. And Matt Breen agrees with me/you/us.

And he’s right about that last part. The future is incredibly bright. And if you want a reason why the Phillies aren’t deviating from the larger plan they’ve had in place for several years, and the 2017 season plan they’ve been trying to execute for less than 50 games of 162 total, the bright future is that reason. When I say they have a plan, it’s not something they threw together. Rebuilding a team takes a long term commitment, and the front office is completely on board.

The 2017 Phillies season has sucked, but as I said: the season isn’t 50 games old yet. To say that their plan isn’t working is essentially saying that you want to change everything and toss both plans (long term and short term) in the garbage because the last 40-something games have been mostly bad. No matter what anyone says, the front office isn’t going to deviate. They’re probably not going to fire anyone, they’re not going to rush anyone to the majors, and they’re not going to trade someone now, when they’re at their lowest value.

I’m not saying it doesn’t suck. Because it does. I’m here almost every morning writing about it, and I’m around every night watching it, if not writing about it then too. But you know how I manage to stay sane (and even sometimes upbeat) while writing about the Phillies every day? By not being unreasonably impatient and remembering that they have a larger plan, and this tough stretch doesn’t change anything. The only thing it can change is the perception of where the Phillies ought to be, as opposed to just accepting where they are. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And this rebuild is far from finished.

Tweet of the day

I could go on with the links, but it’s more “the Phillies are terrible, the Phillies are losing, everything is terrible.” And how much of that can a person really take? So here are a few day-brighteners I wanted to share.

Look at how adorably doofy they look in their red bow ties! It does seem like a lifetime ago, but I’m so glad that we have any of those memories at all. They feel like a gift.

And this is just... everything.

Keep on loving baseball, kid. It won’t always love you back exactly the way you want it to, but it will always be there for you.