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If Sal Were a Phillie Phan . . . He'd Love Mets Management?

Rotblatt Apr 13 2006 07:12 AM

][url=http://www.nj.com/columns/times/yavener/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/114491569547960.xml&coll=5]Mets' early success leaves Phillies fans looking elsewhere[/url] Thursday, April 13, 2006 HARVEY YAVENER Staff Columnist Maybe it's time to do some vacation planning. Three three-day trips. No weekend crowds to fight. One in May (9-11), one in June (13-15), one in August (15-17). They're when the Mets are coming to Citizens Bank Park, and if you're a Phillies' fan, it might be wise to get out of town. Get far enough away so those "Let's Go Mets!" chants can't reach your ears. One thing about the Phils, they don't tease their fans. They let them know from the outset they're going to do what manager Charlie Manuel aptly called "stink." Let you know that it is over long before it's over. That like the songwriter penned, "Spring can really hang you up the most." By summer, the beach looks good and that fan is too numb to argue the point. Phils fans have lived with it so long, there's little that can make it more painful. A dynamite spring training such as they had a few weeks ago can engender a little hope, but longtime fans know better. What you see in preseason isn't what you're necessarily going to get. But one thing could make it more painful: Losing while the Mets are taking over the division. It's one thing to have the Braves win the NL East year after year after year. Atlanta is so far away. But the thought of Mets fans taxing the turnpike limits to flock to South Philly is enough to make any vacation destination seem like Tahiti. Sure it's early. Sure the Phils play their next 15 games against the NL dregs -- Colorado, Washington, Florida and Pittsburgh. Sure the Mets' fast start was fashioned exclusively against those Nationals and Marlins, sure the Mets' schedule will get tougher while the Phils' doesn't, but the eye doesn't lie. And the eye shows those Metsies are playing with confidence and a skill level the Phils currently can't match. Mets GM Omar Minaya has made all the right moves. The players he added are contributing. The young players for whom the Mets have waited are blossoming together. The lineup has speed and punch, the starting pitching has been impressive and the reinforced bullpen should sharply reduce the suicide rate in Gotham. Meanwhile, the Phils have done the "Gotcha!" thing again, making those of us who never learn wonder why we never learn. Those couple of exhibitions at home with the Red Sox were the final purse-on-a-string victimizations. Remember the date they came home -- April Fool's Day. And there are the Mets, seeming to put all the pieces together. David Wright emerging as a future challenger to Alex Rodriguez for No. 1 third baseman in New York; Jose Reyes, freed at last from the mindless year in which the best young shortstop in baseball was forced to play second base (you wonder just how good the Yankees would be if they ever put the best shortstop in baseball history back at short); newcomers Carlos Delgado, Paul LoDuca and Xavier Nady all swinging potent bats; and, best of all, Carlos Beltran suddenly at ease and joining the fun. All the pieces and -- shudder -- Billy Wagner to save games. How devastating would that be? Mets fans by the thousands roaring as the Citizens Bank Park speedometer kept clicking off Wagner pitches approaching 100 mph? A Phils follower has to wonder how so many things could go wrong for his side in such a hurry. Wonder if the sophomore jinx has engulfed Ryan Howard. Wonder if there was a reason the White Sox so willingly parted with Aaron Rowand. Wonder if Mike Lieberthal and David Bell are through, if Bobby Abreu has begun the downslide, if Pat Burrell is destined to a career with fewer and fewer highlight-reel moments. Wonder what kind of front office gives Manuel, in a tied game in the late innings, no better pitching option than Ryan Franklin and his gopher-ball proclivity. How has the lineup that looked at least a notch or two better than mediocre slipped so far below that line? Slipped to 8-for-50 with runners in scoring position? What good are Jimmy Rollins hit streaks when no one can knock him home? And then there is the pitching. The rosy hopes for improved starters vanished quickly. Those 90-pitch first five innings a game spelled doom. Pitch counts that might have been ring counts. Nine . . . 10 . . . you're out! The long relievers can't handle such a daily load and the closers are suspect old men. Three years with an optional fourth? Tom Gordon must have incriminating Pat Gillick pictures somewhere. While Mets fans count down the days to their first visit of the season to a city they used to make sure would hate them. Unless Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine run out of that youth serum, it could be so much fun at Shea this season Mets fans will love taking the good times on the road with them. Now, Phils fans, where to spend those three-day vacations? Don't say Atlantic City. We already know what kind of luck you have. -- -- -- Contact Times staff columnist Harvey Yavener at hyavener@njtimes.com.

MFS62 Apr 13 2006 08:00 AM

Well whaddaya know. They wrote the KTE for the person who has the Phillies. Well, almost. Later

Edgy DC Apr 13 2006 08:37 AM

Two things about the Phils. (1) Reports had Billy Wagner taking into account the abuses of Phillie phans when he chose to jump ship. Make of that what you will. (2) Flash Gordon is in trouble, jumping into Wagner's void.

vtmet Apr 13 2006 10:08 AM

Flash was the guy that said that he was a closer, not a setup guy...he was a bad closer for the Red Sox back in '99, and I don't think that the past few years of aging as a setup man has made him much more up to the task than he was when Boston fans boo'd, Phillies fans aren't that much kinder if you aren't up to the task...

Edgy DC Apr 13 2006 10:16 AM

I think Flash is more or less fine. But if the Phils are in trouble (remains to be seen), he could end up being a flashpoint (heh, heh) for fan abuse --- not necessarily for his own flaws.

TheOldMole Apr 13 2006 10:57 AM

What is the reasoning behind the notion that there are some guys who can pitch the 8th but not the 9th, and others who can pitch the 9th but not the 8th?

Willets Point Apr 13 2006 11:02 AM

If only managers would experiment more they'd learn that some pitchers are only effective in the first inning. One day we'll see the "openers" revolution where a fireballer shuts down the opposition for the first inning and then an 8-inning reliever comes in. SC=100

Yancy Street Gang Apr 13 2006 11:03 AM

TheOldMole wrote: What is the reasoning behind the notion that there are some guys who can pitch the 8th but not the 9th, and others who can pitch the 9th but not the 8th? I wish I knew. I hate this business of having guys assigned to particular innings. I look forward to the manager with the guts to undo this conventional wisdom.

metirish Apr 13 2006 11:03 AM

You just know Tony LaRussa has thought about doing that Willets,I'm surprised he hasn't yet.

Edgy DC Apr 13 2006 11:04 AM

Tony LaRussa is as guilty as anybody for establishing the sanctity of the ninth.

Yancy Street Gang Apr 13 2006 11:08 AM

I give him the full blame. He had success in Oakland with Eckersley and now everyone thinks it's the only way to handle a bullpen. We need an anti-Tony to set things back to the way they were.

DocTee Apr 13 2006 11:14 AM

Another problem is they bat phenom Ryan Howard sixth, with no protection (David Bell) behind him.

Yancy Street Gang Apr 13 2006 11:20 AM

To their credit, they did deal expensive Jim Thome in order to make room for Howard.

vtmet Apr 13 2006 12:28 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: To their credit, they did deal expensive Jim Thome in order to make room for Howard. I'm not saying that Ryan Howard isn't a talent that should be the Phils starting 1B or that Rowland isn't a good CFer or that the additional minor leaguers that the Phils got aren't going to pan out...but the Phils paid $20-22 Million to have the Chi Sox take their expensive player that had 1 injury plagued season...Thome already has 5 HRs, a .346 average, a 1.000 slugging percentage and looks like he's back to the 40+ HR & 70+ extra basehits form that he's shown prior to last year...I think the Phils way overpaid to unload Thome...