Phillies Hope Thompson's "Dismissal" Will Provide Lineup Spark
By: Mike Reisman
After almost five years, the Phillies Milt Thompson was
fired late last night. As much as I don’t
believe this was the correct decision, at this point it is the only decision.
Thompson started as the Phillies hitting coach in 2005 and
has had the team in the top two in NL scoring.
Except this year. Thompson told
MLB.com that the Phillies said “They want a new voice”. Ironically, his replacement will be Greg
Gross who was the Phillies coach before Thompson. So far this year the Phillies have under-achieved
after winning back to back NL titles and three straight division championships. This year they are a whopping seven game out
of the NL East and 6th in the NL in Runs scored as a team.
When asked why he believed that the Phillies are struggling offensively,
Milt replied, "I think the injury bug really has been a hard thing. I'm
not going to be the first one to make excuses, but we've had our Opening Day
lineup on the field eight times. You miss Jimmy. He's back for a couple of
days, then he's gone again. The next thing you know, Polly is out. Now Chase is
out. It's just been one of those years. In order for a team to be successful
and have a good year, you can't have a lot of injuries"(MLB.com). So why was he fired? To me this shows how truly desperate the team
is to change things up. And I don’t
blame them for trying, but why fire a guy that has done incredible things for
you just because your team is playing poorly for a month or two. If the entire team was healthy that is one
thing but they are not so really Thompson did nothing to deserve this “Dismissal”.
So what should the Phillies done? Well for starters maybe they should have
pursued a hitter at the deadline. And it
doesn’t even need to be anyone big, just someone who could maybe provide a
spark in the lineup. Choice number two,
call up Dominic Brown. Though he is only
one player, he could help kick start offense and get everyone feeling
good. Not only may that help, but the
competition in the outfield force Werth, Victorino, and Ibanez to play better
as they would fear losing their jobs.
One more option? Do
something different all together and fix the pitching. Not to say that the offense has less disappointing
then the pitching but statistically, the pitching is worse. They are ranked 15th in the league
in ERA and 22nd in the league in strikeouts. Those are not stats that good teams
have.
Regardless of what the Phillies do, it will all come down to
how the players respond. Hopefully for
the front offices’ sake, this decision works out.
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