A Guest Post From “We Should Be GMs”

Here’s a guest post about last night’s Phillies-Cubs game. It’s from the guys over at We Should Be GMs. Our thanks for it:

For the love of Kevin Sefcik, what a s**t-show that was last night. I don’t even know where to begin, but I’ll start here – I’m getting tired of the Charlie Manuel-Ruben Amaro “brain trust” completely mismanaging this team. Amaro hasn’t optimized the roster and Charlie isn’t using what he has to best of their ability. Last night was the perfect example of this. Consider:

– The team doesn’t have a long reliever. That should be Kyle Kendrick but because of the injury to Joe Blanton and the complete mismanagment of Vance Worley, Kendrick has to start. Was his spot on the bullpen filled? No. They added another 1-inning arm instead of somebody who could throw five or six innings after something like, oh I don’t know, a RAIN DELAY.

– Despite the bullpen not having a long man and even though Kyle Kendrick was willing, able and prepared to continue pitching after the delay, Manuel took him out. From that moment, the Phils were likely to run out of pitching.

– Despite the team being very close to running out of pitching in a close game, Manuel took out Antonio Bastardo with one out and nobody on in the 8th inning. Total innings pitched for Bastardo – 0.2.

– Despite the team being very close to running out of pitching in a close game, Manuel took out Jose Contreras to start the ninth. Total innings pitched for Contreras – 0.2.

– Despite the team being very close to running out of pitching in a close game, Madson was taken out after the ninth without the need for the pinch hitter. Total innings pitched for Madson – 1.

– Despite the team being very close to running out of pitching in a close game, Manuel pinch-hit for JC Romero in the sixth with two outs and nobody one base with Michael Martinez. Total inning pitched for Romero – 0.1. Chance that this move would result in a run in the sixth inning – 0.0000000000000001%.

– Michael Martinez was used at the second pinch hitter. Apparently, he’s their best left handed option off of the bench. Save us Jeebus.

The result of all of this was David Herndon batting with the bases loaded in the 10th inning because the Phils were out of pitchers. Sure, bad Phillies fielding in the 11th lead more directly to this loss, but it was set up waaaaay before that by the decisions of Amaro and Manuel. Of course, in game decision making by the manager rarely effects the outcome of the game, right?

Here’s what needs to happen today – 1)Kendrick goes back to the pen as the long reliever, 2)Worley come back into the rotation and 3)Michael Martinez goes away.