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Phillies' season, and short-term future, looking bleak | Sam Donnellon

The team is 2-9 since Pete Mackanin received a contract extension, and a number of prospects are struggling.

On the day Pete Mackanin's two-year extension was announced, Matt Klentak, the general manager of the Phillies, said this:

"What I've seen from the first six weeks of this season is a team that plays hard on every pitch. And I recognize, fully recognize, that our record is six games under .500. But … I think the effort level of this team – we can see progress in what's happening right now. Pete can see it, we all can see -- it's happening before our very eyes. Obviously, it's not reflected in our win-loss record yet, but we can see the progress happening. And that's why we're making this decision; the team is playing very well for this man to my left."

It is a gross understatement to say the team has not played well since. Since Mackanin's extension, the Phillies have won just twice in 11 games, extending a dismal stretch of baseball in which they have won just four times over 23 games, dating to their high-water mark of 11-9 on April 27.

They are not playing very well for this man. In fact, if he hadn't just struck this deal, smack in the middle of it, it would be tempting to say they're trying to get him fired. They make costly errors and give away far too many at-bats. Their starting pitchers, a few who came to this club as part of high-profile trades, rarely make it through six innings. Some often can't even get three outs before runs are on the board.

"I'm just clueless right now,'' Vince Velasquez was saying the other day, after his most recent loss. Obtained when the Phillies traded closer Ken Giles to Houston in December 2015, the righthander is one of several young. 95-mph arms with little control of secondary pitches and even less control of their own emotions when things get rocky. In Tuesday night's 8-2 loss to Colorado, it was Zach Eflin – obtained when Jimmy Rollins was dealt to the Dodgers – with a bad early case of the yips.

"I'm just running around like a chicken without a head,'' said Velasquez, but even that's not an accurate description. Headless chickens scare you. There's nothing to be afraid of with Velasquez, or that entire staff, right now.

As for the future, well, we've been through this: The best arms, the ones with the dynamic potential ace stuff, have a few rungs yet to climb. If Mackanin's got any chance of parlaying the next two seasons into late-career managing success, the Phillies will have to break into buyer's mode for the first time since Roy Halladay topped their staff.

Even if they were so inclined, the last month of baseball should produce some pause there, if not panic. Maikel Franco has not evolved into a patient major-league bat under new hitting coach Matt Stairs. Ditto for Odubel Herrera, who is looking very Rule 5-ey at the plate these days.

Aaron Altherr has joined Cesar Hernandez as a pleasant find amid the rubble of this season. but it should be noted each is older than Franco, 24, or Herrera, 25. Hernandez is 27. Altherr is 26. And those triple-A prospects who were supposed to graduate later this season and make both Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders trade chips? Nick Williams, last year's prospect du jour, is hitting .258 with five home runs, 47 strikeouts and six walks over 42 games for Lehigh Valley. Roman Quinn is hitting .269. J.P. Crawford is at .186. If not for Rhys Hoskins, there would be no buzz from a team widely anticipated to be more wildly exciting than the big club this season.

Anyone remember names like Michael Taylor, Kyle Drabek, Anthony Gose, Jason Donald, Lou Marson, and Travis d'Arnaud? I'd like to have a dollar for every email I received about how the Phillies would regret trading slugger Jonathan Singleton to the Astros. After clearing waivers last November, Singleton was assigned to Houston's double-A club in Corpus Christi, where he is hitting .235 with eight home runs over 40 games. Drafted way back in 2009, he is still just 25.

And that's Mackanin's long-range, and long-term, dilemma. We all anticipate the Phillies to improve radically over the next few years because, well, they've sucked long enough to acquire all these prospects. But we still really can't point to any of them to tell you why. Will that staff at Lakewood rise fast and become the backbone to a pitching-first team of the future? Or will it come from that ever-altering list of can't-miss prospects coming through.

Either way, help no longer appears to be on the immediate horizon. For a while at least, this might be as good as it's going to get.