Phillies fire 3 coaches after season-ending loss

WASHINGTON - The crowd in the clubhouse could not disperse fast enough Wednesday when Sam Perlozzo shook Jimmy Rollins' hand. All around them, Phillies players said their goodbyes with hugs or an exchange of phone numbers.

Rollins smiled when Perlozzo approached him. Then the first-base coach told him: Minutes earlier, he had lost his job. Rollins' face turned grim.

"I'll see you," Perlozzo said.

A winter of change commenced at 4:07 p.m. when Michael Martinez flied out to left to seal a 5-1 defeat to Washington at Nationals Park, and these Phillies ended where they began 181 days earlier. They were a .500 ball club then and now, one that crumbled under a bounty of expectations.

The overhaul started immediately following Game 162. Three coaches - Perlozzo, bench coach Pete Mackanin, and hitting coach Greg Gross - were not retained. There could be more alterations Thursday.

This is a team that used 49 players, 131 batting orders, and 23 starting outfield alignments. The faces were new to the bitter end. Tyson Brummett was throwing bullpen sessions at the University of Utah last week. He recorded the final two outs of 2012 for the Phillies when $50 million closer Jonathan Papelbon could not finish his last inning.

"We've run a lot of players through here," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We tried a lot of things."

Manuel's most common lineup (used four times) included Mike Fontenot, who played all of 47 games and was released in August. The team was hamstrung by injuries and lack of suitable depth. A decent second half (44-31) buoyed hope only for reality to ultimately strike.

The team's ratings on local TV dropped 39 percent, according to Sports Business Journal's annual survey, marking the largest decline in baseball. The Phillies went from the best local ratings in 2011 to seventh in 2012.

"It's something you don't accept as a professional baseball player," Papelbon said. "As a team unit you don't accept this and you have to find a way to come back next year and figure it out where we went wrong."

In the minutes after a charmless season met its demise, Manuel and his boss, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., informed the three coaches of their fates. Earlier in the day, Manuel and Amaro had met with team president David Montgomery, who traveled from Philadelphia for the season's last series.

Perlozzo and Mackanin had each been members of Manuel's staff for four years. Gross, in his third stint with the team, was hitting coach for 21/2 seasons.

The three moves ostensibly create a chance for Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg to join the staff in 2013. Sandberg is viewed as Manuel's eventual successor.

Only Perlozzo's departure had been announced when Manuel spoke with reporters. He alluded to change being necessary for larger reasons.

"It's definitely not what he did," Manuel said. "I look at him as a great teacher and tremendous coach. When you want to do some things, people on your staff, they're the ones who have to be let go or moved. That's the position it's in. It's something the organization felt we're going to go that way."

The product on the field Wednesday embodied an entire season of disappointment. Its poster boy is Cliff Lee, who made the wrong kind of history. He finished 2012 with a 3.16 ERA in 211 innings with 207 strikeouts and 28 walks. His astronomical strikeout-to-walk ratio of 7.39 was best in baseball; Joe Blanton's 4.88 was next closest.

But Lee's record shows only six wins. He became the first pitcher in baseball history to win fewer than eight games when posting an ERA lower than 3.20 and striking out more than 200 batters.

Inexplicably, the Phillies were 12-18 in games started by Lee. They were 10-11 when he allowed three or fewer runs.

The Phillies drastically failed to support him. His teammates scored 75 runs of support in his 211 innings while Lee permitted 79. It also provided another example against the fallacy of judging a pitcher's season based upon his won-lost record.

"I'm not glad it's over," Lee said. "I wish we were still going and got to the postseason, but you can't change that. It is over."

For a city that craves October baseball, a winter of change is only just beginning.

Games: Jimmy Rollins, 156
Hits: Jimmy Rollins, 158
Batting average: Carlos Ruiz, .325
Runs: Jimmy Rollins, 102
RBI: Jimmy Rollins, 68
Doubles: Jimmy Rollins, 33
Triples: Juan Pierre, 6
Home runs: Jimmy Rollins, 23

Games started: Cole Hamels, 31
Wins: Cole Hamels, 17 (six losses)
Losses: 12, Kyle Kendrick (11 wins)
ERA: Cole Hamels, 3.05
Strikeouts: Cole Hamels, 216
Saves: Jonathan Papelbon, 38