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Are Phillies hitters hearing Manuel's message?

On the big scoreboard in left field at Citizens Bank Park, the line score from the final game of the year was still posted Wednesday afternoon, with the zeros on the home half of the line stretching from first pitch to the last, dying light of the season.

"Do the players listen to me? Without a doubt," Charlie Manuel said Wednesday. (Associated Press)
"Do the players listen to me? Without a doubt," Charlie Manuel said Wednesday. (Associated Press)Read more

On the big scoreboard in left field at Citizens Bank Park, the line score from the final game of the year was still posted Wednesday afternoon, with the zeros on the home half of the line stretching from first pitch to the last, dying light of the season.

Charlie Manuel didn't need the reminder. He had seen the game, and seen all the games in the last two years as the Phillies went from a slugging team that didn't need many hits to score runs to a team that needs to rely on a smarter approach at the plate.

"I'm definitely on board with what Ruben says," Manuel said in his last pre-fishing news conference of the offseason, referring to general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.'s call for a better strategy at the plate. "During the year, and during the last couple of years, I touch on all those things he talked about. . . . Grind out more at-bats, learn how to work more counts, plate discipline. I talk about that. I teach that. It's a matter of reminding the guys."

If the players have been hearing that mantra from Manuel and from hitting coaches Milt Thompson and Greg Gross for the last two seasons, the message either isn't getting through or it isn't being implemented. The Phillies are not the power team they were as recently as 2009, and the adjustments since then haven't been made.

"The mentality is to try to get guys on base and make something happen, and we weren't able to do that," leftfielder Raul Ibanez said after the final game. "We could have a better approach, for sure. [St. Louis] had a very good approach at the plate. For the entire series, they did better than we did."

The difference was obvious. The Cardinals went deep into the count, fouled off pitches, and showed more patience. In the five-game series, with each team coming to bat 44 times, the Cardinals batters saw 686 pitches. The Phillies batters saw 616. Somewhere in those 70 extra pitches you probably can find the difference in the series.

"If you don't like to or are afraid to go deep in the count or to hit with two strikes on you, you are going to get anxious," Manuel said. "You'll be aggressive and chase bad balls. . . . Pitching in baseball is getting better. They know who likes to swing, who won't walk, who doesn't take pitches, who will go out of the strike zone and swing at bad pitches."

This is nothing new for the Phillies, but they once got away with it. In the 2009 National League Championship Series against Los Angeles, the Phils got just 36 hits but scored 35 runs. Against the Cardinals, also in a five-game series, the Phils got 37 hits and scored 21 runs (11 of which came in the opener). The difference isn't molecular physics. They hit 10 home runs against the Dodgers and three against the Cardinals.

So, something has to change, and if it doesn't, the quality of the starting rotation, the defense, and the bullpen will be rendered moot again.

Manuel says he has been preaching this for two years. The question is whether the players can't or won't improve their approach. And, really, which it is doesn't matter to the end result. The next question, in order to improve the situation, is whether you need to change the players or change the message.

"Do the players listen to me? Without a doubt. I know they listen to me," Manuel said. "I take a lot of pride in hitting. I know how good a hitting coach I am, and I don't care if you want to believe that or not. We'll get better."

There is no detectable vibration coming from the organization that would suggest a managerial change is among the potentially sweeping changes the front office is contemplating. Manuel just directed the team to a franchise-record 102 wins in the regular season and signed a contract extension in the spring that carries through the 2013 season.

He is the acknowledged hitting guru, however, and the problems are occurring on Manuel's watch. But, as former general manager Paul Owens liked to say about certain recalcitrant players, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't stick his dumb, bleeping head in it."

If there is a finger to be pointed at the poor production, it has to be pointed at either the thick heads or the thin ability of some of the players to change their approach. This is a team that hit 224 home runs and scored 820 runs in 2009. This season, the numbers were 153 and 713. That river will continue to flow in the same direction unless its course is diverted.

Add it up and it sounds like a significant shuffling of the roster, perhaps starting with the decision not to give a long-term contract to an aging leadoff hitter whose on-base percentage isn't that great. Don't be surprised if that calculation already has been made.

"Baseball is a game [in which] you're asking a whole lot when you say you've got to win a World Series. That's high stakes," Manuel said. "What happened was we didn't get it done, and that happens a lot. Baseball is a funny game. That's the beauty of the game."

The beauty is that baseball is such a hard game to master, and that the core component of it - hitting a pitched ball - is the most difficult thing in sports.

It can't be as hard as the Phillies have made it look, though.

Bob Ford: Time For A New Approach?

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. says the team needs a new approach at the plate because the lineup is not as powerful as it used to be. Here are the Phillies' numbers in some key offensive categories in the last five years (worst number in category in bold):

BA   OBP   SLG   BB/PA   K/PA   HR   R

2007   .274   .354   .458   .098   .184   213   892

2008   .255   .332   .438   .093   .178   214   799

2009   .258   .334   .447   .093   .182   224   820

2010   .260   .332   .413   .089   .169   166   772

2011   .253   .323   .395   .086   .163   153   713

Source: FanGraphs.comEndText