Brookover: Mackanin's message for Phillies is the right one
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Pete Mackanin posted the number last month, and it was an ambitious one. The Phillies manager said in mid-January that he plans to tell his players that he believes they can finish at .500 this season. He'll get the chance to do exactly that before pitchers and catchers go through their first spring training workout Tuesday morning on the fields at the Carpenter Complex.
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Pete Mackanin posted the number last month, and it was an ambitious one. The Phillies manager said in mid-January that he plans to tell his players that he believes they can finish at .500 this season. He'll get the chance to do exactly that before pitchers and catchers go through their first spring training workout Tuesday morning on the fields at the Carpenter Complex.
Eighty-one wins is a great expectation when you consider the Phillies won only 71 last season and 63 the year before. Only four teams - Boston (plus-15), Cleveland (plus-13), Detroit (plus-12), and Seattle (plus-10) - had a double-digit jump in victories from 2015 to 2016, which is what would be required for the Phillies to achieve their manager's lofty goal.
Aiming high is what every manager should do, especially if he believes he has a team on the rise. If Mackanin wants his players to believe in him, a good place to start is by believing in them. It's a bit of a risky move for Mackanin because he is in the final year of a contract that also has a team option for 2018. At 65, however, he has been around long enough to know that if he doesn't do things his way, it's never going to work anyway.
As players reported to work Monday at the newly named Spectrum Field, Phillies president Andy MacPhail had an opportunity to parrot his manager's target number for victories. He declined.
"I've been around too long to get involved with that," MacPhail said. "That's more the manager's and the general manager's [domain]. I'm focused not so much on a number for next year. I'd like to see improvement. That can demonstrate itself in a lot of ways. So I'm looking for improvement - measurable, meaningful improvement.
"That could just be in the number of players that look like they can be pieces for the future. I think that's my goal for 2017."
That's fine, but it's important to never lose sight of the primary goal for every organization, and that's winning games at the major-league level.
You want to build the confidence of young players? Win. You want to attract big-ticket free agents who can have an immediate impact? Win. You want to excite the fans? Win.
Do not be afraid to apply pressure on young players because the best ones pretty much have figured out how to be successful at an early age. Look at the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, two teams the Phillies should be emulating because they have built through their farm systems and supplemented by signing big-ticket free agents. The Phillies are in the process of finding out about their young players and certainly have the cash flow to do the supplementing once opportunity knocks.
Boston returned to the playoffs last year and improved by 15 games because Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley, all at 26 or younger, proved to be stars on the rise. The Cubs, with three stars (Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell) at 26 and younger, won their first World Series since 1908.
"The fans and media are pretty sophisticated," MacPhail said. "They're going to know improvement when they see it. I wouldn't put a number by it. Sometimes you can move the win number up but not really have a good year."
Move it up by 10 and that will be a guaranteed great year for the Phillies.
Of course, wins are not the only way to measure the success of a rebuilding team. Freddy Galvis could fail to improve on his major-league-worst .274 on-base percentage from last season, but the Phillies could still improve if former first-round pick J.P. Crawford takes over at shortstop midway through the season.
The free-agent signings of Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders could fail to pan out, and the Phillies would still be thrilled if Dylan Cozens slugged 30-something homers at triple-A Lehigh Valley while Roman Quinn remains healthy and productive through a full season with the Iron Pigs.
On the other hand, it would be alarming if Crawford and Nick Williams did not improve upon their first exposure to triple-A pitching last season.
"I think what I read [about our farm system], people perceive us as being very deep, but they perceive that those two guys . . . took a step back," MacPhail said. "I don't really see it that way at all. J.P. is 21 at triple A. He's doing just fine. He doesn't even have to be protected [on the 40-man roster] yet. Nick Williams is like 22 [actually 23]. He was doing fine at triple A. He had a lousy month of August. At the end of July he was doing great."
Crawford turned 22 last month and hit just .244 with 16 extra-base hits in 336 at-bats at Lehigh Valley last season. Williams hit .283 with 10 home runs and 54 RBIs through July of last season while posting a .314 on-base percentage and a .774 OPS. Those are respectable numbers for a 22-year-old player in the International League. They are not great numbers.
There's nothing wrong with saying those young prospects need to play better, especially when there are guys roughly the same age helping other teams make the playoffs and win the World Series.
There's also nothing wrong with shooting for .500 when most everyone else thinks that's aiming too high. It's a strong message that Pete Mackanin has decided to send.
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