Charlie Manuel visits Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard and scouts Chase Utley, too
In three weeks and two days, Charlie Manuel will stroll along the diamonds at the Carpenter Complex as pitchers and catchers take part in their first workouts of the spring.
Charlie Manuel visits Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard and scouts Chase Utley, too
Ryan Lawrence
In three weeks and two days, Charlie Manuel will stroll along the diamonds at the Carpenter Complex as pitchers and catchers take part in their first workouts of the spring.
But Manuel has already made a trip to Clearwater to get first-hand progress reports on a few of the Phillies most important players. Shortly after getting inducted into the All Sports Museum of Southern New Jersey in Bridgeton on Monday, Manuel gave his personal scouting reports on Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.
Manuel was in Clearwater just a week ago.
"(Halladay) looks real good. He looks strong," Manuel said of his two-time Cy Young Award winner, who missed almost two months last summer to a right shoulder injury. "I could tell he’s been doing some work with his upper body, his back and shoulders. He looked a little bigger and stronger. ... Halladay of course has thrown a lot of bullets. But at the same time, too, I think the time he’s had off and the conditioning program he’s been on, if anybody can bounce back and do it, I think it’s Halladay.
Manuel also saw Howard taking live batting practice, something that the first baseman did sparingly while coming off Achilles' surgery last spring.
"I saw him hit," Manuel said. "He said his Achilles’ doesn’t hurt him and he said his ankle is much better."
Utley, who hasn't played a game in either of the last two spring trainings, was not in Clearwater when Manuel visited. But head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan happened to be working out with Utley in Northern California last week and he sent Charlie a DVD of one of Utley's workouts.
"He looked good," Manuel said. "It showed him exercising, jumping and grasping at this bar, things like that, and he really looked like he was in good shape. He emailed me at Christmas and said, “You’re going to have a healthy second baseman.” Knowing him, that’s means a whole lot."
One other interesting tidbit came from Manuel's comments on Monday.
Manuel has pretty much been married to three spots in his lineup when he has had a healthy lineup: Jimmy Rollins at leadoff, Utley third and Howard fourth. But on Monday he at least opened up the conversation to using new third baseman Micheal Young to split Utley and Howard.
"I’ve always looked at Utley as a third hole hitter, but it depends on how good (we are) or how we set up," Manuel said. "I could hit Utley second and Young third, but at the same time I don’t know. I like Young second or third."
Since 1950, the Phillies have had six managers that managed 200 or more games and ended their time with winning records (6 in 62 years).
Our history is not loaded with extended periods of success. In fact just the opposite.
I will grant that Manuel is not the most adept at the stategy of baseball. I do feel however that the moves a baseball manager makes and the success of those moves is very much dependent on the performance of the players and the skill level of the players on the team. Everything about the 2012 season was a mess and the choices that Manuel had in his bullpen in the first half of the season was a failure--so he was not given very many good options.
It is an old baseball axiom that very good managerial strategy is responsible for five wins in an average year and that very bad managerial strategy results in five losses in an average year, and I think Manuel probably hits the three to five losses a year mark on average.
I think history shows that what wins games (the 150 plus games not decided by stategy) is the ability to hold a club house together.
My sense is that Manuel does this very well. Despite his fractured syntax and his outgoing rube type persona--he has not (to the best of my knowledge) tried to show up his players, he has not run any stars out of town and he does not over react when his players make a mistake.
I am reminded of the manger he followed--who had a very active strategic mind and a winning record-- but was constantly showing up his players by his "little dugout routine", helped run Rolen out of town with his comments and constantly showed up his players.
For my money it is hard to argue with Manuel's 447 W and 363 L record over the last eight seasons.— Smoothellc- Until Utley stops that extra practice swing, he'll never hit over 250 again. He's not ready to hit.— jlkndy
- IN 2008 HOWARD CLOSED HIS STANCE AND TRIED TO PULL THE BALL AT THE SAME TIME WHICH IS A PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY. GO AHEAD STAND UP AND TRY IT.
HE STILL CLOSES HIS STANCE BUT NOT AS MUCH AS HE USED TO.
THE OTHER CLUBS KNOW THIS. WHY THEY EVEN WALK UTLEY TO GET TO HIM1— Lew Klein
