Charlie Manuel visits Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard and scouts Chase Utley, too
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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."
Agree with you 100%, dond2885. The negativity here is so predictable and old. If anyone hates the Phillies that much they really should be rooting for another team. If they knew anything about baseball they would know that every team has flaws. I guess only a 162-0 year will ever satisfy them.— Russ- you can watch howard on subway s tv ads,,eating those hoagies will add more k s to his batting statistics..— hardball
- Saw Howard on a comercial, he was with Michael Strahan. Strahan looked in shape, Howard looked fat. I am sure we will not get $25 M worth of baseball from Howard. I doubt if we will get $3M from him. If it comes easy, he is in, but if it requires work, he will walk away.— avogel36
- Thank goodness we have those live TV commercials to check in on our local athletes' training programs. Just listen to Utley in his Wheaties commercial during "The Shadow." You can hear how bad his knees are. — s
- I'll be playing second base bu mid-june.— CHARLES MANSON
- as though this dope's word should mean anything. when it comes to his star players, he sees only what he wants to see, and makes decisions based only on what he thinks he remembers about any of them. Fact is, there is nothing Howard can do to lose his job even against lefties that make him look amateurish. Some folks choose to believe these problems began only after he injured his Achilles. I'm thinking it was a bit earlier than that, folks.
Of all that Rubens A. Moron, Jr. has done wrong, bringing this dunce back as manager for yet another year is possibly the worst.— advantasux - dope, moron, dunce.
smh— schmenkman - Charley is fooling himself if he thinks he can bat Mike young third in the lineup. Young hit .277 last year but only hit 8 homers in 611 AB and grounded into 26 double plays. Not exactly impressive numbers for the #3 slot.
Take a gander at the year Mike Schmidt had when he was also 35 years of age and you will see that he also hit .277 but he had 33 homeruns and only grounded into 10 double plays. So being 35 isn't automatically the end of your career but it looks like Young is done. He did have a good year in 2011 and let's hope that he rebounds but maybe in the 7th hole.
Young should not hit 3rd but should be down in the lineup where he can punch out his singles and hit in a deuce that does not hurt as much.— World - The problem is there's value in splitting Utley and Howard with a RH bat and who else are you going to put in there? You're not batting Ruiz 3rd. Young makes sense at the top of the order in that regard. — s
- "If it comes easy, he is in, but if it requires work, he will walk away.
— avogel36"
Now that's just making stuff up.— schmenkman - there's more where those came from— advantasux
- Gotedg, you do make some valid points but Cholly makes Stengle look like Steven Hawkins....come on, his incoherent communication is only part of his list of deficits.....why the apologies? What has he done to deserve such strong denials from the fans? Do you really think HE personally coordinated, built, guided and manufactured their 2008 series win? When he was fired by the Cleveland Indians, there were hundreds of celebrations throughout the greater Cleveland area....the fans couldn't wait for Cholly to leave town and why? Because they also witnessed the astounding incompetence he has consistently demonstrated throughout his hack career which is one reason his playing career was mostly confined to Japan. Even his so called magical hitting instruction techniques have fallen on deaf ears in terms of the Phillies hitters. He has no idea how to handle pitchers, especially the bullpen, no clue as to how to assemble a strategic lineup, with or without injuries. He is incapable of adjusting to "live" challenges and changing conditions on the field either defensively or offensively, he never employs creative field tactics in the manner of Tony LaRussa, Joe Girardi, Bruce Bochy or Joe Maddon etc. forget it, when Cholly faces a chess playing manager, he loses 95% of the time unless the other team is riddled with injuries or he gets an ace performance out of Lee, Halliday or Hamels. Of course, worse than Chollie's ineptitudes are the absurd machinations of Amaro. I have watched the Phillies since 1963, I was there to watch Dick Allen hit a 500 homer against the Pirates, or Luzinski, Schmidt and company win their first division and so on, fans like me have the right to critique the team because we PAY the scratch that keeps Giles and Monty rich....so shut up and for once, don't be a sycophant for Montgomery, Giles and Amaro....you can do better than that.— daystrum
- I have to agree - the PHILLIES won in spite of Cholly for years. The 2008 WS the old "who got hot." The Phils were had a power ranking of something between 9 and 13 - they definitely were not the best team in MLB or even close to it. Lots of bazaar things happened in the WS (Myers going 3 for 3, Blanton hitting a HR etc.)
Cholly was great when the core was their prime because he stayed out of their way and just let them play. Now it is completely different - we need a manger that can manage a game and pitchers. We need a manager that can handle situations like Rollins presents. We need a leader in the dugout that can enforce plate discipline via the hitting coach.
Cholly lets everyone do their thing and fails to provide a sense of urgency or a shred of leadership. - I responded to some proto-Australopithecus called Phillysub1 who apparently cannot respond with a coherent debate but prefers to hurl sub pubescent insults at the writer instead of focusing on the subject of the post. I didn't see it so here it is again. "Moron" is such a tired cliche....can't you be a bit more original?The Phillies are fair game, management, the players etc. they get the big bucks, we are the paying fans but to attack the posters demonstrate your atavistic behavior and begs the question, why do you bother? Just take Prozac and eat a large Italian sub, maybe you'll feel better.— daystrum
- A few things about Charlie. First, he not only "accidentally" stumbled into a World Series team he also stumbled into one that got there the following year, one that won the division 5 of the 8 years he managed it and one that won the most games in franchise history. That said, he's got his flaws and those are more evident with a team of nobody's and young guys than one with all-stars and proven veterans. And he's not going to give you the greatest sound bites. He is what he is and he's earned the last year of his contract.
There are some areas I agree with daystrum on regarding specifics of Charlies flaws. I can't call the guy names though. First, I also think he mismanages the bullpen quite a bit. Last year he frustrated me when he'd leave a young guy in there past an inning. I'm a guy who believes in building up a young reliever's confidence. Taking a guy who pitched well for an inning, pressing the odds and letting him crash and burn in a second inning serves no useful purpose in my opinion. Second, he ought to let the two hitting coaches handle the hitting this year. Third (jtj06 alluded to this) if he doesn't use his bench and get some of his older core guys rest, we're in trouble. You'd hope one of the new coaches or even Amaro would be in his ear about that (where's Jimy Williams when you need him). If it were me -- and you'd all better hope for better -- I'd carry Galvis and Frandsen on the bench and get them plenty of starts and late game substitutions to give the entire infield some rest. At first base, I'd consider doing the same with Howard using Ruf (maybe Mayberry).— s
