Philadelphia Phillies sack three coaches after losing to Washington Nationals - MLB Update
Philadelphia Phillies announce the ouster of three coaches following the end of their disappointing regular season.
The declaration was made immediately after the Phillies lost to Washington Nationals in their last game of the regular season.
Bench coach Pete Mackanin, hitting coach Greg Gross and first-base coach Sam Perlozzo have been fired.
More changes can be expected.
Despite having quality players, the Phillies could not draw the best possible performances from them.
Phillies give mammoth salaries to most of their players. Finding them putting up such dismal performances will inevitably force the top management to introduce changes.
Their players are considered among the best in baseball and yet they failed to take the Phillies to a respectable position in the season.
Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel earlier hinted that it was more the lack of mental toughness than the talent of the players that caused the failure. From his conclusion, it can be inferred that some of the officials who were supposed to consider psychological
aspect of the players did not carry out the job appropriately.
Furthermore, Manuel has decided to be proactive and indulging in day-to-day activities of the players next year.
Players understand that changes become indispensable every time a team posts an unimpressive win-loss record.
Jimmy Rollins appears to be least surprised as the three coaches are ousted. He has stressed on the need to study factors that were their weak-links and fixing them immediately.
“Oh, there are going to be some changes, definitely,” Jimmy Rollins said. “Some issues that have to be addressed.”
The fact the Phillies performed much better in the latter half of the season can provide some of the players with an excuse to escape criticism.
Jonathan Papelbon, however, is against the idea of hiding behind the second half of the season success of his team. He accepts that they have struggled by and large in putting up better shows.
“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 out where we went wrong.”
The Phillies will be trying to make sure they fix all the bugs and flaws before the next season and once again become a formidable opposition in the National League East Division.
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