Wednesday, October 4, 2017

2017 Review: Coaches

With MacKanin's "status change", let's discuss the coaching staff. They have been advised to seek positions elsewhere but I am sure we won't see 100% turnover.

Bench Coach: Larry Bowa is 99.99% out of the dugout but the career Phillie (player, coach, manager), like MacKanin, is going to remain in the organization. He earned it: loyalty during transition years and the transitions seemed pretty seamless from my perspective.

I said that Dusty Walthan would be a good manager but I do value big league coaching experience on a resume before becoming a big league manager to ease his transition and to judge his strategy. He has everything on his resume but he only coached in the bigs during the times the games don't count: Spring Training and Sept. call-up, in which the Phillies were out of contention. Knowing the kids makes him the ideal right-hand man to a new manager, one that will likely come from outside the organization. And yes, it is hard to judge strategy for a bench coach but there will be enough evidence should another change be needed. Unfortunately, this would be Dusty's only opportunity, except if the new manager is on a short (~3 yr) leash.

Pitching Coaches: My guess is that MacKanin wanted to keep McClure, which makes it a factor in Klentak's decision to move Pete out of the dugout. A coach should, in my humble opinion, get 90% out of his players 90% of the time (that's an A/A-). McClure was not successful this year (Vinny: "I'm lost") and we require outside help for the 'pen and especially the starters. The bullpen was up-and-down (Benoit: "we need roles") but given the overall success, especially late, and the short tenure, I think no change is needed in the 'pen.

Corner infield coaches: Samuel is doing well but starting to loose touch. Morandini is also loosing touch (baserunning weak) so a switch (Samuel was a 1B coach) would work. Let's see if they can have better success stealing & scoring with a switch.

Hitting Coach - Matt Stairs: He succeeded and intervened when necessary and exceeded the 90-90 standard I mentioned. Only Maikel Franco didn't take to Stairs and you could argue that Rupp & Joseph took a step back. Also, we have trade bait in the infield now. It would behoove the next manager to keep Matt Stairs given the emergence of the hitters and that Matt just completed his first year as hitting coach.

Other Coaches: Catching, per MacPhail the other day, needs work. Rupp is probably gone but it'll be up to a free agent and the coach to teach Alfaro & Knapp how to frame and call pitches. I'm not sure if the Phillies can split like they did a few years ago with Billmeyer, but if they can, I think the new manager should bring someone in.

Great end-of-year for the Phillies makes for easy decisions by the new manager during a transition year from the basement ('13-'17) to near-.500 in 2018: Walthan for bench coach, keep Stairs, Kranitz ('pen) and the infield coaches (except switch spots), and hire a new catching coach & pitching coach. 2018 performances will tell a lot about the coaches and some more change might be needed as a result. I'll continue with some more offseason stuff as it progresses. Have a great rest of the week!