“We love what Charlie brings to the ballpark every day, which is an upbeat, positive attitude that rubs off on the players,” Gillick said in a news release. ”He helped lead our club back to the playoffs, and he and his coaching staff did a great job, especially with the injury issues they faced throughout the season with a number of key players.”
Even when things were looking their bleakest, Charlie never wavered publicly in his belief that his squad could make the playoffs. That positive vibe is his best quality, and is one of the big reasons his players like playing for him.
Ryan Howard said. “He’s a player’s coach, and he kept a lot of things together.”
"Awesome news," Brett Myers said. "He deserves it. He put us in the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. He deserves a lot of credit for keeping everything together when so many of our big guys went down."
Is this a good move by the Phillies?
The division title that the team won this year, in game 162, was a byproduct of the team’s offensive talent, tenacity and admirable late season focus, but also an historic flop by the division leaders. The Mets' 7 game lead that loomed so large in the last couple of weeks would not have been such a gap if this team could just earn a winning record in April. Charlie Manuel’s teams have not started the season well and it has cost them dearly in each of the last 3 seasons.
2007 April Record 11 – 14. Phillies won division by 1 game after coming back from 7 down.
2006 April Record 12 – 14. Phillies finished 12 back of the Mets in the division and 3 games out of the wildcard.
2005 April Record 10 – 14. Phillies finished 2 games back of the Braves and 1 game out of the wildcard.
In each of his 3 seasons, Charlie Manuel’s team was playing from behind from the jump. Knowing the slow starts had contributed to the Phillies missing the playoffs in his first two seasons, Manuel placed a heavy emphasis during spring training on getting a good start this year. They were 5 – 11 in the first 3 weeks. If they had split those first 16, the late season drama would have been diminished and maybe the team would not have been completely drained when the playoffs begin.
Much has been made of his strategic failings, and rightly so. One of the more significant issues throughout the course of the season was his use of the bullpen. He would routinely remove his starters when they had a lead in the 5th and 6th innings, if they allowed base runners to reach. This put the game into the hands of an unsteady bullpen that was staffed with too many cast offs, re-treads and never-weres. Many leads evaporated in his middle relievers hands. With his bullpen, it seemed obvious that he needed to give his starters every chance to get into the 7th inning or beyond, but he rarely did. Charlie was not responsible for player selection, but he did control how he used them.
This Phillies team has a core that can make them a World Series contender for the next several years, if there are a couple of upgrades made. They need a third baseman, a top of the rotation starter and 2 good relievers. I would have also liked an upgrade in the manager’s office.