PHILLIES PHODDER

The woeful Phillies season continues..

* Excellent article today in  the Philly Daily News by Marcus Hayes regarding manager Pete Mackanin. I've been waiting for someone in the local media to start ripping the Phillies. Ok, this was more about Mackanin and his lack of discipline and how the players seem to be running the asylum. I'm still waiting for the defining piece on the Phils and their front office and how this organization is on the verge of losing 110 games this season.

Once again, Mackanin makes too many excuses for his players' mental and physical blunders and their lack of hustle. "We play all of these good teams tough" he contends, also adding that "we come up short." That's because the Phillies simply aren't good enough. The talent has been over-evaluated. Mix that with a lack of hustle  diva-like attitudes and generally not caring and it adds up to this mess of a team.

Sunday was yet another one-run loss, this time a 2-1 defeat to Arizona. Another game full of missed opportunities, inept hitting with men in scoring position, and boneheaded miscues.

Franco fell asleep on the base paths and got picked off second base. He should've been sent to Lehigh Valley several weeks ago to clear his head. Instead, the Boy Wonder GM, Matt Klentak, vetoed that idea,thinking Franco should play out of his prolonged slump.

It's fine to show confidence in your struggling players; it's another thing when the struggling players don't have confidence in themselves.

That in point reliever E. Ramos, who is now 0-7 on the season. Every time he enters a game now, you know bad things are gonna happen, as they did yesterday in the 11th inning. His confidence is shot to hell, and he needs to be sent down.

* It's becoming a circus watching this team implode daily, finding new and different ways to lose. It's already been a long, painful summer, with more yet to come, but in a macabre way, it's been like slowing down on a roadway to gazing at the carnage of an accident. You do't want to look but something makes you look to see how bad it really is.

What kind of drama will happen today? Will Mackanin finally explode? Will there be a boiling-over point between Larry Bowa and a player, resulting in a fist fight in the dugout? What other lame excuse will the players come up with for not hustling or "preferring" not to play that day? Will the geeky general manager ever call a team meeting and ream out the players? Will we ever see president Andy MacFailure in our lifetime again?

* There was a piece in the Boston Globe saying that Franco is on the trade block. If you believe that he is hopeless and will never learn from his mistakes or listen to the coaches, then you trade him while you can.

But Franco is only 24. He has shown flashes of defensive brilliance, streaks of power and potential all-star form.

He's just not consistent.

I would hesitate trading him now simply because his worth is slowly going down and you're not going to get nearly his value if you trade Franco now.  Plus there is no other solution at third base. Blanco? Kendricks? Can Joseph play third?

Hang on to Franco, at least until the off-season . The Phils have eyes on Baltimore's Manny Machado when he becomes a free agent after the 2018 season,.But until then, what happens on the hot corner?

* It's great that OF Cam Perkins was finally promoted to the big club recently, He deserved a shot. But he is barely hitting above .100, striking out regularly, and looks over-matched at the plate ( inside fastballs on his hands are eating him alive).

Like I said, Perkins paid his dues in the minors and deserved a chance. Only problem is, Mackanin put him in the lead-off slot immediately. putting extra pressure on the guy. Does his failure discourage the front office from promoting other prospects,  like Hoskins, Williams and Alfaro?

Keep Perkins on the roster, just drop him in the line-up. I would rather see him play than a Daniel Nava, who isn't the future. Let's see how Perkins takes failure. Will he work harder and overcome the adversity or will he hang his head and give up? in this hopeless season, this is the time to find out about what a player is made of.

* 2B Scott Kingery was finally promoted to Lehigh Valley, while hitting .313 with 18 homers in Reading. Fringe player Ty Kelly started at second base yesterday for the Phillies. That's embarrassing, to have a hot Kingery available to fill in for six weeks until Cesar Hernandez is ready to come off the disabled list.

OF Andrew Pullin, one of the best pure hitters in the organization, was also promoted recently. It's time for the Phillies front office to make room on the big league roster for the summer call-ups, by trading old vets like Nava, Hellickson ( who is pitching better and thus, building up his trade value), Kendricks and Neshek .July should be a busy month for Klentak, trying to unload these guys.

Hopefully trades will happen this year as compared to last summer when the Phillies couldn't trade Hellickson. My thinking is, take whatever you reasonably can get,

I really do want to see some of the kids, namely Couzins, Hoskins, Crawford and the gang, play in Philadelphia this summer. Not just September call-ups to fill out the roster, but real playing time during the dog days of summer.  On the other hand, with these coaches and toxic clubhouse atmosphere, do I really want these kids to  get swallowed up by all of this negative losing?

* Tommy Joseph struck out on three pitches yesterday, with a runner on second base. Joseph is a nice player, nothing special. He will give you 20 homers  a year with a modest .250 average. He's not clutch, like most of the Phillies' hitters.

* Amazing.. The LA Dodgers have won 10 in a row while opennig up a lead in National League West. They're young talent- namely Mark Bellinger, are shining bright ( take note, Phillies), while veterans like Clayton Kershaw are having steady, solid years.

I picked the Dodgers to meet the Red Sox in the World Series.

With the money in Los Angeles, and their abundant farm system, expect the Dodgers to finally return to the Series soon.

The Phillies continue their current road trip with a matinee get-away game against the Diamondbacks, then two in Seattle. The Mariners have already defeated the Phils twice in Philly, crushing them, in fact, so it doesn't get any easier.

The trip concludes this weekend when the team limps into New York, to face the struggling Mets for a three-game set, before returning home to face the Pirates and Padres,

. The Phils already have 50 losses on the year. At their current pace of losing 2/3rds of their games,with  88 games remaining, math says the club will lose a record 112 games. All bets are off then, no one's job is safe. Ownership should clean house and start over. The fans would accept another few years of a rebuild if only they knew this organization has a real, solid plan.

Right now what they are doing isn't working.