PHILLY SPORTS CORNER- PHILLIES

My comments about Phillies team president Andy MacPhail's press conference..

- Is  MacPhail behind all this mess of a dysfunctional organization? He reminds me of the grouchy old man who yells at kids to stay off his grass. I'm stunned by his comments. The Phillies have hoarded money for years, pointing towards this free agent class. Now, MacPhail says because attendance wasn't high, the organization may not sign a big-name free agent.

Is he kidding me? Now he wows that the free agents next off-season are amazing..and the year after that..and the year after that. Hell, we might as well wait several more years until Mike trout himself is on the market?

The reason more fans don't go to the games, Mr. mac{hail, is because your team plays long, boring, often bad baseball. You had a historically awful collapse at the end of the summer. Plus no changes are likely to occur next year. Same analytical manager. Same stagnant coaches. Same lack of fundamentals. Same passive, clueless general manager who is poor at evaluating talent and not bold enough to make significant moves.

Same old bullshit.

Disheartening to hear this from the team president. Makes you wonder what the owner thinks. Where is John Middleton?

he appears when times are good. he disappears when times are tough. he talks a good game, but with little action.

MacPhail says that Middleton "has been crabby lately." Good. let the fans hear the crabbiness for themselves.

I still get the feeling that, despite Middleton being a smart guy and excellent businessman, he is trusting the morons underneath him too much. Those morons don't have a clue and are out of touch with the city and the fans.

Yes, I'm hoping the young guys, like Kingery, will play their normal positions and play well, develop and grow. But I was also hoping to get either Machado, Harper or even both to accelerate the contenting process.

The Phillies needed to have a 100-plus loss season in order for significant changes to be made. Sadly, by MacPhail's constant harping of "We ere in first place for a month during the summer" the organization is focusing more on the first part of the year rather than the collapse.

Sure, you can't ignore both. But when the chips were on the line the team quit. Nobody brought up the word"quit' on recent days in the news conferences.

The young pitchers did seem to hit a wall, as MacPhail said. So why wasn't a Cole Hamels traded for in case Valasquez or Pivetta stumbled? As MacPhail himself said, can never have enough solid pitching. I now wish the Phils would've lost last weekend and ended on an 11-game losing streak. Winning the final two games and finishing the season improved 14 games than 2018 has the organization wearing rose-colored glasses.

Franco is all but gone Santana was being groomed to play shortstop, not second base. Who knows if they keep the over-rated Hernandez?Is the infield defense any better?

Will they get a true closer? Or let  Dominguez assume that role permanently? Or will Kapler continue to  use him like a Swiss Army Knife?

Here's hoping the Phillies surprise and spend wisely, make shrewd deals, and show me they want to win.