After owning the first pick of the 2018 MLB Draft all season long, the Phillies gave it up with about three weeks left in the season, a remarkable achievement for a rebuilding team in this era of draft spending pools.
That wasn't enough for the team of MacPhail/Klentak though, they decided to fire their manager Pete Mackanin and the entire coaching staff as well even though the universal opinion of them is that they were doing a great job. Hitting coach Matt Stairs immediately found new employment with San Diego.
Shortly after Joe Girardi was dismissed by the Yankees the Phillies rushed to announce Gabe Kapler as their new manager. Girardi was immediately a fan favorite for the job and that had to be brought to an end quickly. John Middleton is not about to wrestle for control of the Phillies with a presence like Joe Girardi.
Here is an article about Gabe Kapler talking up the Phillies by Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice. A couple of one sentence quotes from Kapler:
“We’re going to hunt for value at the margins.”
Well, that certainly got the attention of John Middleton and Bill Giles in a big way. Clearly Kapler did his research well. Nobody can squeeze the head off a copper penny like the owners of the Phillies. Kapler even praised Phillies pitcher Luis Garcia, a guy who was stacking shelves in a warehouse for a living and was signed for nothing. Good job telling the bosses what they want to hear.
“This scouting department has done a tremendous job the last couple years”
Really? I share the exact opposite view. Last year the Phillies took a pitcher in the 2nd round who I immediately named “twiggy” and who is now on the shelf with T.J. surgery. I would have jumped the bones of Philly’s own Nolon Jones who ticked all the boxes for me.
This year I recommended to the Phillies - in order - Jordon Adell, Keston Hiura and Mark Vientos. Again, in the second round Vientos was sitting there for the Phillies. So the Phillies could have had two of those three I flagged. The guy the Phillies took in the first round? I didn’t even look at video of him until after the Phillies picked him. The Phillies first round pick at the top of the first round was sorted out before the part where I look at video of the guy. He couldn’t make it that far with me.
Jon Heyman wrote an article about the Gabe Kapler hire and at the bottom there is a comment left. I too thought the same thing after reading the article, that the Dodgers F.O. was recommending Kapler so enthusiastically in hopes of getting him to move on.
Maybe the article is just slanted due to a small sample size of people who wanted to talk about Kapler. What is clear is that referring to Kapler as "verbose"could be taken as a sardonic comment.
However, more grimly, I could not help but be left with the impression that John Middleton would rather shoot his sister, his wife and his precious son Hollywood Johnny in the head before turning the gun on himself before he would sign Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in December 2018.
Yes Phillies fans, it sounds to me like you're about to be sodomized by John Middleton.....again. Maybe Gabe Kapler will lend Mr. Middleton his coconut oil before the attack from the rear begins?
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