EMERGENCY POD: Phillies manager Rob Thomson fired

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Chase that Lee. It's the Phillies Show.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: Rob Thompson fired as Phillies manager. Don Maddingly has been named the interim manager. Lots of big changes, significant changes obviously to the Phillies. Ruben Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd's Awucky, It's the Phillies Show. It's Tuesday, April twenty eighth. Word broke out about an hour or so ago that that Dave Nebrowski fired Rob.

00:00:31
Speaker 3: We talked at to hit the you're not going to hit the O.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: The emergency pod. Sound there we go emergency. This is an emergency pod because of because of Rob losing his job, and we talked a lot about it on Monday. Guys, we thought that this might be coming, and it came and Ruben, what's what was your immediate reaction to the news?

00:00:58
Speaker 3: Well, not surprised, just appointed for Rob himself. I think he's a great manager, a great baseball man. But you know, someone has to you know, these are very difficult decisions that a front office has to make, and you know, sometimes you have to make change.

00:01:14
Speaker 1: To make change. I do think that it's going.

00:01:18
Speaker 3: To put other people in a little bit of a bull's eye, including some of the people on the staff. I know they made them changes. Don Mattingly I have a great deal of respect for as a manager and as a baseball person. I think that he did a heck of a job with the Marlins when he was there.

00:01:34
Speaker 1: He's also managed in other you know, in La Listen.

00:01:39
Speaker 3: I don't have any issues at all with Don Mattingly, and he's a wonderful baseball man, and he as automatic cachet.

00:01:46
Speaker 1: But they're you know, their problems are all encompassing.

00:01:50
Speaker 3: They have not just it's not just you know what you may or may not thought of what the manager was doing.

00:01:57
Speaker 1: There are a lot of other issues on this ball club.

00:01:59
Speaker 3: And it'll be interesting to see whether the players step up and play better. And it'll be interesting to see if there's other elements in this organization that there are also continue to be scrutinized. So again, difficult decisions. I've had to make them. I've been some have been made for me, and this is part of the game. But I wish that man well because Rob Thompson is a quality human being, and it helped be the first to tell you. In fact, I chatted with him. He said he believes that this team is going to turn it around. He does have faith in this team, and I think he understands the fact that you know, this is part of the game.

00:02:44
Speaker 4: Well, I think there actually remains too much talent on this team not to at least turn it around enough to get in that wildcard hunt now that we live in the era of three wildcard teams. But I think they've dug themselves a huge hole in terms of the division. Will be very tough to make that ground up. I feel for Rob Thompson, I agree, great man. I think he's an excellent baseball man. I think he served this organization well, what a memory we all had of that turnaround in twenty twenty two, taking it to Game six of the World Series. I think he's the same exact manager that won two divisions, that took a team to the World Series. I put this one on the players, and they're under performance, and when that happens, somebody pays the price. And the way this game operates, it's often the manager. No one understands that more than Rob Thompson. That's why I think he is probably understanding of the move. I'm sure he's disappointed, but like I said, I put this one on the players, and it's also on the players to turn this thing around and prove that they are not as old and slow as they have looked here in the first twenty eight games. The bedrock of this team throughout the Rob Thompson era was starting pitching, and it has disappeared. The offense has been terrible, the defense has been terrible, and with these long contracts and the high odometer readings and age numbers on this team, who knows if it's going to get better when they turn their eyes to Alex Korra next year. But we're going to see if this team has one good run in it and can get a wild card. And then you know, it's the old saying get in and get hot. This is going to be the year that that's all put to the test.

00:04:35
Speaker 2: You know, talking with Rob after the game on Sunday in Atlanta, they lose that game six to two, you know, asked him about his job security, and you guys read the quote. We talked about the quote on Monday, saying, listen, I play. I worked for George Steinbern for twenty eight years. I can't worry about that. I'm not worried about it. I have to worry about the players in the clubhouse and the coaches on the staff and trying to get them ready for the next game, and just a total pro Uh. I agree with you guys, this falls on the players.

00:05:04
Speaker 1: You know.

00:05:04
Speaker 2: I just did a I was just hopped on MLB Network for a second and Mark de Rosa asked me, you know, what's what's the key to kind of getting this turned around. What's what's the one thing you would point to? And I'm like, there's a lot of things you can point to. I mean, everything has been just a total failure so far on the from the player performance side. We talked about the stats the other day. I mean runs per game twenty eighth. You know, every every major offensive category from new school metrics to old school metrics. They're a bottom three offense. Jim, you mentioned the starting rotation, worst eer a in baseball, of any rotation in baseball. This is a rotation with Christopher Sanchez, Jesus Loizardo, Aaron Nola, and your Painter. I know Nola. We can talk about Nola. We have talked about Nola. Painter's a rookie.

00:05:50
Speaker 1: I get it.

00:05:50
Speaker 2: Wheelers back I get it, but this rotation has been terrible. And Noah said it on Sunday. You know, I put my team either.

00:05:58
Speaker 3: Those elements Todd May I interrupt, are Rob Thompson's fault.

00:06:03
Speaker 1: Those are not Rob Thompson's fault.

00:06:06
Speaker 3: The fact that they're hitting and their pitching has been abysmal, no.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: Doubt about it. How about the defense, you know, in the defensive metrics, we can always go Sometimes you look at it and go, that makes sense. Sometimes you look at it and you go, that makes zero sense. But you look at some of the metrics and you look at the eye test. The defense has been terrible.

00:06:28
Speaker 3: Too, and defense alignment, defense in general across the board. Yeah, and again this is why I say there's going to have to be some scrutiny in some other areas too as you assess what's going on with this club.

00:06:42
Speaker 2: So I did not get the sense that this team had kind of tuned out Rob Thompson or there was a disconnect. Now, you always hear players grumble about a post in game decision that was made post game, but I've covered other managers where players were a lot more vocal, a lot more often about a manager manager's job performance. This guy is killing me. This guy's too negative. This guy doesn't know it. You know, you hear these little things kind of throughout the year. You hear him every once in a while. I don't know what. I didn't really get that pitching decision or that move right there, But not at any not at any frequency of guys that I have covered in the past. So, but you played terribly. Somebody's got to take the blame. They have a three hundred million dollar payroll.

00:07:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've we've covered managers, and Reuben has played for managers and employed managers where there's been a disconnect with the room and where where the trust has deteriorated, and I and I have I didn't sense it and didn't see it in this occasion. I just saw a team that was playing crappy and got in a hole and it just kept like a while far and you couldn't put it out. And we'll see if managerial change can put it out and act as a reset. And it's early enough where you got five months left that they can make a reset and strive for a wild card. Like I said, I think they have the talent too, but I don't know if if they will. I don't know if they if they have it in them, We're going to find out.

00:08:16
Speaker 2: Let's talk more about this right after these words. So I've had a few people ask me lately, Hey, do you have any hookup for Flyers tickets? I wish I did, but I don't. But I do know who can help. See Geek a shout out to see Geek, who supports the Phillies show. With over thirty five million downloads, See Geek is the number one ticketing app with more than seventy thousand events on Sea Geek. You got concerts, sports, festivals and more. You got the Phillies, of course, Flyers sixers, you've got the World Cup coming this summer to Philadelphia. And with Seek being MLB's official ticket marketplace, your tickets are fully guaranteed and instantly fulfilled in your account after purchase. See Geek has your back too. Each ticket is rated on a scale of one to ten, so you know if you're getting a good deal or not. Look for the green dots. Green meats good, red means bad. And of course hold on now, of course I have a ticket. I have a code for you all. You can use code territory ten for ten percent off your next set of tickets at Sea Geek. That's ten percent off any tickets with promo code Territory ten. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. All right, we're back. Don Manningly interim managers manage the Dodgers, is managed the Marlins. Marlins, you're kind of managing the team. You know, you're you needed to kind of work a miracle to win. Jim you said, I think on Monday's show you can kind of smell change in the air and in your sense that they're going to do something for the shock value. It was it shock value of it or to shock the team, to shock the team, not for shock value, to shock the team like kind of like give him the paddles and bring him back to life. Can Don Manningly?

00:10:09
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:10:09
Speaker 2: Is that kind of what the hope is here? I mean, you know, because it's not like Don Manningly, is this smashing the batrack type of guy.

00:10:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, And there's not many of those guys in baseball anymore. No, it's it's the realization that, Okay, this wasn't working we at least have to try something new, and you hope that the clubhouse is mature enough and professional enough to look in the mirror and say, we got a good man fired. We need to turn this thing around with our performance. So that is where the shock to the team's system. You're not trying to shock for for public consumption or make it look like you're doing something. You're trying to turn stuff around with a new voice, with a new guy and the leadership in the big chair, and you're trying to appeal to the mature already in the professionalism of that room and see if they can turn it around. And like I said, there's enough time when when Rob turned it around after Joe was let go and there was a disconnect in that room with Joe, Rob turned it around. What with nine wins in a row, they got immediately got back to five hundred and they they steadied themselves. I don't see that happening here. They have to take the slow and steady wins, the race approach, knock a game off every week of that lead, and see who we are in July. That's that's what I think they have to do. And you know, maddingly he's got a very obviously, I think he should be a Hall of Famer as a player, he's been a skipper. But this is going to come down to the Wheelers, the Harpers, the Schwarbers, the Turners, the real mudos, the veterans to look at each other and say, we got one more run on us. Let's see if we can make it happen.

00:11:58
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't see a real huge difference in personalities between Don Mattingly and Rob Thompson as far as how they handle themselves in a professional manner. You're right, he's not flipping tables. He's going about his business in a very professional manner. I do like the fact and always have, and I've made it a point to tell him directly how Don Mattinglee has had his clubs play hard.

00:12:20
Speaker 1: They play hard, and they play right.

00:12:23
Speaker 3: They play a good brand of baseball, and they did with the Miami Marlins, even though he had a really terrible team.

00:12:29
Speaker 1: They did things right and they did things well.

00:12:33
Speaker 3: But again, he's got automatic cachet because of who he is, and I think he's going to have automatic respect because of that. And really, at the end of the day, it's good about it's going to be about the players. As we've talked about all of us. We've said it a million times. They need to perform and it's on them to do so. And that's it.

00:12:58
Speaker 4: We talk all about all the time. To him. Sorry about like, oh, you know the old expression, who's going to smash some furniture and have have a meltdown or something or make a statement something demonstrative. How about one of the players. How about one of the players closing the door and saying and looking around and saying, you know, no manager, no coaches in here, and you want to smash something and show some emotion. Let's see it from one of the players. And you know, privately, that's where it lies. This is on the players. This firing is on the players.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: It's on the roster.

00:13:35
Speaker 4: You can extend it to Dave Dombroski. He assembled the roster, and he put his hand up the other day in Wrigley Field and said he's not happy about this. Took responsibility for assembling the roster. But this is what the roster is. Everybody has a finite career. I know things have changed since the seventies, the eighties and even the nineties because everybody's financially set for life after one season, but you can still have some pride and match something and say we're gonna change this. We are the guys in this room, and we're not going to wait for Don Manningley or a new voice to happen. We already cost one good guy's job. Let's go out there and turn this thing around.

00:14:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. And I'm expecting Dave Denbrowski. We're recording this on Tuesday afternoon, early afternoon. Dave Dembrowski, of course, is going to meet with reporters at the ballpark in a few and I imagine I expect that there will be some pointed questions about the front offices role in this entire mess and roster construction and some of the holes that are there. I mean, you know, how many years have the Phillies been talking about needing a right handed middle of the order bat, And you know there was some hope obviously coming into the season that was going to be Alec Baum. That has not happened. You know, Dave Dembrowski said in the Phillies pregame radio show last week, you know, we don't have a cleanup hitter right now. They are paying Nick Castianos nineteen point t two million dollars not to play for them. They're paying Taiwan Walker fifteen point three million dollars not to play for them. You can do a lot of You can do a lot of stuff. If you have thirty five million dollars, you could have done a lot of stuff this offseason he had.

00:15:12
Speaker 4: It's not about who's not here. They threw. They tried to throw twenty two hundred million dollars at Boba Schet and that didn't work. Bom hasn't risen to the occasion at all. Been a major disappointment. But it's not about who is not here and they didn't get a cleanup hitter, et cetera, et cetera. This is the team, you know, to quote Gene Hackman and Hoosiers, this is your team and they have failed.

00:15:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, the only brother Sarah.

00:15:40
Speaker 3: I mean, he tried to sign a Dollar Scarcia to be the right handed bat.

00:15:43
Speaker 1: Obviously much better right fielder.

00:15:46
Speaker 3: He has had some success, but hasn't really banged it out such that you know, you can.

00:15:54
Speaker 1: Slide him into that four slot.

00:15:55
Speaker 3: So they just have to play better and they have to perform and as I said, I mean the bulls eyes start to float around a lot after after this kind of a move, right, and.

00:16:07
Speaker 4: None of this is happening. This turnaround ain't happening unless the starting rotation becomes the bedrock of the team again, because no doubt, you're just a lot of games too early. You know, every so why don't they run? Why doesn't the kid run? They're they're trailing every night.

00:16:22
Speaker 1: Right starting pitching house.

00:16:24
Speaker 3: When you're when you're down four, five, three, four or five runs in the first, you know, three innings of the game, It's just makes it a tough hill to climb. It takes the wind out of your sales. It's not an excuse, but it is relevant and it is definitely something that needs to change because if it doesn't and the pitching doesn't come around, then you can just say could put to the season.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: Right, I mean Wheeler. Wheeler's performance on on Saturday was encouraging. Sentchez has been okay. It's been a couple of weird games where he's gotten hit a lot. Lozardo's got any araa of almost seven. You know, Noah's an about.

00:17:01
Speaker 3: Ability, It's about execution, and it's about their defense. Playing well behind them those two elements pitching and defense, and you got a chance every night. They're not getting either one of those right now.

00:17:19
Speaker 2: There was a report Bob Nightingale said that the Phillies had offered the job to Alex Cora before I.

00:17:28
Speaker 1: Fun to Bs. With all due respect, I don't. I don't believe that to be true, but it's possible. But I don't believe that to be true.

00:17:37
Speaker 4: I think they gauged his interest. They gauged interest possible, Yeah, and and and learned that he was gonna, you know, take some time off on the Boston Red Sox dime. So he immediately becomes the lead candidate for next year. But I don't know that he was offered the job right now. I can say one more thing about Rob. He was one of the more unifying people I've ever come around around in baseball, the way he brought the entire organization together, and staffs now are bigger than ever, between coaching staffs, support staff, travel party. He made everybody feel like, you know, they were an important player on the team, you know, right down to the part time kids who work in the clubhouse. And I'll never forget. In twenty three when they won the division, they had their little thing in the clubhouse, actually big thing that this team is known for its big things. He went up and talked to all the people in the front offics. And I don't mean the baseball ops people. I mean the people who sell the tickets and do the merchandising, but behind the scenes business people who put in like these monstrously long hours and work all for the benefit of the team and trying to put the team in good stead and work behind the scenes often nobody knows their name. But Rob Thompson went in with a glasses champagne and toasted them all. The man gets it. The man is a class act.

00:19:11
Speaker 3: Let me let me just say one thing about that he's about with regard to that great point, Jim, He's about as close to Pat Gillick in that regard as anybody I've ever been around, as far as a man being in a prominent position and acknowledging the importance of all the little people.

00:19:31
Speaker 1: David Montgomery was that way. Pat Gillick was that way, and so is Rob Thompson.

00:19:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:19:38
Speaker 2: Rob is one of the you know, just class personified. I mean, just a total gentleman, very good manager, you know, but he had to take the fall. You're nine to nineteen, all these expectations, You.

00:19:51
Speaker 1: Take the fall.

00:19:53
Speaker 2: Guys, thanks for hopping on a little emergency pod Philly Show. We'll be back. We'll be back this week.

00:20:01
Speaker 4: Smelly Little Boys, Smelly Jim.

00:20:04
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