Phillies Manager Takes Massive Heat After NLCS Collapse
It's hard to believe that the Philadelphia Phillies didn't win the National League Championship Series.
They were up 2-0, held a late lead in Games 3 and 4 before losing both, and then came back home up 3-2.
But, just like in 2022, the Phillies were eliminated from the postseason in brutal fashion.
After losing the NLCS, Philadelphia's manager Rob Thomson has started to take some major criticism.
Much of the heat comes from his resistance to change the batting order despite players struggling, poor bullpen strategy and the lack of aggressive pinch-hitting.
Whether all of this is justified or not is inconsequential at the moment.
The Phillies find themselves in the same place as they were last offseason.
Figuring out how they can get their team with a massive payroll to bring home the World Series title.
Thomson is certainly not above blame in this series.
The Arizona Diamondbacks' manager Torey Lovullo inserted himself into this series much more with his decision making than Thomson did.
But whether or not Philadelphia made the same moves as the Diamondbacks renders itself useless if the players don't perform.
The story of Game 6 and 7 was that Arizona made plays while the Phillies didn't.
Thomson will take heat for that because he is in charge of the clubhouse and oversees everything that takes place.
And maybe the bats wouldn't have gone cold if those adjustments were made.
Or, maybe that's just baseball and the Phillies went cold at the wrong time.
Again.
Either way, there needs to be a lot of reflection within the organization about what needs to be done so that Philadelphia can get back to the mountain top for the first time since 2008.
