No, it's not the field manager ...
It seems that at least 20 percent of manager Ryne Sandberg's Phillies don't particulalry like the cut of his jib. Still it's hard to blame the Phillies' 62-74 record on Sandberg, so three cheers to general manager Ruben Amaro ...
“He was given a tough task right out of the chute,” said Amaro “There was an expectation for us to win. We have a lot of veterans who were, in some cases, under-performing. We had some young guys we were giving opportunities who we expected more from.
--snip--
“Some unfortunate comments have been made, I think. In some case, some inappropriate comments on the player’s part. But I think that’s been handled.
“I didn’t expect Ryno to come in here and be the greatest manager of all time. This is a process. He’s learning. By and large, he’s done a good job. You’re a smart manager when teams win and you’re not so smart when you don’t have success.”
Those last two grafs? Spot-on.
That first one, though?
No, there wasn't an expectation for the Phillies to win. Not among those who actually do this sort of thing for a living. On Opening Day, the Phillies figured to have roughly a 1-in-5 chance of winning enough games to reach the postseason. As for underperforming veterans, there's Ryan Howard and ... well, I suppose if you coun't Domonic Brown as a veteran, then Domonic Brown. But if you count Brown as a veteran, then you're left with approximately zero young guys who should have done better than they've done. Cody Asche, I suppose. But not appreciably so. Oh, and veteran Cliff Lee got hurt.
Those players help explain why the Phillies are in fifth place rather than third. You could argue they have the talent of a .500 team. But this team was never built to really win. And again, Amaro's right: It's not the manager's fault.