MLB | Yeah, why don't they just stick with what has never worked?

​By Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

It's old. It's tired. It's “baseball.”

If ever a sport was so beholden to long-standing beliefs, whether they prove to be legit or laughable, that it loses sight of all else it is the creation of Abner Doubleday. Or, wait, was that Alexander Cartwright?

Hey, yo, whatever ... just so long as you don't rush either of them up to the bigs, or make some other rash move. Gadzooks. Scary stuff. The mind shudders.

Ugh, enough already with the kid-gloves, fear-of-change paralysis of analysis.

Fire the manager? Bring up a couple prospects? How outrageous ... it's only 49 games (and a 17-32 record) into a long season.

It's ridiculous, and perhaps no place does that ridiculous reach its highest level of, well, ridiculous than in Philadelphia, where the Phillies organization has made standing pat a staple for generations. With a hefty helping of clinging-to-the-past rationalizing an ingrained addition.

By the team, the media that covers it and the fans who support it.

Ugh, people, please stop the insanity. Your mindless, senseless regurgitation of absolute drivel blinds the entire fishbowl.

So much so that it somehow escapes all in it that the teams who do succeed out there, year in and year out, do not adhere to such silliness. The Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cubs, the Cardinals, the Dodgers, you think they “wait things out” or “hold off” on making moves? Ever?

Get real.

Not for nothing, but the one time in the last three and a half decades that the Phillies were a real factor, save for 1993's ultimate lightning-in-a-bottle experience, was when Pat Gillick was in charge and wasn't afraid to pull the trigger. He took some shots. Missed some and nailed a few.

Hello ... that's the only way you make strides – pro or con.

Relying on time, or the coddling of delicate athletic geniuses through the minors up to the majors in set sequence, has worked just so well for this club, hasn't it?

To compound the problem, “slow” isn't just a problem at the start. It exists for them at the finish, too.

You wanna know why the team blows serious chunks right now? Yeah, really ...?

Look no further than Chase and Jimmy and the Big Piece and Cole ... and Red Pinstripe Nation's inability to see the writing on the wall for years after the warranty ran out on those beloved players' value – not just anywhere else, but here, too.

All of them, if the Phillies were going to move forward following the World Series years of 2008-09, had to move on ... but those damn beliefs got in the way.

Oooh, better hold off. Let's not doing anything drastic. Give it some time.

Does anyone know how to differentiate reality from wishful thinking?

Hey, it's bad enough that fans do it. The fact the GM was just as bad ... has made things today pathetic.

Honestly, for all the hullabaloo made about the upper management shakeup a couple years ago, you couldn't ask for a better tribute to the old-school status quo than such “non-move” moves as signing Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders.

What in the name of Ruben Amaro was that about?

(In your best Chip Kelly cheesing it up to the Wing Bowl masses, “Yo, Philly” ... and fade to black – just like the 2017 Phillies.)
​

Honestly, for all the hullabaloo made about the upper management shakeup a couple years ago, you couldn't ask for a better tribute to the old-school status quo than such “non-move” moves as signing Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders. 
What in the name of Ruben Amaro was that about?
(In your best Chip Kelly cheesing it up to the Wing Bowl masses, “Yo, Philly” ... and fade to black – just like the 2017 Phillies.)