Davey Lopes, October 2008 Last week the Phillies announced that they could not come to terms with First Base Coach Davey Lopes on a deal for 2011. I have no idea what the salary of a first base coach is versus a hitting coach. The Philly Inquirer Reported that Lopes said he was not asking hitting coach money - well in my opinion he should of been and to me, he would of been worth it.
Lopes turned the Phillies raw players like Shane Victorino into a very efficient base running machine.
Perhaps he wore out his welcome with the players in Philadelphia, but the margin for the top teams in the NL East and beyond is very slim. I would hate to see Lopes go to a competing squad and flip what little edge the Phils have.
I could see Lopes returning to the Dodgers organization - They are going coaching changes and should be a lot closer to winning then they were in 2010. Lopes working with some of their young talent could be a very helpful.
Check here for a brief 2008 commentary on Lopes (and Victorino)
They should have kept Lopes and fired the rest of the staff, including Charlie Manuel!
ReplyDeleteThe Phillies were the top baserunning team in the league. That can be directly attributed to Lopes.
Perhaps he wore out his welcome with the players in Philadelphia,
ReplyDeletePhungo, you may be on to something there. Ever since Manuel arrived, the Phillies have cultivated a relaxed (dare I say country-club?) atmosphere, and I believe the players had relaxed themselves (with Manuel's implied approval) into a team that believed they could frequently mail it in based on talent alone, and that they could "throw the switch" when it became necessary to do so. As we all saw in the post-season, they were wrong.
Lopes always seemed like a guy who could not co-exist with that sort of "less than full-bore" mentality. (Maybe the same was true of Jimy Williams.) For the most part, Manuel's coaches have been either long-time organizational men, or someone just happy to have a job.
I found myself thinking last night: "What would the 2010 Phillies have done with a vintage Sparky Anderson at the helm?"