Truth and the rumors

Mostly because there is nothing else to talk about, there has been a lot of chatter regarding Charlie Manuel's job security and the ouster of three of his coaches. One bit of misinformation out there was that there was a chance Manuel would not return for 2007. That was never the case according to Marcus Hayes' story in the Daily News today.

According to Marcus, Gillick said: "The fact is, no matter where we were, four or five games over or eight or nine games under, the players liked playing for Charlie. They play hard for Charlie. That's a factor in this day and age. There were times we played some sloppy baseball. There were times we played fundamentally unsound baseball."

The Phillies like playing for Manuel the same way they despised Larry Bowa when he managed the club. Typically, a player is going to be a lot more excited about his job and doing it well if his boss is someone he likes and respects. In that regard, it's pretty difficult not to like Charlie Manuel.

But someone had to be the scapegoat for the Phillies failure to make the playoffs for the 13th straight October. Those goats were Gary Varsho, Marc Bombard and Bill Dancy. All three are fine men, but sadly had to be sacrificed.

Dancy's ouster is not too surprising considering how many runners were routinely thrown out at the plate during the past two seasons. Neither is Varsho's departure considering that he was largely responsible for helping Manuel strategize ballgames. When Varsho was working with Bowa, he mostly just had to position the outfield, write out the lineup card and his other administrative duties while Bowa called all the shots. But with Manuel, that lack of a heavy hand ultimately worked against him. In fact, one National League manager jokingly to me to "tell Varsho to keep giving Charlie that good advice."

Bombard's non-renewal is tough to figure out. Who knows if it anything to do with Chase Utley's home run in Washington that was ruled foul during the last week of the season. Discussing that call was the angriest I've ever seen Manuel after a game and Bombard should have had a pretty good view of the ball clanging off the pole from the first-base coaching box.

Maybe that one play tipped things over the edge for Bombard.

As far as speculating about new coaches, it seems as if it is either a foregone conclussion, a poorly-kept secret or both. Juan Samuel, a former Phillie with big-league coaching experience, appears to have a job on Manuel's staff if he wants one. In fact, Samuel was rumored to be a potential base coach for the Phillies for 2007 as early as August.

Hiring Sammy would be a masterstroke. Every day would be SammyFest.

John Russell, the manager at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre also seems to be a shoo-in as well as a speculated manager-in-waiting. Hiring Russell makes sense.

As far as the other position goes, I'm curious if John Vukovich is interested in returning to uniform after two seasons in the front office. My guess is he's happy right where he is, but the allure of putting on that uniform everyday still has a strong draw for a lot of people.

Dick Pole's name has also been bandied about, but only because he's good friends with Manuel and his old boss, Dusty Baker, just lost his job in Chicago. I guess that's as good a reason as any to make Pole a candidate.

Either way, Gillick will get the coaching staff in place before he begins working on a plan to strengthen the 2007 Phillies.