Phillies' To-Do List

My Fellow Phans,

So, as I promised in my last post: I have come up with suggestions or ideas that the Phillies should look into doing in order to break this slump. I know some of these ideas are exaggerated and “out there” meaning they will probably never happen, but I’m just throwing them out there as ideas. I mean these struggles are pushing people past the point of desperation and anything must be tried to break these boys out of it and asap.

So here are my ideas / suggestions on things that could and or should be done to attempt to help the Phillies:

1. Make Chase Utley get a physical: Out of all the players on the Phillies, we all can pretty much agree that Utley is the last player to ever admit he is hurting or injured. His drive for the game is too strong for him to do so. I’m sure we can also agree that a fully healthy Utley is too good to go through the type of slump he is in right now. Hell, a sore or semi-unhealthy Utley is still better than most of the players in the game today.

I just want to make sure that our best player is not hiding an injury or maybe he is hurt and doesn’t really know it; it is possible. It wouldn’t hurt anybody by asking him to just get looked at to make sure he is 100%. Let’s face it, we cannot win anything this season without the old, productive Chase Utley. So if he is injured, let’s learn about it now before it sidelines him for longer than it should.

2. Shake up the lineup: Now this is where some may say these ideas will get a little unlikely. When I say shakeup, I don’t mean putting Francisco or Gload into the lineup occasionally. I am talking about serious changes and unusual changes. These could include:

- Moving Carlos Ruiz up in the lineup. Here’s a daring idea: move Chooch to third in the order and push everyone back a spot. He may not be an ideal 3-hole hitter, but he may just be the best hitter we have right now. Victorino and Polanco have been solidly getting on-base recently and the rest of the order never gets them in. Let’s give Chooch a chance to knock in some runs in that 3 spot. Crazy and never going to happen I know, but it gets you thinking, doesn’t it?

- If not Ruiz, why not move Werth up? Let’s face it; Werth cannot be trusted with men on base lately. Bat him leadoff and move Victorino down giving Shane more chances to knock in runs and maybe Werth will hit better in spots with nobody on base and he cannot possibly ground into a double play. Although, he may just find a way to do so with the bases empty; talk about an impressive feat.

And if you do any serious changes in the lineup; don’t do it for a game and scratch it. Leave it going for a few games and see how it goes. All ideas must be tried at this point.

3. Bring Up & Ship Out: This is where the roster changes seriously start: The manager is not the only player in this. The front office needs to step up as well and make some serious changes:

- Out: Baez / In: Scott Mathieson – Mathieson is pitching lights out (1.40 ERA) in the minors and he has the big league experience to replace Baez. He may struggle, but he is younger, but has potential and could be a serious player in our bullpen for years to come. If you don’t call him up then trade for a reliever; maybe a Bobby Jenks perhaps? Anyone has to be an improvement over Baez this year; he has to go.

- Out: Greg Dobbs / In: Dominic Brown – Our bench needs a change and Dobbs is the likeliest to go. We need some spark and lets face it; Dobbs hasn’t had a good season since 2008. Drop Dobbs and call up Dominic Brown. Bring Brown up and put him in left field and bench Ibanez. If Brown hits 250 with a decent amount of power, then he is an improvement. Give Raul some competition in the outfield and maybe that will light a fire under him and he will start to hit better; Brown has earned his shot to start in the Major Leagues. Give the man his shot already. You can even use Francisco against tough lefties. I wouldn’t see the harm in that.. Why not try something new and different? The Marlins called up their young stud outfielder, who will actually make his debut in Philly tonight, so we can’t we do the same thing?

Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!