Inside the Phillies: Capable of greatness - or a letdown

ATLANTA - September has been an unexpectedly up-and-down month for Charlie Manuel. Despite the Phillies' comfy division lead, the manager two weeks ago expressed deeper frustration in his team than at any other point this season, then watched happily as his players appeared to uncloud their minds and performances.

He has been forced to balance loyalty against reality, and run a bullpen-by-gut-feeling every night. And as a longtime hitting coach more offended by unprofessional at-bats than any other sin, Manuel has watched his lineup drift in and out of sloppy performances.

Despite all that, the Phils appear to have reversed a dishonorable stretch of games against second-division clubs by dominating the New York Mets and Washington Nationals over the last week and a half. They have mostly resumed battering bad teams, which is what division winners must do.

But we can't forget about those late August and early September doldrums. The question should be asked now, in advance of the October whirlwind: Which of those teams is the real Phillies - the lackluster bunch who could not drive in runs or close games, or the powerful and resilient defending champs?

The answer: both. Nearly six months have told us that these schizophrenic Phils are capable of alternating greatness and ugliness. The way this year ends - with an unprecedented repeat or ignominious elimination - will tattoo the tag of dominant or disappointing on the team in public memory.

In many ways, a baseball season tells you nothing until it is over. We still do not know if the 2009 Phils are a troubled letdown or part of a dynasty. By extension, the defining trait of this team, unwavering self-assurance, can be judged as foolhardy or sensible only in retrospect.

From the first days of spring training, a deep sense of satisfaction was evident in the Phils' clubhouse. The players knew they had been forever changed for the better by the elevated exposure and success of October, 2008. Jayson Werth went from late-blooming, injury-prone bench player to championship-caliber starting outfielder. Brad Lidge elevated himself from reclamation project to perfect closer. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins solidified their status as a great infield in franchise history.

All the players became identified with something that would never be erased, no matter what followed. Throughout a lighthearted spring in Clearwater, Fla., they smiled, answered questions about repeating, basked in the applause, autograph requests and endorsement opportunities resulting from hard-earned victory. It continued when the team traveled north and began competing as defending champs.

That kind of success changes the way people perceive themselves, which of course changes the way they act. Manuel said several times in April that he noticed a difference in his players this year, and he emphatically returned to that theme this month.

We do not yet know if the change was good. Two weeks ago in Houston, Manuel did not seem to believe it was. After the Phils were swept by a lousy team on Labor Day weekend, Manuel held forth in his office for longer than he had all year. What likely seemed in print like an angry rant was, in person, more of a desperate plea for a return to professionalism.

Manuel seemed to be keeping the writers in his office that day - and we stayed until the team bus was near ready to depart and the skipper had to remove his uniform pants - in part because he didn't want to deal with the guys in the other room who had chased bad pitches for four days.

Locking the beat writers into intense eye contact, Manuel essentially said that his squad, famous for their fight, had gone soft. He said that the intensity of 2008 was missing, and implied that his players were overly impressed with themselves and complacent after winning a World Series.

One of Manuel's most striking complaints that day was that he was tired of the oft-expressed opinion among the Phils that they were a late-season team, comeback kids, best at winning when they needed to most.

But despite his frustration, Manuel cannot escape that view in the clubhouse. Many of these guys believe that they can turn on the maximum intensity when necessary. They earned this with dominant late-season stretches in 2007 and 2008, and their self-assurance stems from real accomplishment.

And that self-assurance may well guide them to another October success; they certainly expect it to. Swagger can be useful in competition, especially when backed by the talent on the Phils' roster. Self-confidence may well become the defining positive trait of the team.

But if this thing does not work out, if the foggy Phils show up for the division series instead of the Fightin's, many of these players will be stunned. Most of them have lived for nearly 12 months as champions, and have become accustomed to that distinction.

It is a state of being that will, by early November, finally be defined as either wise or mistaken.

Read Andy Martino's Phillies blog, The Phillies Zone, at http://go.philly.com/sports.

RE: Pop goes the bullpen

Posted by BudSelig_isthenext_MrBurns 08:27 a.m., 09/17/2009

Between Murph's Fonzie picture and Martino's new greaser picture, it's like an S.E Hinton novel in here. Stay gold pony boy.EndText