In the midst of a quote-filled Monday, Jimmy Rollins gave us this nugget in response to Charlie Manuel’s words pressing the offense to play baseball:
“He’s pretty much right, but we’ll get out of it. We don’t get concerned until late. Coaches do that now. We go play.”
Allow me to send a memo to Jimmy Rollins: Grow up. Grow stones. Grow whatever.
And now we’re seeing the problem with this 2008 brand of Phillies. Where last year’s team seemed to bleed passion and heart, this year’s team looks like a bunch of preening talkers. It looks like a team ripe with issues. It looks like last year’s Mets. And that’s no good thing.
Rollins is supposed to be the team leader, but he brushes off “concern” and practically tells us he doesn’t completely care about the current state of his team. It’s the kind of stupefied swagger that elicits slings in Philadelphia. We shouldn’t stand for this sludge.
The eternal question of “Would they miss Aaron Rowand” is back on the dockets because of all this. Now we can see why. For one, he provided the team a contact-hitting righty capable of picking up the big boys when they fail. I’m almost convinced Rowand would’ve won this team another four games with his hitting.
Then there’s the clubhouse leader position. I thought that was overrated — after seeing Rollins’ quote, I’m not as convinced. This team desperately needs a kick in the groin. Rollins needs to wake up — I still can’t rule out an injury.
It’s a shame, really, because there’s a lot of talent here. Stack the Phils against most anyone, on paper, and you have a good team. But this right now is a bad team trapped inside a good team. And the bad team is making its way out.
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