Losing The Good Phight.

The Philadelphia Phillies are one of baseball's most frustrating franchises as of late. Since a run of dominance that saw them make the postseason for 5 straight seasons (2007-11), including a World Series title and two straight WS appearances, the Phils have been mismanaged at every single level. They don't perform well on the field, they don't draft well, and they don't make smart trades or free agent signings. A rotten fish stinks from the head, but it appears the dorsal fin gets cut first: Ryne Sandberg, the Hall of Fame second baseman who has managed the Phillies since Charlie Manuel stepped down halfway through 2013, resigned this morning. Sandberg compiled a 119-159 record (.428 winning percentage) during his time at the helm, although the bulk of the blame for the dismal state of things in Philadelphia should be placed on GM Ruben Amaro Jr.

Courtesy Bill Streicher, USA Today Sports

It's not surprising to see Sandberg resign while Amaro Jr. remains in power. The field manager is often the first person to take on the role of sacrificial lamb when a team is going badly, while the general manager gets more rope as the architect of the roster. While this makes absolutely no sense, it's simply the way of the baseball world. But how much can Sandberg or anybody do with a lineup that still bats Ryan Howard fourth? What do you do with a rotation that hosts Cole Hamels and four belly-itchers? Seriously, you could replace the entire Phillies outfield with mannequins wearing gloves and nobody would notice a difference. They're even trying their level best to ship their closer (the much-maligned Jonathan Papelbon) out of town when he's one of the few pitchers on the roster with an ERA below 4. Their farm system, outside of Aaron Nola and J.P. Crawford, is scorched earth. This is a team without direction or reinforcements. There is little to look forward to in the Phillies' future.

None of this, mind you, is Sandberg's fault. He is simply an extension of the front office, just like every other manager in the game. He's handed 25 players at the beginning of the year and told to draw every ounce of talent out of them. That much is under his control: the manager is really supposed to balance personalities, to make sure the clubhouse stays loose. Chemistry between teammates has become a vital part of successful franchises, and successful managers should perpetuate a mentality that every player is important, respected and treated fairly. In this regard, Sandberg's failures are myriad and troubling: his clashes last season with longtime Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins (now of the Los Angeles Dodgers) brought to light the tension between Sandberg and his players; his decision to have outfielder Jeff Francoeur throw 45 pitches in a blowout loss to the Orioles last week drew harsh criticisms from second baseman Chase Utley, among others; his tendency to leave pitchers in too long has been an overall point of contention. It's upsetting when a manager calls out his own players, something Sandberg did with extreme prejudice during his time in Philadelphia. Simply put, he was thrown into a bad situation, and all he did was make things worse.

That being said, Amaro Jr. is still the biggest detriment to the Phillies. His trade demands for Hamels and Cliff Lee over the past few years have been incorrigible. His comments about the discrepancy between Rollins and team legend Mike Schmidt's batting averages when the former tied the latter for the franchise's all-time hit record were dumbfounding. It's no secret that the Phillies are one of the least analytically-inclined teams in the game, but if your GM doesn't understand the correlation between hits and at-bats, he isn't even fit to watch a major league team, much less run one. Amaro Jr. is in the last year of his contract, and with the imminent regime change (rumors have been flying that Andy MacPhail will be replacing Pat Gillick as team president soon), it seems very likely that Ruben will be jobless come 2016. I'm not saying that this will immediately improve the sorry state of the team, but it would be the definition of "addition by subtraction".