Four players (Cole Hamels, Domonic Brown, David Buchanan, and Kyle Kendrick) have publicly criticized and/or disrespected Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg this month, but the skipper in his first full season insists it’s “not a big deal.”
In particular Sandberg tried to downplay Hamels leaving the mound before the manager got there to remove him during Tuesday’s game and then giving non-answers to reporters about the removal after 84 pitches, telling Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com:
However, according to Salisbury “a person with knowledge of the situation said Sandberg was ticked off by what Hamels did.”
Philadelphia’s roster has a lot of veteran players who experienced a whole lot of success with the previous manager, Charlie Manuel, so being in last place with a near-rookie manager in a recipe for issues. That doesn’t preclude Sandberg from making things worse with his actions, of course, and at some point having near-daily meetings with players about their disrespecting the manager will be tough to brush off.
