Gabe Kapler Ends March As An April Fool

I've seen a lot of things in baseball. But Philadelphia Phillies manager Gabe Kapler did something today I've never seen before.

Kapler took out Phillies' starter Vince Velasquez in the third inning after he surrendered seven runs to the Atlanta Braves. However, no reliever was warming up in the bullpen. As a result, Phillies reliever Hoby Milner got docked warm up pitches when he reached the mound nearly two minutes later. When Braves manager Brian Snitker objected he was tossed from the game. Honestly, the umps should have ejected Kapler for wasting everyone's time. The Phillies got creamed 15-2. This didn't deter him from telling reporters the Phillies would make the post-season in 2018.

In the Phillies' previous two games, Kapler had mismanaged the bullpen. Kapler lifted Opening Day starter Aaron Nola in the sixth inning while he was pitching a shutout having only tossed 68 pitches. The Phillies went from having a 5-0 lead to losing 8-5. While the Phillies did win their second game, Kapler had to use eight relief pitchers to do it.

I was against the Phillies hiring Kapler due to his poor performance as manager of the Greenville Drive, the single-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in 2007 as well as his cruel treatment of Nick Francona in his previous job as Director of Player Development for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Phillies do have a great deal of talent in young players like Rhys Hoskins, Nick Williams and Scott Kingery not to mention Maikel Franco and Odubel Herrera. But I don't think Kapler is the right guy to mold them into winners be it this year or in any year.