If The Phillies Want To Win A World Series, It's Time For Rob Thomson To Grow Up And Start Being A Bad Guy This Postseason
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.The Phillies are heading back to the postseason for the 3rd straight year in a row. They've clinched the NL East and are now trying to lock up home field advantage throughout the postseason. It feels like this team is set up to be a contender for years to come, but if 2011 taught us anything it's that the window can slam shut at any moment. You never know how many cracks at this thing the Phillies have, so they need to find a way to win one and win one now.
Which means that Rob Thomson is going to have to grow up a little bit here and stop being everybody's favorite mom on the team. At some point he's going to have to be a bad guy here and tell Taijuan Walker that he can leave his glove at home for the month of October.
Last night's game was a scheduled loss anyway. The boys were all going to be hungover as shit after celebrating winning the division the night before. But throwing Taijuan Walker out there with the bases loaded in a 1-0 game is borderline criminal. Not only are you putting him in a tough spot, but everybody in the Greater Philadelphia Area knew exactly how that was going to go. The Cubs end up scoring 6 runs on the first 5 batters that Taijuan faced. Literally everybody on the planet saw it coming but Rob Thomson. Why? Because he wanted to "find out".
That's the issue with Rob Thomson. That's why the Phillies didn't make another trip back to the World Series last year. Everybody in the world knew Craig Kimbrel was going to implode and blow the save in game 4 of the NLCS after he already blew it in game 3. But Rob Thomson hates being the bad guy. He'd rather focus on the player's feelings than the result of the game.
We're getting closer and closer to October, and for some reason it just doesn't seem like it's registering with Rob Thomson that Taijuan Walker literally cannot play the game of baseball right now. It's almost worse for him to keep getting chances out there right now because every time he runs onto the field, he has 40,000 fans booing him. Sure, he could stop those boo's by not throwing meatballs right down the middle of the plate. But it's not like he's putting himself into these games. Rob Thomson has the ability to stop all of it by simply just not playing him. He wants to "find out", though. As if he wasn't able to use the last 7 months to find out.
Maybe he finally gets it and leaves Taijuan Walker off the postseason roster. It should be a no-brainer but it seems like he's still thinking it over. It's just crazy that you've got a guy like Bryce Harper whose legacy in the game is pretty dependent on winning a World Series before his career is over, but Rob Thomson would prioritize giving Taijuan Walker another chance over that.
