You would have thought that this job would probably be the easiest to fill this off-season for the Phillies. It’s the vacancy that was created when the Phillies no longer required the services of Rich Dubee, the Phillies pitching coach for the last several years.
There were plenty of candidates originally lined up for the job, and it seemed like at least one of them would be jumping at the chance of joining a team that was had a few great pitchers over the last few years on the staff. This hasn’t been the case this time around in the search for a pitching coach, all of the Phillies initial candidates passed on the chance to join the team.
There was one legendary pitching coach that was heard from an unusual but effective way of contacting a club, albeit so public. It was former Atlanta Braves pitching coach, Leo Mazzone, and he took to the social networking program, Twitter, to let the Phillies know that he was interested in the position. So far the Phillies haven’t really said all that much about Mazzone’s message. Though he probably would be a compelling choice for the job. Mazzone was with the Braves for 15 years and during the glory years of having Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz on the same staff.
Mazzone is very outspoken though, and perhaps the Phillies don’t want such a candid guy like Mazzone on the staff. A lot of the Phillies pitching problems of the last few years haven’t really been properly addressed, despite spending millions and millions of dollars on top quality pitching, the Phillies have languished in this department for far too long now.
Perhaps that is why the candidates that were originally sought after by Ruben Amaro Jr. and the Phillies organization have failed to want to come to the team. It’s not like starting over with a completely new pitching staff, but it’s a staff that is in sore need of some major work, and that tall order may not be something that the original candidates wanted to tackle.