Jon Paul Morosi of foxsports.com posted an article Friday on the Scott Rolen trade, taking a jab at the leadership angle of the acquisition:
I hope for the Reds’ sake that leadership wasn’t the biggest factor here. Otherwise, they could have signed veteran good-guy Tony Clark, who, as far as I know, is waiting for a phone call, bat in hand, at his Phoenix-area home. I can promise you that his price tag would have been cheaper than $11 million.
“I hear a lot about leadership,” Rolen said. “I don’t know. I’ve been here for a week. My job is to put my uni on and go out on the field.”
As Al noted in a comment Friday, Team Phillips had his own thoughts on the season and the acquisition of Rolen:
“Some things happened in the middle of our season, and the team chemistry just went away,” second baseman Brandon Phillips said before Wednesday’s game, a 4-0 victory over the Cubs. “That’s where we went wrong. We have great players, but, as a team, we can’t put it together. We’re just terrible right now.
“Having Scott Rolen on this team, he’s the type of guy who can change that. He can show us how to really go about our business.”
Asked what specifically went wrong with the team’s chemistry, Phillips thought silently for several seconds.
“Losing,” he replied. “That’s all I’ve got to say. I’m going to give you that answer. Just losing. I have my own personal reasons, why I think we are how we are right now. I really don’t want to get into that. I’m just going to say we have great players on our team, but we’re just not putting it together.”
1 – Brandon Phillips thinks something happened in the clubhouse to cause the losing.
2 – The Face of the Franchise was unable to lead them through times of trouble.
AND
3 – Phillips thinks Rolen can somehow magically come in and right the ship.
Why do a team of major league baseball players need someone else to demonstrate “how to really go about our business”? This isn’t a rookie ballclub.
After everyone learns “how to really go about their business”, will Gonzalez, Taveras, and bench players like Rosales who have unexpectedly seen significant time this year, start hitting the ball a lot better? Will the starting pitchers come out of their slump, too?