Phillies could go young — or outside — for IronPigs manager

FROM THE MORNING CALL

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, this story looking ahead to 2011.

Chuck Lamar has no doubts about what he considers the toughest job in minor league baseball.

"There's no question the toughest job in the minor leagues is managing at the Triple-A level," the Phillies assistant general manager for player development and scouting said. "At that level you're dealing with guys down from the major leagues who believe they should be there, and guys coming up who are working to get to that level. So a manager has to deal with all types of personalities and problems and egos in addition to trying to develop and maintain their skills."

For the first time since taking over the Phillies minor league operations in late 2008, Lamar is searching for someone to fill that role after IronPigs manager Dave Huppert was fired at the end of the 2010 season. Under Huppert the IronPigs were 184-248, including 55-89 and 58-86 marks in 2008 and 2010.

The search began last month with evaluations of the Phillies minor league field staff, and an announcement isn't expected until early December. Lamar has repeatedly said he won't comment on specific candidates.

"I'm not going to comment on employee hiring or evaluations," he said in September.

Prior to Huppert, the last five Phillies Triple-A managers have come from outside the organization — recently named Cubs manager Mike Quade (1994-95), Butch Hobson (1996), Marc Bombard (1997-2004), Gene Lamont (2005) and just-fired Pirates manager John Russell (2006-2007) — in part because the organization felt it had no Triple-A caliber managers on its staff.

Huppert, who was at Lakewood in 2006 and Clearwater in 2007, had two years of Triple-A experience while with Montreal, and was the Phillies first in-house promotion to Triple-A since George Culver moved from Reading to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 1988 to replace Bill Dancy.

Lamar did say he would like to promote from within again. But again, the Phillies are lacking in candidates with Triple-A experience, although Lamar said such experience wasn't necessarily a requirement.

"It all depends on the candidate," he said.

The most experienced person on the minor league staff, at least from a Triple-A standpoint, is Sal Rende, the organization's minor league hitting instructor for the past three years. The 54-year-old Rende has spent seven of his 12 minor league managerial seasons at the Triple-A level — three with Kansas City and four with Florida.

But Rende's last season as manager was in 1996 at Charlotte. Since then, Rende has been a minor league coach on the Double-A and Triple-A levels for Boston, Florida, the Yankees and the Phiillies (Scranton, Ottawa, 2004-2007), and he was also passed over for the IronPigs job for Huppert in 2008 before being assigned to his current position.

Some considered Steve Roadcap, a 19-year minor league managerial veteran who spent the last two years at Reading, as a potential candidate. But Roadcap will reportedly be reassigned to Single-A.

That would appear to open the Double-A door for either 37-year-old Clearwater manager Dusty Wathan or 49-year-old Lakewood skipper Mark Parent, either of whom could also wind up in Allentown. The Phillies are high on both of them, but between them they only have eight years of managing experience and neither has managed a game under National League rules.

"We're going to look at every candidate's credentials very carefully," Lamar said.

Ironically, two former Phillies Triple-A managers are available — Bombard, the winningest active minor-league manager who was let go by Houston after two years with Triple-A Round Rock; and Russell, who was fired last month after three seasons with the Pirates. Bombard's tenure with the Phillies, however, ended when he was fired in 2005 as a member of Larry Bowa's major league staff.

Russell is owed $500,000 for the final year of his Pirate contract.

A dark horse candidate could be Ryne Sandberg, who developed his Hall of Fame talents in the Phillies minor league system before being traded to the Chicago Cubs. Sandberg, a minor-league manager in the Cubs system for four years and the Pacific Coast League's manager of the year at Iowa this past season, made no secret of his desire to succeed Lou Piniella at Wrigley Field and is reportedly looking for opportunities elsewhere and has been linked with several major-league coaching openings. The Cubs have invited him to return to Iowa.

Whoever replaces Huppert will likely deal with the same type of team he had throughout his tenure at Coca-Cola Park. Although homegrown pitching prospects appear to be plentiful, the system is thin in Triple A-ready position players, meaning the team will likely again be dominated by minor-league free agents.

Free agents can begin signing with teams five days after the end of the World Series.

The IronPigs' free agent list includes Melvin Dorta, Paul Hoover, Dane Sardinha, Neil Sellers, Rich Thompson, Andy Tracy, Nate Bump, Brandon Duckworth, Brian Gordon, Brian Mazone and Oscar Villarreal. Past history shows that only a few of them will return, and for the first time, Tracy may not be one of them.

The popular slugging first baseman wasn't happy when he was bypassed for a call-up when Ryan Howard was injured in August. And even if he's willing to return, the Phillies may decide there's no room on the roster if they commit to Matt Rizzotti at Triple-A.

Six IronPigs — Brian Bocock, John Mayberry Jr., Drew Carpenter, Scott Mathieson, Vance Worley and Mike Zagurski — are currently on the Phillies' 40-man roster. Two others, Rizzotti and Joe Savery, must be added or be exposed to the Rule 5 draft this winter.

Two others, Michael Schwimer and Michael Stutes, are under contract for next season.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/baseball/ironpigs/mc-ironpigs-end-1031-field-20101101,0,742541.story