Is Gabe Kapler The Phillies Version Of Chip Kelly?

When the Eagles hired Chip Kelly as their head coach, he was seen as a trailblazer. Kelly was seen to bring a whole new dynamic and style of coaching to the NFL. Kelly was also seen as the thinking-outside-the-box candidate for the Eagles.

When the Phillies promoted Pete Mackanin to Special Advisor to GM Matt Klentak, they were in need of a new manager. The Phillies looked long and hard at ex-managers and recently fired managers to fill the job.

However, like the Eagles, the Phillies went for the out-of-the-box candidate in Gabe Kapler.

Kapler, who served as the Director of Player Development for four prior seasons with the Dodgers, had only coached previously for half a season as a player-coach. Kapler’s only other managerial experience was with team Israel in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

So, why him?

Well, that was a question that GM Matt Klentak had an interesting answer too.

“Gabe Kapler is incredibly prepared. If he brings the same level of preparation and grit to the Phillies that he brought to the field as a player, our fans are going to love this guy. He has a unique ability to connect with people. We saw this in the interview process. But we’ve also seen this in our talks with people who have been around him in his career. He can connect with players, connect with the media, connect with the front office. He has a very unique ability to do that. I think that bodes very well for our young roster. He’s a progressive thinker. That’s where the Phillies need to head and Gabe Kapler is going to be a huge asset to us as we try to progress to the future.”

Uhm……….. Doesn’t that sound familiar. Does that remind you of another Philadelphia Sports team coach? Someone who has a different thinking to things, has the ability to get the most out of players. Uhm…………

Sounds to me like the Phillies are trying to make something work that goes against baseball just like the Eagles tried to do with Chip Kelly. But, wait just a minute. Does anybody remember how that worked out for the Eagles?

When Chip Kelly brought his fast-paced college style offense to the NFL, it worked extremely well at the start. However, with Kelly bringing that style to the NFL, and only Kelly no-one else, teams quickly picked up on how to beat that style of play. If you remember, the Eagles went from flying high to crashing and burning fairly quickly after the NFL realized how to play against Kelly’s style.

With Kapler, the Phillies are trying to do the same thing the Eagles did with Kelly. They are trying to use an out-of-the-box of thinking to try and get an edge on the competition. But, will it really work?

Kapler has said multiple times he believes the Phillies will gain an advantage by using analytics and advanced metrics.

“We’re going to make razor-sharp turns around the bases. When the ball enters the hitting zone, we’re going to be in powerful and athletic positions. Before the game begins, we’re going to prepare, prepare, prepare so that we’ve thought out everything and make strong decisions. We are going to hunt for value at the margins. We’re not going to leave any stone unturned to find our competitive advantages. We’re going to think traditionally and we’re going to think progressively. We will care deeply about winning and we will be ultra-competitive.”

As we seen in the first series in Atlanta, Gabe Kapler has brought his interesting and puzzling strategy to the MLB. He has shown this by pulling his starter, after dominating and only 68 pitches, to bring in a reliever who he thought had a better match-up. Subbing out your best hitter mid-way through the game for defense.

Therefore, could this Kapler’s way of thinking actually work? Are we being to hard on him for such a small sample size?

Well, uhm….., aaaaaaaaa, uhm…., yeah, aaaaaaa, I really dont know. What Kapler preached during his press conferences and spring training hasn’t worked. But, I still see hope in him.

After taking a tremendous amount of heat after the Atlanta series, Kapler seemed like a normal MLB manager last night. But, he still used the match-up strategy last night by using 3 pitchers in an inning.

I really hope Kapler and his strategies work. If they dont, the Phillies will be just wasting precious years away from a great rebuild process that has gotten them high quality talent.