Since then, I’ve seen the value of the position, and when you’ve got a guy like Davey Lopes out there, sending dudes and timing pitchers’ windups and generally just being a dagger in the thigh of pitchers and catchers across the NL, it’s even more valuable.  Sadly, the Phillies don’t have a guy out there like Davey Lopes anymore.

If the season started today, like a week after it ended, our first base coach box would be nothing more than half a chalky white rectangle with no gruff former manager of a subpar team to populate it.

So let’s talk a walk through the backgrounds of the possible replacements.

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There’s the grizzled veterans, bitter or beaten down about their downgrade (or continued stay) to a way of life they believe should have ended years ago; sick of having the same aspirations of guys 10 years younger, or happy to mentor the newest arrivals; or possibly pissed that a nagging injury, plummeting OBP, or endless line of defensive fuck-ups put them right back in the shark tank.

And there’s the MLB All-Star on a rehab assignment, selling out the normally half empty 8,000 capacity stadium, strutting past the ravenous youngbloods and inadvertently (or not) dropping hints of a lifestyle they’ve been starving for since they were swinging for the spotlight as Gulf Coast leaguers.

It’s a speeding locomotive, tearing through summer as guys jump on and off without waiting for a stop.  It’s Triple-A baseball.  And right now, ours doesn’t have a driver.

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