Phillies President Pat Gillick on Sunday implied that a move to replace him "will be coming soon, but that he may not immediately relinquish his title," according to Bob Brookover of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Gillick: "I think probably it's going to happen somewhere in the not-too-distant future." He "did not deny" that longtime MLB exec Andy MacPhail is "at the top of his list." Gillick said that the "intent is to give his eventual replacement time to observe the remainder of the season and then make decisions concerning" GM Ruben Amaro Jr., manager Ryne Sandberg and player personnel. Gillick offered "positive reviews of what he has seen from Amaro and Sandberg despite the results on the field." Gillick, when asked if he was happy with Amaro's performance, said, "Right now, yeah I am." But Brookover noted that response "leaves the door open for Amaro's eventual dismissal and that, of course, is the move a majority of Phillies fans want to see" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 6/22).
MORE OF THE SAME? In Philadelphia, David Murphy wrote for fans "hoping for a radical overhaul of a franchise that has fallen well behind many of its more progressive counterparts," the news of the possibility of hiring MacPhail "should be discouraging on a number of levels." The "problem with MacPhail is that he is the exact guy you'd expect them to hire" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 6/19).
