Phillies manager on hot seat after abysmal start

	Jimmy Rollins' eighth-inning error on Monday didn't help the Phillies' embattled bullpen much. AP

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It's early. That's the favorite two-word phrase of everyone failing in baseball today. It's said all the time. Of course, it means squat.

It may be early, but it's not too early for Joe Torre to use the extreme measure of calling upon star starter Andy Pettitte, who's been nursing a sore back, in a desperation one-inning relief role, as the Yankees manager did on Sunday against the Orioles.

It's also not too early for the Astros to demote Brad Lidge from closer to non-closer.

And no, it's not too early to begin the Charlie Manuel Watch.

"What have we played, seven games?'' Manuel said in answer to a question Monday about his talented Phillies' 1-6 start. "It damn sure ain't late.''

And yet, it may be getting late for him.

Baseball people are already starting to wonder whether Manuel could take a quick hit for the Phillies' abominable start, providing it lasts a little while longer (he isn't working for George Steinbrenner in the '80s, after all).

We didn't need Jimmy Rollins to point out that this is one talented team. The Phillies, who seem historically hampered by slow starts, certainly don't want this season to get away from them.

Manuel surprised a lot of us by surviving a brutally slow start last season with an almost-as-talented team. He won the right to keep his job for the beginning of this year by guiding the team into the playoff race after they'd already thrown in the towel at the trade deadline. He probably needed a decent start this season, though, as several factors are working against him. While GM Pat Gillick is an oldtime baseball guy with gobs of patience, Manuel wasn't the choice of Gillick but rather his unsuccessful predecessor Ed Wade.

A good ol' boy, Manuel also never seemed like a good fit for Philly. As the Indians hitting coach, he sometimes retired to the clubhouse when his team was in the field. To date, no one's ever really given a good explanation of what qualified him to be a major-league manager.

Gillick is also known to be close to Phillies coach Jimy Williams, whom he brought in. Gillick hired three former managers who looked suspiciously like a manager-in-waiting triumvirate, and even after Art Howe quickly quit to work for buddy Ron Washington in Texas, that still left Davey Lopes and Williams.

Williams was moderately successful in his managerial stints, but people who know him wonder if he could deal with Philly's tough media market. Houston, which has one newspaper, was more his speed. Among many better choices would be another guy named Manuel (Jerry, the Mets' bench coach).

On Monday, after the Phillies fell again, 11-5 to the rival Mets, Charlie Manuel lamented their lack of clutch hits and reasoned the law of averages must now be on their side, a typical loser's refrain. He also agreed the generally weak and depleted relief corps needs work, saying, "I think we have to fix the bullpen.'' He's right about that.

Manuel provided different versions of the "it's early'' cry. "We've got a long ways to go, a heckuva long ways to go,'' he said.

Maybe the team has a ways to go. His time, on the other hand, may be running short.