While too young and not a baseball [much less Phillie] phan from 1960-1962 I have read enough about Gene Mauch to recognize he did many of the same things in those early years that Kapler is doing now. Of course there are many differences...Mauch was acerbic at times with his players whereas Kapler is almost universally positive
However both seemed to have the philosophy that they were going to test young players in different roles at different times and with little rhyme or reason for what they were doing...all with the goal of finding out which players were going to be successful and winning players when the Phils were ready to contend.
Thus, out of the ashes came players like Callison, Gonzalez, Dalrymple, Amaro, Wine, Taylor, Short, Bennett, Mahaffey and Baldschun whereas players like Curry, Walters, Savage, Woods, Coker, Paul Brown and Pancho Herrera fell by the wayside.
From what I have read from old Sporting News articles, Mauch was also questioned often about his strange use of players...Callison played LF, CF and RF in 1960-61 and Mauch was forever mixing and matching players to play to their strengths, see how they handled adversity and who would be tough enough mentally to handle his constant moves. By 1963 he had his core [they won 87 games that year] and in 1964 they were ready to contend.
Honestly, I am trying very hard to give Kapler some rope because I am hoping we are seeing the same thing happen this year. I am trying to believe that Kapler's mandate from management is to try and find a solid core from the many youngsters he has on his roster with the goal of contending for a playoff berth next year. Wins are secondary to building his core.
I also believe much of what he is doing with Hernandez, Kingery and Crawford has to do with Machado. I think the Phils would allow MM to play either shortstop [in which they hope Crawford will play 3rd] or 3rd [with Crawford moving to SS] and are planning on moving Kingery to 2nd base.
Their goal by playing Hernandez everyday is to enhance his value so they can get something good for him when they are ready to move him. I also think they plan to move Franco eventually.
Kapler is maddening but so was Gene Mauch. Yet he was considered by some to be the best manager the Phils ever had and certainly the performance in 1962 [a winning record], 1963[ 87-75] and the first 150 games on 1964 [90-60] were brilliant. I would take similar success from Kapler.