A bad sign?

I tore into one of my Christmas gifts (a new edition of Baseball Mogul, highly recommend it).

Things didn't start out too well as injuries to everyone from Pedroia to Lowell devastated my lineup and Beckett, Dice and the rest of the staff threw like chumps, not champs. So I deleted that game and started one with the Phillies.

Things went better; unlike real life, they actually got off to a lead. They tried to impersonate the Mets toward the end of the season, but managed to hold on. In the playoffs, they beat the D-Backs and Dodgers, but were swept in the series by the Twins, which somehow became an All-Star team, picking up Holliday, Hawpe, Reyes and Roidger Clemens during the season.

Fortunately for those of us rooting for a repeat, this is not a prediction for '08 since the games rosters are from the start of '07. (In game one of the World Series, the Phils knocked out Santana by the third inning, but J.D. "Cooler Pants" Durbin, who stuck with one team in the game, shut the door and allowed the Twins to get back in.)

So now, it's the off season... I'm mulling a trade to get C Jeff Clement and Felix Hernandez from the Mariners for Burrell, Lieber, Coste, Geary, Drabek and a couple other scrubs. Christine's not sold.

I know, not very realistic where the Phils recent big moves include replacing the roster's obligatory "Geoff" and reuniting J.D. with his long-lost cousin Chad.

Meanwhile, the Sox may or may not still be angling the video-game like swap for Johan, but we'll address that one later.