A tale of two first basemen

It seems like the Phillies and Ryan Howard are entering their now annual contract tiff. Arbitration figures show they're $3 million apart. Some say the Phillies should bite the bullet and just give him a deal eclipsing the 7-year, $85 million given to Chase Utley.

I'd prefer them to just overpay in the short term. Avoid the negative arbitration process this year and offer $9 million or so.

I dunno, there's something about Howard that just screams Mo Vaughn. Remember him? I do. I still wear his shirt.

Dan Duquette, who is owed an apology for getting grilled on the Clemens career twilight comments, got hammered for letting MVP Mo walk, but ask the Angels and Mets whether he made a mistake. (When did I become a Dan Duquette apologist again?)

Howard could be a Hall of Famer. Or he could be Mo, or the others on his list of comparable players whose careers flamed out, like Cecil Fielder, Tony Clark or Ryan Klesko. He's already shown a warning sign with a balky knee.

Toward the end of '06, Ryan Howard was a clean Barry Bonds. Pitchers wouldn't pitch to him, and during the rare times they did, he punished them. In '07, with so many strikeouts, it got to the point where in a big spot you no longer had the same faith and would hope for a sacrifice fly instead of another embarrassing swing and miss.

The next few years may be better, but I wouldn't bet a ton of years on him. Let some other team get saddled with the big contract.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, are only $1.2 million apart from Youkilis. They might be working on a long-term deal, but if he's only asking for $3.7 million this year, ink him at that. Some argued that last year he was more valuable than Howard when counting defense. I don't know if I quite buy it, but Youk gets on base and plays flawless defense.

In other sports: I went 2-2 last week picking all favorites. But I'm not complaining since one of the upsets involved the Giants and the other didn't involve the Patriots. I've been enjoying the Giants' run, but my head still can't jump on the bandwagon, so I'll back the favorites again. When the two teams thaw, it'll be perfection vs. America's QB in the Super Bowl.