There are three reasons we don't care about this rumor:
1) There's no truth to it.
2) Martin Frank (Scott Lauber's interim replacement) says there is a bigger Phillies blockbuster in the works: Chase Utley for the legendary Steve Sax.
3) We're more excited about the prospects of Bill Hall finding out and confronting the mysterious Player X. (ESPN writers are persona non grata at SoxandPhils these days.)
In a column about the grind of spring training, the mystery player wrote he "heard a story" that Hall wasn't focused when he arrived at spring training in 2007 with the Milwaukee Brewers, fresh off a new $24 million contract that was the result of a 35-homer '06 season.
"Word of his partying made the rounds and guys predicted he was due for a slump," Player X wrote. "Sure enough, his RBI total dropped to 63, he hit only 14 homers the next season and he was a disaster in the field. It started in spring and he never recovered."
After reading the account Saturday, Hall shook his head. Left out of Player X's retelling is the fact that, after a slow start, Hall was on pace for 20 homers and 80 RBI in July when he tore up his ankle scaling the fence in a vain attempt to catch a homer. Also ignored is how hot Hall was - he had hit .324 with three homers, 17 RBI and a .990 OPS over the previous month.
"I went out there and got hurt playing hard," Hall said. "I'll tell you what, I wish I could ask the guy that wrote that, has he ever seen me dog a ground ball to first base? Has he ever seen me not get to second base on a popup? Just watch me play and make judgments about what kind of person I am and what kind of player I am."
Christine and I have enjoyed reading the works of ESPN Player Xes. (There have been a few over different sports.) But we found it odd he'd call out Hall like this. We hope he finds the dude's identity and outs him before the big Howard-Pujols trade is completed.
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