The real rumor of the day

Despite Shane Victorino's cheering (Albert! Albert! Albert!), we here at SoxandPhils aren't paying much attention to the bogus rumor of a Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols trade.

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.

Free agent busts say the darndest things

During the playoff run, one notable Phillie was conspicuously absent: Adam Eaton.

Christine and I waited and waited for some reporter to snag the big interview on how the $24 million bust felt watching the playoffs from wherever he spent October.

It took blog-lover Murray Chass to track him down.

Among the jewels we learned from Mr. Eaton:

• The Phillies never informed him that he sucks, so he didn't know why he didn't pitch at the end of the season. "You'd have to ask them. I didn't ask them. There wasn't necessarily a lot of communication."


• He did his part to help the Phillies win the World Series by going away. "I'm not worried about a World Series share. I'm happy for the team. Not that I contributed in the second half, but going to minors I felt I was helping myself and the team."


• It's going to be deja vu in spring training. "I think I need to establish myself again. The off-season started a few days ago so who knows what's in store for anybody, whether you'll be traded or what. Right now I'm a member of the Phillies and hope to win another World Series."

Because it had been so long since we've heard from Eaton, I thought we should take a look back at some of our favorite 2008 Adam Eaton memories:

In August after getting shelled by A and AA hitters:

But the way I felt and the way I made the adjustment throwing breaking balls for strikes (later in the game) and (the fact I was) able to get ahead and put some guys away with the slider and curveball ... I take positives from that.

And:

I made a few bad pitches. Definitely would like to have one back, the grand slam. Learned from that mistake and ended up striking him out the next time.

In a 6-4 loss to the Diamondbacks in May, Eaton gave up five runs in the fourth inning, including one when he walked Randy Johnson with the bases loaded.

In April, Charlie Manuel used Eaton as a pinch runner. I speculated the manager was hoping his dud of a pitcher would get injured on the basepaths.

Eaton had other ideas:

I was hoping we'd hit a home run.

In March, Eaton didn't mind losing his spring training finale 14-5:

The results weren't great, but I felt good. I felt like my stuff was just as good at the end as it was at the beginning. The way I feel and the way my stuff is, I'm pretty happy.

He was also shelled in his first spring training start, which led to this infamous quote:

I think I've established myself as a big-leaguer. I'm getting paid extremely handsomely, probably more than I'm worth. But everyone is not worth what they're getting paid. It's fun. If you don't like the competition, what are you doing here?
Everyone should thrive on competition.

Now that we've covered the LVP, onto MVP news. As expected, Ryan Howard came in second to Albert Pujols, who didn't turn it down because of failing to make the playoffs. I'm surprised the only other player, besides Howard and Pujols, to garner a first place vote was Brad Lidge, who finished eighth. Chase Utley came in 15th.

I expect better results for Dustin Pedroia when the AL MVP is announced tomorrow.

No playoffs, no MVP

I'll jump the gun and skip past tomorrow's likely snub of Charlie Manuel for Manager of the Year to Monday's likely snub of Ryan Howard for MVP. Admittedly, I'm not sure he deserves it. Even Jayson Stark noted today that the Philadelphia baseball writers chose Brad Lidge as the team's MVP.

I'm not certain Albert Pujols, Howard's biggest competitor, is deserving either. Let me quote an expert: "Someone who doesn't take his team to the playoffs doesn't deserve to win the MVP."

Who said that? Stark? Peter Gammons? Bill James? Nope. How about Mr. Pujols when he was upset Howard won the award in 2006? Bingo.

If Howard wins it, I want Pujols to offer the congratulations he failed to give two years ago. If Pujols wins, I'd like to see him decline the award since the Cardinals finished four games out of the playoffs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Howard played deep into October.

Meanwhile, despite the three dolts who thought Edinson Volquez qualified for Rookie of the Year and some of the Gold Glove selections, the writers got another award correct today: Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young and he's the cover boy of MLB 2K9. Lidge came in fourth. The Phils best pitcher, Cole Hamels, didn't get a vote.