Little appetizer and other morsels

Yesterday it was Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. Today Dustin Pedroia won a Gold Glove, his first. Actually, he knew yesterday and didn't keep it a secret. I never knew award winners were told a day ahead, and I don't know if he'll get in trouble for spilling the beans.

Thankfully, I think they still wait until hours before the official announcement to tell a player that he won the MVP. That's the main course for Pedroia this year (and the Red Sox, as Christine reminded me that they didn't get the job done this season). Today's fielding award is just a little shrimp cocktail for the littlest big hitter in baseball.

Things don't look so good for Pedroia and the Sox next year. Manny Ramirez won't consider coming back. Did I miss something? Was this even a possibility? Didn't we bend over backward last summer shipping him out of town so he could get the Dodgers' hopes up for the Phillies to knock them down? Whatever. The season ended just over a week ago, and I'm already sick of hearing from Scott Boras.

There's some talk that Manny could replace Pat Burrell in Philadelphia. I don't buy it. To quote Tony Massarotti: "One glitch: Pat Gillick, who just stepped down as Philly's GM but is staying on in an advisory role, is too smart to advocate signing a guy like Manny. (We think.)"

One glitch with that glitch theory: Gillick might be interested in winning a Stanley Cup instead.

I thought this was a slow day when I sat down to write tonight, but things are certainly getting crazy. Next thing you know, we'll be reading that the World Champs are again considering trading the farm, and Shane Victorino, for Matt Holliday. Oops.

{No way, I'm not buying that. This city loves Shane-O, and I think he loves it back. I hope management isn't dumb enough to trade him.}

A new administration

We'll find out tomorrow night or early Wednesday whether Barack Obama or John McCain will head the country on Jan. 20. The Phillies didn't wait so long, installing Ruben Amaro Jr. as general manager to replace Pat Gillick. Now we know why Gillick said "Let's do it again" on the World Series podium. He's staying on as an adviser.

Red Sox: Theo Epstein may have to pony up the team's resources, as Kevin Youkilis and Jonathaon Papelbon could demand huge raises. Papelbon, like Cole Hamels, whined about his contract offer last off-season, so things could get ugly again. Youk seems to be a solid citizen who won't complain like the younger superstars.

The Globe's Nick Cafardo suggests that situation, along with the economic downturn, could make this off-season's arbitration process very interesting.

Meanwhile, while explaining for the 10 millionth time that he's voting for McCain, Curt Schilling once again referred to himself as retired, or a likely retired baseball player who owns a small start-up. It's unlikely that Jake Peavy will replace Curt on the roster. That's good - I worried enough about overpaying in prospects for an ace last off-season. Jon Lester started but lost Game 7 of the ALCS. I forget what Johan Santana did this postseason.

Getting back to presidential politics, and giving each candidate equal SoxandPhils time, Jimmy Rollins did a robo call for Obama. We had four calls on the machine today, but none from J-Roll.

Off day

Although the playoffs ended with joy in our house for the second straight year, they make for a pretty tiring month if you closely follow five of the seven playoff rounds, as we did this year.

So today was largely a baseball-free day - except for when I played a few minutes of a game I recorded on the DVR and bought the special Phillies championship edition of Sports Illustrated.

Things haven't been so quiet for the squads. The Red Sox brought back one of their legends for 2009, while the Phillies said goodbye to four of theirs.

The Red Sox picked up Tim Wakefield's 2009 option, bringing him back for a 15th season. Although he was shelled in the playoffs, he remains one of the better pitchers in the league, and if age suddenly catches up with him, he only cost $4 million.

The Phillies, meanwhile, sadly dumped two of their all-time greats. They declined options on Tom Gordon and So Taguchi. We didn't mention it, but did anyone find it odd how Flash was in the middle of the screen every time the cameras showed the clubhouse celebration on Wednesday? And where was Adam Eaton?

Two other guys who actually played major roles in making the Phillies World Champions are leaving. Pat Gillick, who seemed to hint at a return on the podium Friday, will be replaced by Ruben Amaro Jr. Mike Arbuckle, apparently tired of getting passed over, will leave the organization.

Don't forget to set your clocks back.

Let the copycatting begin

Sports writers and executives aren't the most original people out there, and when a team wins, others try to copy its success. Last week, before the Phillies clinched the pennant, there was already one columnist advocating for the Yankees to sign retiring Phillies General Manager Pat Gillick as an adviser. Why? I thought everything was just peachy in the Bronx.

That made me wonder, though. What if the Phillies win four more games in 2008? What else will other teams rip off in attempt to be the 2009 World Champions? Here's what copycatting GMs might do in the off-season:

-Scour the minor leagues for an old journeyman catcher who can write.

-Spend $10 million on a human strikeout machine.

-Urge their star player to rescue puppies and endorse Vaseline and Tastykakes. There's a joke in there somewhere.

-Beg their team leader to loaf on the base paths and show up late.

-Assemble a bench with the league's best pinch-hitter and a bunch of scrubs so nondescript you don't even remember they're on the team. Make your only utility infielder a late-innings outfield defense replacement, hire the most irrelevant Japanese player you can find and somebody who looks like a famous quarterback.

-Tell your enigmatic left fielder to get a bulldog. I'm thinking Manny Ramirez on this one. (By the way, why didn't we notice this tidbit last week, that Pat Burrell brought a picture of Elvis to Milwaukee and Los Angeles?)

-Scout Hawaii for a scrappy player.

-Scout senior citizen softball leagues for a lefty who can eat innings.

-Find an ace who seems to be soft and whiny.

-Demote your No. 2 starter for a few weeks and hope he comes back pitching like a No. 1 or hitting well enough to try a Rick Ankiel position switch.

-Trade for an irrelevant fat guy to round out the rotation.

-Acquire Adam Eaton. All right, that won't help you, but I'm tired of having him around.

-Find a closer who is deemed scarred by a noteworthy home run even though his numbers really haven't declined. (Actually, not a bad idea.)

-Round out the bullpen with a bunch of cast-offs who somehow get the job done. (Again, not a bad idea.)

-Finally, to guarantee success, find an idiot to blog about your team, linking it with an unrelated team just because his wife also likes baseball but roots for a different team.

Red Sox post-mortem: It was a good year. If they lost Game 5, I would have been disappointed, but I was pleased that they sucked it up and went out nobly to a good, young, exciting team that I hope loses to the Phillies.

This year, we said good riddance to Manny and hello to Jason Bay. We saw the emergence of Jon Lester and probably the end of Curt Schilling, Mike Timlin and Jason Varitek.

We were depleted by injuries down the stretch. We came close, but didn't get the job done. Once I figure out how the Phillies will beat the Rays, I'll get to work on bringing the trophy back to the Red Sox in 2009.

PhilsandRays: While I like the fact this World Series features a team that hasn't won in 28 years against one that's only been around for a decade, the Rays and Phillies don't have a lot of tradition to go on. Look at the all-time roster of 21 players who played for both teams.

C-Pete LaForest
1B-Russell Branyan
2B-Marlon Anderson
3B-Tomas Perez
SS-Kevin Stocker
LF-Julio Franco
CF-Midre Cummings
RF-Travis Lee
DH-Randall Simon

Bench-Alex Gonzalez

SP-Cory Lidle
SP-Dennis Springer
SP-Paul Abbott
SP-Julio Santana
SP-Carlos Reyes

CL-Roberto Hernandez
Lefty setup-Norm Charlton
Righty setup-Rick White
RP-Scott Aldred
RP-Trever Miller

I guess I should have cheated and counted Bobby Abreu.

[Photo credit: Boston Globe]

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and other scary stories

Here are some of the scary thoughts I've had about Brad Lidge.

Yes, the surgery was successful, but I don't believe this three- to six-week time frame. Last year Brett Myers was supposed to miss two weeks; he missed two months. He was replacing Tom Gordon, who wasn't supposed to be injured at all but missed more than two months. So by Phillies injury prognosis, does that mean Lidge's three to six weeks translates into three months to the whole season?

I've been joking that the over-under for his return is the All-Star break.

If this injury does put the pen in shambles, will we see another triumphant return to Philadelphia of Jose Mesa? What about Antonio Alfonseca?

Back to Gordon. He had a historic year for the Sox in '98, but I blame him for blowing Game 4 of the ALDS against Cleveland. If he didn't blow that game, Pedro would have won the series the next day. (Christine and I went to see the Barenaked Ladies after the Red Sox lost the afternoon game. Funny I remember that.)

Jim Salisbury's column about Pat Gillick's intrigue with a 134-pound slab of beef did somehow reassure me. I still don't believe Lidge will be pitching for the Phils by early April, but since they weathered so many injuries last year, they'll survive this one too.

This is one big burger:


Keep Bartolo Colon away; he's got to get in shape.

More dugout chatter

Last week Chase Utley and Pat the Bat took questions from the phans. Today, young Brett (I know he's no longer young, but we'll always call him that) joined the fray. We didn't learn whether he owns a computer or anything else too revealing, but he gave me a few nuggets to work with.

First of all, what's up with these fans always asking the same questions: what's your favorite ball park, what other position would you have liked to play, do you enjoy Philadelphia, etc. How come no one asked the commonplace, how's the wife and kids? {First, because obviously they are staged questions. Second, is this really a joking matter. Can't we hope that he has grown up and learned not to hit his wife.}

Anyhoo... we learn the chat interrupted the filming of commercials. Since I'm sure young Brett doesn't have a high Q-rating, this can only mean more cheesy Phillie promo commercials are on the way. Just the other day I told Christine I could use some Phillie commercials as blog fodder. She agreed and also can't wait to see this year's slogan. {Last year's Jamie Moyer-Chase Utley commercial? Awesome, if a little weird the first time I saw it.}

We also learn that Myers, as a real young Brett, looked up to Roger Clemens. He's got the fat part down, let's hope he doesn't emulate the illegal drug use. {Those who have David Ortiz on their team should not crack fat jokes.}

Then, we learn something truly scary about the Phillies front office:

slrmp97: How does it feel knowing when the Phils were looking for the best starting pitcher available this offseason, they decided you were it?
Myers: It's a great feeling that the organization has that kind of confidence in me. Hopefully, the fans feel the same way.

What? Since Pat Gillick took the liberty of letting the world know Johan Santana was available last fall, does he think Myers is better than Johan? {Sigh. Is Santana truly available? No. He's not a free agent. He's not going to be traded.}

And toward the end he answered "Would you play for the Mets?" in an odd way:

Myers: Never say never, but I seriously doubt it. As I stated earlier, I have a lot of love for this city and that would seem really weird. I wouldn't want to feel like a traitor!

Based on the answer it seems like he would, but other than Curt I haven't truly believed any Sox when they said they wouldn't play for the Empire. {Talk about overanalyzing. I don't think he'll play for the Mets - he seems kind of stubborn like that - but he gave the safe, PC answer of never say never. Oh yeah, and Curt Schilling's fat too.}

Etc.: Heard a couple of Phils on the radio today. Brad Lidge sounds like he's going to have the mental makeup to handle Philly. Shane Victorino, however, needs to work on his math skills. When asked about J-Roll's prediction of 100 wins, Victorino said it doesn't matter how many wins they have - even 60 - as long as they make the playoffs. You have to win a few more than 60 to reach the playoffs Shane.