Election Day

It seemed tempting, but I refrained from writing in Cole Hamels for president. A local merchant posted that note last week on one of the signs outside of his store; Greg was tempted to stop today and ask if anyone voted for Hamels, but he ran out of time on his way to work. He probably ran out of time because I think he stopped at more than one Starbucks for his free coffee. And yes, he did vote, even though it was no longer required to claim a cup of joe.

A few random thoughts and notes tonight as I await election results.

**Les Walrond's short-lived Phillies career is over. He was claimed today by the Blue Jays. (It is so refreshing to say "Blue Jays" without having the cloud of 1993 hanging over my head anymore.) And yesterday, Rudy Seanez filed for free agency.

**As the 2008 team disperses, I'm reminded of something important that I overlooked the other night. As I was reminiscing about players who will soon be part of the Phillies' past, I forgot to mention Chris Coste. I'm afraid that he's not long for this team. Lou Marson is waiting in the wings, and it's only a matter of time before he's in the big leagues for good. I expect that Marson will start in AAA in the spring, but once he's ready, Coste will probably be expendable. Sadly, he probably already feels that way, as Charlie Manuel made it clear in September and October that Carlos Ruiz is his preferred catcher. Well, whatever happens, Coste will always be welcomed in Philadelphia, and I'm glad that he got the chance to play here and be part of the magical 2007 and 2008 teams.

**Last week, after the Phillies won, I checked the Baseball Prospectus page. I wanted to see it officially say that the Phillies had a 100% chance of winning the World Series. But a little part of me still thought that it would say something like the Phillies only had a 99.2% chance of winning. (OK, so maybe it will take a while to shake away all of the negative thoughts.) Anyway, I love looking at those numbers - on Sept. 30, the Phillies were given only a 5% chance of winning it all.

**Following the Phillies lead, the Red Sox signed their GM. Jeez, what has he done to deserve a new contract? It's not like he's won any World Series lately.

**Crazy Scott Boras thinks Jason Varitek is going to get a huge contract, along the lines of Jorge Posada's 4-year $52 million contract. I think Scott Boras is nuts. I'm not the stats person on this blog, but 2008 was a dismal year for him. Yeah, he can still catch, but he was a liability offensively. Carlos Ruiz was no better offensively, but he's seven years younger than Varitek. Not to mention the fact that Ruiz is making just over the league minimum and isn't even due for arbitration until 2010. If baseball really is going to be feeling the economic crunch, I think the Sox should take a pass on resigning their captain.

**Current Sox and former Phil Mike Timlin filed for free agency today. Actually, barely a former Phil. I forgot that he was with the team for only half a season. It seems like it was longer. I guess because I've had to listen to Greg rave about him for the past six years. And complain about him this year.

I'm off to set up camp in front of CNN until Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert come on at 10 p.m. Let's hope this election is decided earlier in the night than some of those marathon playoff games I endured over the past few weeks.

Series split a major letdown

Sigh. I don't want to talk about it.

The Phillies had several chances to add to their early 3-1 lead but couldn't pull through. Then, Rudy Seanez and Brad Lidge allowed four runs in the 8th, giving the Mets a 6-3 win. All base runners in the 8th came with two outs. Carlos Delgado had two home runs and drove in half of the Mets runs.

So, in five series against New York this year, the Phils are 5-10. They have beaten the Mets just once in each series, usually in dramatic fashion. Four of the five wins were the first game in the series. What does this mean? I don't know. Phillies stink. They're a half-game out again and start a four-game series against the Cubs on Thursday. Let's hope the bullpen is refreshed by then.

Broadcast notes: Gary Matthews will be singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" tomorrow night in Chicago. Tom McCarthy dared him to say Phillies instead of Cubs during the song. ... Chris Wheeler annoyingly kept referring to Daniel Murphy as David Murphy. Then he acknowledged that he was accidentally doing this and told some story about a kid named Danny Murphy from his high school. Then he called Daniel David for the rest of the night. Stop talking, Wheels.

Red Sox: They crushed the Yankees 11-3. Dustin Pedroia hit a grand slam, his first, during a seven-run 8th inning.

But, as usual, the Rays also won. The Red Sox remain 3.5 games back in the East. It's almost time to stick a fork in the Yankees. They are now 10.5 games back and 7 games out of the Wild Card; the Sox have the Wild Card lead, 2.5 games up on the Twins.

Cole in control; Sox trounced in Toronto

The Phillies are halfway to revenge for being swept by the Dodgers in Los Angeles last week, as Cole Hamels was his usual fine self today and got plenty of run support for a change. Phils 9, Dodgers 2.

Hamels gave up two earned on five hits while striking out five over seven. All starters got a hit or run except for Chris Coste. Pat Burrell was the big star, going 3-5 with a homer while tying his career high with five RBI.

Rudy Seanez had a four-pitch 9th inning.

Competitors: The Mets play later.

Red Sox: Their young lefty ace didn't fare so well. Jon Lester was shelled for seven runs and couldn't finish the 3rd inning. Blue Jays 11, sinking-out-of-the-playoff Red Sox 0. Yaz is recovering. Josh Beckett's elbow is inflamed.

Competitors: The Rays beat the White Sox (actually a good thing because Chicago is a half-game out of the Wild Card). The Twins and Yankees play later.

More Hamels: Young Cole had an extensive Q&A with Yahoo's Answer Man. He admits his salary comments this spring were immature, says Shane Victorino would be jailed at an Eagles game and claims he's smoked only one (legal) cigarette in his life.

Thanks Manny, but the season restarts tomorrow

The defending champs are little more than two-thirds through the long season. They stand three games behind the Rays (both teams are off tonight) and a game ahead of the Yankees and Twins for the Wild Card (both of them are losing tonight).

With the three-way trade with the Pirates and Dodgers, the Red Sox gave up future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez, Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss and $7 million to get Jason Bay. It seems like a stiff price to dump one of the greatest sluggers in history. But I guess it's clear that Theo Epstein et al felt the playoff chances weren't good with Manny's mood dragging down the team.

I'm OK with it all. The Manny Ramirez era was fun and, of course, yielded the first two World Championships in most of our lifetimes. It's easy to forget that when things end poorly. But the team is bigger than its stars, and the new guy who'll be playing left field for the Red Sox ain't too shabby.

Jason Bay has a .890 career OPS. Yes, it's not Manny's .999, but he's seven years younger and commands less than half the pay as Manny. He will be better in the field, will be better in the clubhouse and will free up money for the Sox when assembling the roster for 2009.

But that's a ways off. We still have work to do in 2008, and I'm sure Bay is excited going from a team that's had a .438 winning percentage in his tenure to one expected to win it all. Welcome to the show.

Shhhhh: The Phillies beat the Nationals 8-4 tonight. That's five in a row for the Phillies. (I won't tell them, if you won't.) They now have a one game lead over the idle Mets. The offense was clicking - all starting position players had a hit - and Kyle Kendrick gave up two earned in 6 2/3 innings. I think Rudy Seanez - five earned in his last 7 1/3 innings over his last eight games - isn't long for this team.

With five straight against the bottom half of the division in the Braves and Nationals, the Phillies have a tougher stretch ahead - the Cardinals and Marlins, whose big pickup today was former Phillie Arthur Rhodes. Then, they host the Pirates with Moss and Hansen next weekend. Manny and the Dodgers come to Philly at the end of August, but that's the one Sunday game I have to miss this season because of a business trip.

A pair of duds

We took Christine's mom out for her birthday, so we missed most of the action. We kept an occasional eye on the Phillies, who were going back and forth with the Marlins. By the time we got home, the Marlins had a commanding lead and won 9-5. In the top of the 9th, the Phils loaded the bases for Ryan Howard to strike out and Pat Burrell to ground out.

Kyle Kendrick and Rudy Seanez had poor performances today. And even though Seanez has pretty decent numbers for the season, he is Christine's pick to get the ax when Joe Blanton is activated for Tuesday's start. We figure after Blanton starts Tuesday, he would be lined up to make his home debut against the Braves next Sunday. This season (including an exhibition game, which isn't included in our yearly standings) we have seen Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer four times each, Kendrick three times, Adam Eaton once and now it appears that Blanton will be next. We still haven't seen young Brett Myers pitch this year.

Red Sox: After getting embarrassed by the Angels 11-3 last night, the second-place Sox lost again 4-2. They have to be able to score more on the road. And Josh Beckett shouldn't give up four runs in the 7th. He did pitch an economical 107-pitch eight-inning complete game. Whoopee!

Competition: They play tonight. A Rays win puts the Red Sox 1.5 games out; a Mets win gives them a share of first.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

Christine hoped it was an April Fools' joke. But it wasn't. Alas, coming off a stinging opening day loss thanks to an awful Tom Gordon, the Phillies went out and got the best arm they could - 39-year-old Rudy Seanez.

Actually, he had a pretty good season last year for the Dodgers, but he has been injured and didn't pitched well, or much, in spring training. I can't imagine he will be much help to the Phillies, but I guess he's better than another go-around with Jose Mesa.

And, Seanez has a place in SoxandPhils lore. He made nine pretty poor appearances for the 2003 Boston Red Sox - one of them came in one of the better games we've seen played between the Red Sox and Phillies, a 6-5 nail biter that went 12 innings and ended with a Todd Pratt walk-off home run at the Vet. Mesa got the win. Pedro Martinez and Randy Wolf dueled. Seanez entered the game in the 12th, with one on and the Sox up by one. The game ended on his second pitch to pinch-hitting Pratt.

Seanez fared a bit better in his only other SoxandPhils appearance in 2006, but that too was a loss. The Phils won 10-5 behind another typical Cory Lidle start. Seanez pitched 1 2/3 scoreless to end the game.

We were at both games.

More predictions: I should have given a predictions form to David Ortiz to fill out. In an interview with the Globe, Papi gives clues to what some of his picks would have been:

World Series: Detroit Tigers
AL Cy Young: A.J. Burnett
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez

Payroll: Speaking of 2003, it's the first time since then the Sox don't have the second-highest payroll. They're now fourth. Phillies are 13th. The Empire still outpaces the next closest team (Tigers) by $70 million.