Relieving characters

It's almost arbitration time, and since Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels were all locked up last year, we turn to Jonathan Papelbon to provide the annual SoxandPhils whining. He's not there yet, but he seems to be warming up in this entertaining interview with Gordon Edes, who thinks the closer will earn about $10 million this year:

Seven big league closers have contracts for $10 million or more. It's reasonable to expect that Papelbon will join them.

"Heck yeah, as far as what me and my brain are thinking," Papelbon said, "but I haven't even sat down with my agents [Seth and Sam Levinson] yet. We don't even have a number in place. There haven't been any discussions between me and the Red Sox and my agents at all."

As Papelbon's salary climbs ever higher, he understands that negotiations might turn more contentious.

I think Pap's days in Boston are numbered. He'll be gone when he hits free agency in 2011, if he's not traded next winter. He wants to break the bank, and the Red Sox are grooming a capable replacement in Josh Bard.

I'll miss him. He's the kind of player whose talent overshadows the dumb comments he makes. And at least he's true to his character, such as the fact that he watches more Mickey Mouse Club than MLB Network:

The TV in his house is always turned to Nick Jr., the Disney Channel or Sprout, he says, so he hasn't been keeping track of the Red Sox's offseason moves.

"I had no idea we got [John] Lackey until [trainer Mike] Reinold came down to see me, just a few days ago," he said. "I swear to you. I don't know anything about the ballclub, but I know the words to the 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' song."

Adrian Beltre deal? He hadn't heard. Casey Kotchman about to be traded to the Mariners? Nope. Mike Cameron? "Cameron, Mike Cameron?" he said. "We got him? I swear to you, I didn't know."

Papelbon is not the only quirky SoxandPhil reliever in the news today. Clay Condrey signed with the Twins, and Scott Eyre retired. Christine will miss them both.

The Pen just got a whole lot less interesting.

Groundhog day

So the little critter saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter and a bummed-out Christine.

In (un)related news, Ryan Howard and the Phillies have an arbitration date, but there is a lot of chatter that there may be a deal to skirt the messy hearing.

And, the Phillies may sign Will Ohman. I guess they are worried about J.C. Romero's skills now that he's sure to be tested more often. Ohman has actually been a pretty good reliever the last few years. The Red Sox tried to acquire him mid-season, but found the asking price too high.

Finally, Christine and I cannot comprehend that Bud Selig makes $17.5 million. He earned every penny of it during last year's World Series Game 5. Just mentioning, a recent ESPN fan survey had job approvals of the various sports commissioners: Roger Goodell at 80 percent, David Stern at 62 percent, Gary Bettman at 55 percent, and Bud came in last with 42 percent approval.

And then there was one ...

The Phillies locked up Jayson Werth to a two-year $10 million contract and Chad Durbin at $1.635 million for 2009. That leaves just one little arbitration-eligible player for the champs. OK, Ryan Howard is not so little; neither is his arbitration request, nor the schism between that $18 million request and the Phillies $14 million offer.

But we knew things wouldn't be easy with him, so we should probably just be happy that everyone else signed fairly quickly and painlessly, leaving just the big man to deal with.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, may still be negotiating a long-term pact with Jonathan Papelbon. That would alleviate some stress in future offseasons. And he still might be throwing to Jason Varitek, who won't be going to the Dodgers.

Cha-ching!

There is a lot of contract news today, but the biggest is that Ryan Howard filed for $18 million in arbitration - only $4 million higher than the Phillies offer. Let the games begin.

The number is so high that only greedy New Yorkers Roger Clemens (I know he was an Astro at the time) and Derek Jeter ever put in for higher amounts. I don't expect Howard to be around Philadelphia much longer. According to Fan Graphs, he has only had one one season (2006) in which he was worth more than $18 million. He was worth $25.7 million in his MVP season, $17.1 million the next year and $14.1 million last year.

The Phillies avoided arbitration with Shane Victorino and Joe Blanton.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, kept in tact Theo Epstein's streak of never going to arbitration by giving a one-year $6.25 million contract to Jonathan Papelbon. Javier Lopez also signed a one-year deal.

I guess this is a fair deal for Papelbon - he's been worth more than $6.25 million the past three seasons - but it seems awfully high for a player in his first year of arbitration eligibility. Like Howard, I wonder if he's going to price himself out of Boston in a couple of seasons. The Red Sox have been hyping up Daniel Bard lately.

David Aardsma was traded to the Mariners. I still think he'll have a productive career, but it's better to trade him for a prospect than cut him in a numbers crunch at the end of spring training.

Personal: SoxandPhils players weren't the only ones cashing in today. Since I was forced into retirement from journalism, Christine urged me to start entering newspaper contests. I won two tickets to a St. Joe's basketball game. Yea! Although, if I had Howard's $14 million to $18 million, or even Papelbon's $6.25 million, I could buy tickets for all my readers.

Go Phils!

Unexpectedly, the Phillies and Cole Hamels stole a little bit of the sports page from the Eagles' big game today by agreeing to a three-year $20.5 million contract. The deal seems about right for each side. The real benefit is avoiding what could have been an ugly arbitration process, although Hamels will be eligible for one year of arbitration after this contract expires.

All in all, it's real good news for the Phillies, who still have unresolved contract situations with several players, including Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Ryan Madson and Shane Victorino. Scott Lauber has a good recap of the Phillies' finances after the Cole Hamels deal. He thinks the defending champions will carry a payroll of $125 million - which could be $5 million more than the Red Sox. I think it was just yesterday that Christine said the Sox were as bad as the Yankees with payroll. {You're forgetting that you still haven't paid Jonathan Papelbon.}

Nick Cafardo: Another good Sunday read in the Globe with the rhetorical question of why certain teams (SoxandPhils) excel in the postseason while others (MetsandYanks) don't. He also thinks the Phillies want to get Ben Sheets (but he also had them in on Derek Lowe) and that Julio Lugo put on 20 pounds of muscle. I hope he didn't use J.C. Romero's frequent buyer card at the Vitamin Shoppe.

Football: I'm going with the Eagles and Steelers today. I don't want the Eagles to win, although the Phillies are rooting for them. Be careful what you wish for.

Signings and non-signings

On a bitterly cold day, the big signing is PH extraordinaire Greg Dobbs getting a two-year $2.5 million deal. Scott Boras minion Ryan Madson didn't bite on a three-year $12 million offer. So the Phillies can cross one arbitration eligible off their list - only about two dozen more to go.

"That team is about to walk through a mine field," an AL Scout told Jayson Stark, who previewed the arbitration dealings. The column isn't fun reading for SoxandPhils fans. It could get ugly with Ryan Howard, Jonathan Papelbon, Cole Hamels and a whole bunch of other Phillies.

And it looks like Jason Varitek is ready to come crawling back to the Sox, which is good because we haven't been able to land another starting catcher. He can't hit anymore, but he's better than having nobody crouching between Josh Beckett and the umpire.

One final word: Brrrr. It looks like the Weather Channel made a mistake when it says it will be 9 degrees tomorrow morning.

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.

Manny's going to be a bad man for quite some time ...

For the first time since the last time the Sox were reigning champs, Manny has reported on time. He's not making any contract demands or creating controversy. And his workouts in Arizona have done him so much good that he's saying he may play until he's 50:

You've said you want to be like Julio Franco. How long are you going to play?

"I'm going to go until the wheels fall off. I'm going to keep going. API, they're one of the greats. They're great people to go and work out and I'm going to keep doing it."

He'd like to finish his career in Boston, but he won't demand a new contract.

Philly's big man got his new contract - an arbitration record win of $10 million. Did the Phillies mind losing this one since it assures one year of contract peace with Ryan Howard? Or will it make the long-term deal he wants harder to reach?

MVP Jimmy Rollins, scraping by on a five-year, $40 million contract, isn't complaining. His pay has been subsidized by Nike:

Nike rewarded the Phillies shortstop with his own custom-made sneakers. They are red, white and blue, and feature a Liberty Bell logo and, of course, the letters MVP.

"They definitely look nice," said Rollins, hoisting one of the shoes from a box yesterday. "Definitely hooked up."

How does no one have a picture of this masterpiece?

He also responded to Beltran:

One, there are four other teams in our division who are going to make sure that doesn't happen. And, two, has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?

Uh-oh. Is J-Roll fearing the Nationals this year?

Put me in coach

Coco Crisp, the leading Red Sox cheerleader since being supplanted by Jacoby Ellsbury in Game 6 of the ALCS, doesn't want that job anymore:

"I want to play. Like I said, I wouldn't be happy sitting on the bench. A lot of people say, well, I don't deserve it. Well, that's understandable too. I didn't have a good offensive year like I did in the past. I think I proved myself that I can win healthy and shown that my defense is way better than what people thought. People think that my offense is terrible. Now it's time to show them that my offense really isn't. Went through a couple of bruised up years, everybody goes through that. Unfortunately I just went through that when I came over here to mega-media central."

Sounds like he has a good attitude. He acknowledges his weak offensive years in Boston, touts his defensive strength (he plays the best CF in baseball) but hints he'd rather start than win. Sounds like it could be a bad sign, but really, do you want a player who doesn't want to play?

If the Sox get a good offer - obviously hasn't happened since he's still on the roster - then Coco should be traded to a team he would start for. Until then, hopefully he realizes that he won't be traded to a team that has a better chance of winning than the Red Sox and that he'll get plenty of playing time as Manny's late-inning defensive replacement. Also, J.D. Drew has played at least 140 games in each of the past two seasons, meaning he's overdue for an injury. (I know, I promised myself no more griping about that signing since his Game 6 grand slam.) {That grand slam was meaningless. As is J.D. Drew.}

G.I. Manny: Manny Ramirez reports. Then he leaves. The Globe has a picture of him ... well, his car, at least. Maybe if Ryan Howard wins his arbitration hearing he can buy a set of wheels like this:

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.