Chooch turns in a most valuable season

It was as poignant a moment a collision at home plate could be. Not quite a passing of the torch or a gathering of great baseball minds, but something deeper than that. It was as fleeting as any pitch in a game, but no less trenchant.

There, piled in a heap in front of home plate on a bang-bang play to end the visiting half of the fourth inning during Friday night’s game between the Phillies and Nationals were two catchers. There was Pudge, the veteran from Puerto Rico, often regarded as the best backstop of his generation in a line of great catchers with fantastic nicknames.

There was Buck, Gabby, Mickey, Yogi, Campy, Johnny, Kid, Pudge Fisk, Piazza, Joe Mauer and Pudge Rodriguez. A 14-time All-Star, one-time AL MVP and probable first-ballot Hall of Famer, modern catchers don’t come any more esteemed or well-rounded than Pudge Rodriguez.

Yet there he was being helped up off the ground by an up-and-comer from Panama nicknamed, Chooch. In his fourth full big-league season after being converted from the infield, Chooch Ruiz isn’t any threat to Pudge’s 10 seasons in which he batted .300 or his 13 Gold Glove Awards, but when it comes to October there are very few catchers in baseball history as good as Carlos Joaquin Ruiz. In 11 World Series games, the .353 batting average and 1.194 OPS is nothing to sneeze at. Mix in 10 games in the NLCS and Ruiz’s average holds steady at .349 with 10 of his 22 hits going for extra bases.

Not even the great Johnny Bench’s postseason stats would be nearly as good as Ruiz’s if his 1976 World Series performance hadn’t skewed the numbers.

So yes, Pudge Rodriguez knows all about Chooch Ruiz. Helped off the ground after Friday night’s collision, the future Hall of Famer took a long second to give his counterpart a tap on the head and a few kind words of respect.

That pause and acknowledgement from Pudge played louder than any “Choooooooch!” cheer from the fans at Citizens Bank Park.

“He’s a popular player because he plays the game hard,” Rodriguez said. “He calls good games and he does the job every day. He’s a fan favorite because he plays hard and does the things he needs to do. He’s being playing great since he got to the big leagues and he’s also doing a tremendous job in the playoffs.”

Pudge shrugged as if this was all common knowledge around big league clubhouses. But often overlooked in the Phillies lineup because of his better known teammates, the fact that Ruiz, 31, is flirting with batting .300 and reaching base at a .400 clip is a bit of a surprise. However, to those familiar with Ruiz’s role with the Phillies, to call him the MVP of the 2010 regular season is not really as outlandish as it sounds.

Sure, there are things that fans grasp onto like Ruiz’s serious demeanor, earnestness and unquenchable desire to win baseball games. He talks to his mother at home in Panama every day often about his hopes for his teammates. Ruiz is like the fans in that he is selfless in his desire for the Phillies to do well.

Who doesn’t like a serious man?

But who can fault Ruiz for taking it so seriously? It’s always big deal to Ruiz. Bullpen coach and catching instructor Mick Billmeyer says if there is one fault Ruiz has in his game it’s that he cares a lot. If a pitcher has a bad outing, Billmeyer says Ruiz looks at it as a reflection on him. Even when pitchers shake him off, Ruiz takes it seriously.

Even though Phillies pitchers have held the opponents to a .250 batting average with Ruiz behind the dish, including a miniscule .198 in 10 games by newcomer Roy Oswalt, it’s those 849 hits in more than 900 innings behind the plate that Ruiz takes to heart.

In fact, pitching coach Rich Dubee says Chooch takes hits by the opposition as a personal affront.

“He takes it very personally,” Dubee said. “In the three years here he has grown so much as a catcher it’s phenomenal. He’s the leader of our club back there defensively. He takes charge and he’s not afraid to sell his case and explain to pitchers what he’s seeing and they have great trust in him.”

The main reason why the Phillies have a three-game lead over the Braves in the NL East is because the team’s pitching has been so good. With guys like Oswalt, Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels heading up the starting rotation, the Phillies’ pitching is as deep as any team in the majors. But it’s not like Ruiz squats behind the plate and waits for the ball to arrive. No, he’s an active participant in the team’s pitching success.

The truth is Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels might not be as good without Ruiz back there.

“He has a lot of intangibles. One is he has really good vision back there. He has a great sense of where hitters are trying to go and what hitters are trying to do. That’s vitally important for a front-line catcher,” Dubee said. “Another thing he does is he puts a lot of energy into whatever he puts down for a pitch.”

Most telling is how much credit Halladay gave Ruiz after his perfect game last May, as well as the fact that in his second start with the Phillies Oswalt put all his faith in his catcher and allowed Chooch to guide him through. In the nine starts since Ruiz has been Oswalt’s wingman, the pitcher has gone 7-0 with a 1.55 ERA.

Hey, Ruiz is a catcher first so the fact that the Phils’ pitchers have a 3.37 ERA with him back there and a losing record when he is not is significant. Plus, his hitting prowess is not just an October thing either. No, Chooch is not quite the new Pudge, but the Phillies would be hard pressed to find a better big-game performer in franchise history...

Or a more valuable player to the team this season. 

Good help will be hard to find

PITTSBURGH — Sometimes the easiest thing to do is alsothe hardest one to accomplish. Yeah, that sounds like a trick or some sort of weird riddle, but really, when one looks at the predicament the Phillies have backed themselves in to, it makes perfect sense.

Yes, Chase Utley likely will be out until September recovering from surgery on his right thumb to reattach the ligament to the bone where it belongs. And yes, Placido Polanco — he of the one who does all the little things — is probably out until August so he can recover from a chronic case of tendonitis in his biceps and a bone spur on his elbow.

Then there is Chooch Ruiz, who we don’t know what to expect. Anyone familiar with Brian Westbrook or Keith Primeau understands how concussions can affect a pro sports career. Considering that Ruiz went to visit one of the preeminent sports concussion specialists in the United States while in Pittsburgh on Thursday, it seems to be a significant development that he was told not to go out on a rehab assignment this weekend. Chooch needs to let things mend for a bit longer and rightfully the Phillies are allowing that to happen.

So that’s a big chunk of the Phillies lineup that will be out indefinitely. Utley, Polanco and Chooch gone with no return date set, though we were assured it would be relatively soon based on basic prognosis and guidelines from the medical people. That’s precisely where it gets complicated, too, because two weeks is plenty of time for a club to watch its season implode.

They say a team can’t win a pennant in [inset a month here], but it most definitely can lose one.

That’s what the Phillies have to guard against. Though it doesn’t seem like it from the bird’s eye view, it’s not unreasonable to believe that the season hangs in the balance, right now. Yes, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. can stand pat and wait for his guys to mend and/or start to hit. Considering that Utley, Polanco and Chooch are out and the offense is still struggling, it’s made for a maddening first half for the Phillies.

But a combined four RBIs from just two players over the past two games in starts for Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels, including just a lonely one against the last-place Pirates on Thursday night, doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Here’s where he get to the easy and difficult part… yes, it would make sense for Amaro to makea trade to add some power to the lineup while Utley and Polanco get healthy. It also wouldn’t be such a bad idea to get a catcher or some much-needed pitching depth, too. After all, if there is one thing we’ve learned this season it’s that the Phillies are a flawed team. They were a flawed team when they won the World Series in 2008 and when they went back there in 2009, too. The difference is they did a better job at hiding those ugly areas with trades and acquisitions that got them Joe Blanton, Scott Eyre, Matt Stairs, Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez.

Ideally Amaro would like to follow that pattern again since it has been known to work out pretty well. Plus, sometimes a trade has a way of invigorating a club, kind of like the way getting Lee at the deadline did last year.

All Lee did was put together the greatest postseason by a pitcher in team history since Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1915… and against the Yankees, Dodgers and Rockies, no less.

Obviously the Phillies should go out and make the next big deal in order to keep it together until the big guns get back. Obviously, Amaro is probably wearing out the battery on his Blackberry all day. The problem the GM has, however, isn’t what player to get. That’s generally pretty easy to figure out.

Instead Amaro has a problem with what he can give.

Nope, he doesn’t have much.

He does have Domonic Brown, though. A 22-year-old star-in-the-making recently made the jump to Triple-A where he’s hitting .458 with two homers in seven games going into Thursday’s action. Ideally, the Phillies would like Brown to remain in Allentown for the rest of the summer where he could continue to develop with a September call up in the offing if everything goes well.

Don’t think for a second that the Phillies are going to dangle Brown as trade bait, either. With Jayson Werth in the last year of his contract with a big winter of free agency looming, and the quickly aging Raul Ibanez finished with his current deal after the 2011 season, Brown isn’t going to have to wait too much longer.

But what could speed up the process is if the Phillies keep on struggling with the bats and must make a trade. What do they have to offer? Better yet, if teams know the Phillies are desperate and Amaro is pushing to make a trade, why would any self-respecting GM just make it easy for him?

If the Phillies are hurting and have very little leverage, opposing GMs are going to make them pay.

Back in March we suggested that it might not be a bad idea to shop Werth, which understandably, was greeted with more than a few folks sending messages asking if I had taken leave of my senses. I understood why folks were ripping me and accept that some of them might even make really good points.

But that doesn’t mean my logic was faulty.

Where Amaro has his best options is with Werth and Brown and there is a report out there that this theory is being tested. Knowing that Lee was traded over the winter so that Amaro could replenish the minor league system that saw seven of its top 10 players traded, maybe flipping Werth for some reinforcements is the best card the Phillies have.

Unless Ruben is hiding an ace somewhere.

Chooch gets the party started

Carlos Ruiz runs pretty well for a catcher. No, he’s not going to go from first to third on a single hit in front of the right fielder. He’s also not going to steal too many bags or stretch a double into a triple. That’s just not his game.

But Ruiz will always run full out even for something as simple as backing up first on a grounder to second. In fact, catching Ruiz in a forgetful state is a rarity. If he needs to be somewhere he will get there as quickly as possible.

That’s an important role on a team as good as the Phillies. After all, when the team clinches a spot in the playoffs or World Series, it needs someone like Ruiz to hustle to the mound in order to wrap up the pitcher into a bear hug. The best example of this was after Brad Lidge threw that slider past Eric Hinske to end the 2008 World Series. Not even a beat after the ball hit his glove, Ruiz was up and sprinting toward Lidge. Two steps into his dash, Ruiz flung his mask aside like he would if he were chasing down a foul pop behind the plate. A couple more steps and he had collided into Lidge’s arms seconds before Ryan Howard and the rest of the team buried him.

Ruiz is eerily consistent, too. After the Phillies sewed up the NLDS and NLCS in 2009, he was right there on top of Lidge by the time the last out was recorded. Certainly there’s rarely a time before the playoffs begin where a party starter like Ruiz is needed, however, because the Phillies have been so good lately the catcher has ironed out his routine pretty quickly. Undoubtedly, those abilities came in handy on Saturday night after Roy Halladay finished up his perfect game in Miami.

So when Ronny Paulino hit a sharp grounder to Juan Castro at third, Ruiz took a route to back up the play not too far from the base line so that when Howard picked the throw he could be a few steps closer to mob Halladay.

And just like in the postseason, Ruiz dashed toward his pitcher with his arms, eyes and mouth wide open. It’s almost as if any great moment can be officially complete for the Phillies unless there’s that shot of Ruiz running with unbridled joy bursting through the picture.

Just don’t take this as proof that Ruiz is some M.L. Carr type waving a towel and firing up the crowd, guess again. Not only could Ruiz get to an All-Star Game—thanks in part to all those sellouts at Citizens Bank Park—but he very well could be on the way to establishing himself as the best Phillies catcher ever.

OK, that’s a bit of bold line considering Ruiz is in his fourth full season in the majors with a .251 lifetime batting average and is already 31-years old. Actually, the fact that he even made it to the big leagues at all is a testament to his fortitude. Shifted to catcher even though he was signed as an infielder, Ruiz fought against himself and the position to succeed. As a result, he got the nickname, “Chooch,” because he used a derivation of that term as a self-insult to not be afraid of the ball when turning into a catcher.

Not only did a nickname emerge from the veritable trial by self-masochism in a mask, but also a really good catcher arrived, too. Initially, Ruiz was seen as a stop-gap or transitional backstop between Mike Lieberthal and some other guy. The problem with that idea was no other guy emerged. Sure, maybe someone will come along soon, but no time soon.

That means more Chooch… and that’s good.

So aside from his ability to get to the mound quickly, Ruiz is the catcher the Phils’ pitchers love to throw to. Watching Halladay in interviews after his perfect game, he was quick to give credit to his catcher.

“I can't say enough about the job that Ruiz did tonight, really," Halladay told reporters. I felt like he was calling a great game up until the fourth or fifth, and at that point, I just felt like I'd let him take over and go with him. He did a great job. Like I said, it was kind of a no-brainer for me. I'd just go out, see the glove and hit it."

It’s always big deal to Ruiz. Bullpen coach and catching instructor Mick Billmeyer says if there is one fault Ruiz has in his game it’s that he cares a lot. If a pitcher has a bad outing, Billmeyer says Ruiz looks at it as a reflection on him. Even when pitchers shake him off, Ruiz takes it seriously.

Indeed, he is a serious man. So much so that when asked which catcher he is most impressed with in the majors, Billmeyer's answer was quick and to the point.

"I like our guy," he said.

Now where does Ruiz rank amongst the past Phillies’ catchers? He doesn’t have as much experience as guys like Darren Daulton, Bob Boone, Andy Seminick, Clay Dalrymple and Lieberthal, but his career averages are just as good in most offensive categories. The difference is unlike Boone and Lieberthal, Ruiz doesn’t have a Gold Glove Award, but even there it’s just a matter of time.

Meanwhile, though Ruiz has been dealing with a sore shoulder he’s hitting this season like he usually does in the playoffs. Better yet, in 38 games Ruiz leads the league in pitches seen per plate appearance and is second in on-base percentage.

In other words, he’s a hitter now, too.

He’s a catcher first, though. When it comes to that, Ruiz spent the night after Halladay’s perfect game on the phone with his mother in Panama reliving the big night.

“It was special for me,” Ruiz told reporters.

That’s evident, and that’s a big reason why Ruiz has endeared himself to the Philly fans. He might not look like Johnny Bench back there, but he’s going to figure out how to get it done.

World Series: Damon's double steal all flash

PHILADELPHIA—Already they are saying it might be the most clutch play in recent World Series history. Strangely, that’s not just from the hyperbolic New York press who has the innate ability to turn even the most mediocre ballplayers into Hall of Famers.

No, the lauding of Johnny Damon’s one-man, one-pitch double steal has been pretty universal. All across the board the praise as appropriately reflected the proper bias. But make no mistake about it… it was a great play.

Actually, it was one of those plays where everything had to go perfectly. If Damon was going to steal second and pop up out of his slide and take off for third where no one was within 45 feet because of the defensive over-shift for Mark Teixeira, any deviation would have thwarted the play.

First, pitcher Brad Lidge and catcher Carlos Ruiz have to fail to cover third base. Secondly, the throw to second by Ruiz not only has to be fielded by Feliz, but if it is caught at the bag Damon can’t go anywhere. If Feliz thought to catch the ball at the base, there was no way Damon could have gone anywhere.

More importantly, if Ruiz had been able to hang on to a foul tip with two strikes on Damon during his nine-pitch, five-foul plate appearance, the inning would have ended. Instead, Damon lived to see another pitch and laced a single to left.

On pitch later he went from first to third on a steal(s).

Crazy, but smart.

But was it really necessary? Sure, Damon taking off for third was an aggressive, heads’ up play. If Lidge throws a wild pitch he could easily score the go ahead run from third base, but with Teixeira or Alex Rodriguez due up it wasn’t really necessary to take third other than as an insult.

In other words, it was flashy (and smart) but much ado about nothing. After all, Teixeira was plunked on the arm before A-Rod doubled home the go-ahead run. Without the hit, it doesn’t matter where Damon was standing.

At least that’s the way Charlie Manuel sees it.

“A-Rod got a big hit,” Charlie said. “Damon going to third base, only thing Damon did by going to third base, he put his team in a better position to maybe score a run by a fastball or a high chopper or something like that. But the big hit was A-Rod. A-Rod's hit was the big hit because it was two outs. They got the big hit, Rivera came in, shut us down, and they got the win. They've been doing that to us.”

So while us media types hyperventilate over Damon’s smart move, ask yourself if it would have been as big a deal if he was playing in the World Series for Tampa Bay.

The NLCS: No blowing it for the Phillies

Watching Carlos Ruiz take that wide turn around second base with his short legs moving as fast as he could make them go, the first thought (obviously) was, “Wow! They’re really going to win this thing.”

It was as dramatic a victory as there could be in a postseason game without a home run. Needless to say it immediately conjured remembrances Matt Stairs’ home run to beat the Dodgers and Jonathan Broxton in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS, too. That homer, off course, was the seminal moment of the 2008 postseason where we finally realized that, yes, the Phillies were going to go to the World Series and win it.

Those old feelings surfaced again last night as Jimmy Rollins circled the bases only to be tackled by Ryan Howard and the rest of the team when Chooch finally made it to home plate.

Unlike last year it’s much easier to put the Game 4 heroics in perspective because there is a frame of reference. We’ve seen this all before, which caused some of us to be less stunned than when Stairs hit his homer. Oh, it was dramatic alright, because, really, how many times does a team get to win such an important game?

Once in a lifetime, maybe, if the team is especially lucky or good? But never in back-to-back years in the same game of the championship series against the same pitcher, right?

Well, obviously these are not your father’s Phillies. Or you grandfather’s Phillies. There simply is no precedent for what we’re watching with this team.

Oh sure, in 1980 the Phillies had some pretty crazy comebacks. Take Game 5 of the NLCS, for instance. Back then the series was just a best-of-five so when Nolan Ryan took a three-run lead into the top of the eighth at the Astrodome, it didn’t look so good for the Phillies.

But Larry Bowa hit a single to open the inning. Bob Boone followed with another before Greg Gross beat out a bunt to load the bases. When Pete Rose walked to force home a run, the Astros turned to Joe Sambito and Ken Forsch to try and stave off more damage.

Two outs and a two-run single by Del Unser followed by a two-run triple from Manny Trillo and the Phillies went from four outs from elimination to holding a two-run lead with six outs to go.

Actually, Tug McGraw was four outs away in the eighth before the Astros rallied. It took a two-out double from Garry Maddox in the 10th to finally send the Phillies to the World Series.

OK, so maybe there is a precedent, but not one with an exclamation point or a moment that folks will talk about forever and ever. Make that two moments now. Stairs and Rollins linked by generations by stories fathers and grandfathers will pass down.

Indeed, that is unprecedented.

So the next thought that came after wrapping my head around what had just happened on the field when Rollins laced his game-winner into the gap, was, “OK, how are they going to blow this? Are the Phillies going to cough up three straight to the Dodgers or go belly up against the Angels or Yankees in the World Series?

“Would something like that just render the glory of Game 4 useless?”

Well, yeah… but it’s not going to happen. The days of epic failures and catchphrases like “1964!” are long buried in the attic of hazy memories like a sweater that doesn’t fit and has gone out of style.

The Phillies are going to the World Series again. They might even win it…

What, are you surprised?

And we will call him Theodore…

Or Teddy for short. Ted, which is even shorter.

Yep, the latest addition to the brood made his much-heralded appearance on Saturday morning (Friday night to others) at 2:41 a.m. This came after we arrived at the hospital on Thursday afternoon so that Ellen (my old lady) could be induced with a veritable cocktail of drugs aimed at tenderizing her cervix like an aged piece of Kobe beef.

After more than 25 hours of the midwife administering two different drugs three times like The Candy Man or that groovy purple dude from the psychedelic ‘70s cartoons who drove a microbus and wore high-heeled shoes and a hat with a long feather hanging from the side, they finally decided to go in and break her water. In the biz they call it “breaking the bag,” and when it was ruptured it sounded like a water balloon crashing onto the sidewalk.

Nevertheless, the bag breaking seemed to speed up the proceedings quite a bit and, interestingly enough, when someone says their water has been broken, there really is water… lots of water, in fact – all over the place, too.

Someone had to go and get a mop.

So we sat there in a room up to our ankles in water and caught some of the Carlos Ruiz’s dust-up with consummate sulker Marcus Giles, a whiner of such a high proportion that even baseball players say, “Yo, that dude always has the ass…”

That’s a bit of clubhouse jargon that the scribes lot to trot out amongst themselves and other so-called insiders in order to indicate that they are in the so-called club. It’s not quite a secret handshake, but it might get one into the lobby of the headquarters building.

Anyway, old pal Matt Yallof and I once had a not-too friendly conversation with whiner Giles back when he was playing for the Braves. If I recall correctly, Whiner was upset that Mark De Rosa got a start against a tough right-hander or something. Either way, we weren’t impressed, but then again, I doubt he was either.

You should have seen it the time we tried to chat with Josh Beckett about union issues a few years ago… (insert sarcasm font) what a prince!

After a brief nap and sitting around like we were at Yellowstone waiting for Old Faithful to blow, it was time to push. Well, I didn’t push. I just grabbed a leg and did my best to stay north of the equator. Needless to say it was the fastest, most intense 50 minutes of my life.

And in the end, a big boy (8 pounds, 4 ounces and 22 inches long) with an even bigger name slid out.

Fortunately, Teddy’s big brother Michael is extremely pleased with his new role and his little friend. Teddy’s mother is doing very well considering she pushed something the size of a watermelon out of a passage the width of a crazy straw. Somehow she carried it all out with much humor, panache and grace.

August 25: On this date

Hey, I told you so…

The idea this winter was that catcher Carlos Ruiz wasn’t quite ready to handle the intricacies of playing every day in the big leagues. So to help out the rookie backstop, the Phillies spent $3 million on Rod Barajas. But so far this season Barajas has struggled and his playing time has waned, while Ruiz is second amongst all rookies with 17 RBIs and fourth with 28 hits in just 98 at-bats heading into Thursday’s action.

Interestingly, the Phillies very easily could have had Ruiz and Chris Coste as the team’s catchers for the league minimum… or Mike Lieberthal for a third of Barajas’ salary.

So in our first installment of, “Hey, I told you so… ” Dennis Deitch of the Delaware County Daily Times offers a reprint of his story on the day the Phillies signed Barajas.

Phillies sign catcher Barajas
By DENNIS DEITCH

PHILADELPHIA – When Pat Burrell offered so little protection to Ryan Howard in the batting order that the eventual MVP couldn't get a pitch to hit, the Phillies turned to Jeff Conine, who offered some professionalism to the fifth spot in the batting order.

When Mike Lieberthal's injury-plagued career with the Phillies wound to an injury-plagued conclusion last season, Chris Coste filled the gap and hit .328, including .356 with runners in scoring position.

Conine and Coste received nifty Christmas presents from the Phillies Thursday for their 2006 efforts: Conine got a one-way ticket to Cincinnati, while Coste watched as Rod Barajas signed a one-year deal with the Phils to relegate last year's feel-good story to third-stringer.

Next up for Pat Gillick: A Christmas Eve reindeer hunt.

Actually, the Phillies' general manager isn't out to ruin the holidays for anyone – at least not purposely. But you have to wonder whether his personnel decisions in recent days are improving the Phillies.

According to Gillick, the signing of outfielder Jayson Werth Tuesday didn't leave much playing time for Conine in an outfield that includes Burrell and his disappearing act, Aaron Rowand and his well-worn Blue Cross/Blue Shield card, and Shane Victorino.

"We think we weren't going to be able to give Jeff the playing time we were a month ago, six weeks ago," Gillick said. "When Werth was completed, we thought the best plan for us was to move Jeff on. I know he wants playing time. Right now, we project Werth is going to get a majority of the playing time that Jeff had.

"We acquired a player who can do similar things. I'd say that at this point, Werth is a better option."

Hmm. That guy who does similar things is the same Werth who didn't play a game in 2005; who has had two surgeries to correct a wrist injury suffered 21 months ago and admittedly isn't completely healed; who has a shade over 800 big-league plate appearances and a career .245 average, compared to Conine and his 7,500 plate appearances and .286 lifetime average.

At least the Phils got a pair of underwhelming prospects in return – a no-bat third baseman named Brad Key, and outfielder Javon Moran, who originally started in the Phillies' organization, but was traded to Cincy for Cory Lidle in 2004.

"It was a little bit of a surprise a couple of days before Christmas to get the call from Pat Gillick," "Obviously I didn't have a long tenure there in Philadelphia."

As for Barajas, he received a $2.5 million contract from the Phils for 2007, with a team option for 2008. Barajas started about two-thirds of the games behind the plate for the Rangers over the last three seasons and averaged 16 homers and 53 RBIs per year in that span while batting a lukewarm .252.

It should be noted that Barajas put up those numbers in the American League, where the No. 9 hitter in the lineup often sees a healthy dose of fastballs. That particularly was the case for Barajas, who was hitting in front of players like Gary Matthews Jr., David Dellucci and Michael Young while in Texas.

There was some controversy when Barajas changed agents after some reports had him reaching a verbal agreement with the Blue Jays last month.

"I wanted to the right fit for me," Barajas said. "This feels completely right."

According to the Phillies, Barajas and Carlos Ruiz will share time behind the plate, with performance determining which catcher makes the majority of starts.

So, does Coste at least have a spot on the club as a bench player solidified?

"I can't use the word solidify," Gillick said. "We still need a left-handed hitter. The fact that Werth can catch some … there's some flexibility there. If we acquire a left-handed hitter, someone could be in jeopardy."

Hard to believe a guy who hit .328 who showed a knack for clutch hitting and delivering in the pinch might be at peril … but so says Gillick.

When it comes to protecting Howard in the order next season, Gillick said, "If we don't get another hitter, we'll probably make an internal adjustment to back up Ryan."