Werth is determined, not bitter

WASHINGTON — Let’s not get it twisted, Jayson Werth is not bitter. Who gets bitter about signing a $126 million, no-trade contract? In this economy and with the unemployment rate near 10 percent, Werth can work for seven more years before cashing out. In fact, with the right money manager, Werth’s young children can retire, too.

Bitter? C’mon… he’s not stupid. Early on during the 2010 season Werth told us he was going to test the free-agent market and go for the best deal out there and that’s exactly what he did. Werth wanted to get paid like his former teammates Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Roy Halladay and the rest of the players on the Phillies who were taken care of by management. Instead, he had to go somewhere else for that big contract.

The Phillies reportedly had just a three-year deal worth $16 million per season for him when Werth hit the open market.

Nevertheless, Werth is also a pretty competitive dude. No one gets to the big leagues and slugs 13 postseason home runs by accident or by tricking people. Moreover, not many ballplayers accomplish what Werth has so soon after his career was nearly over.

So if you want to know what this is all about, it’s the injury. It’s the sitting at home during the 2006 season with nobody knocking at the door or ringing the phone. It’s about the misdiagnosis of a wrist injury that forced Werth out of desperation to trudge up to Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic with one last chance to save his career. A person can almost hear music in Werth’s voice when he describes how specialist Dr. Richard Berger figured out the injury was a ulnotriquetral ligament split.

He hasn’t been the same since.

Yes, that’s why Werth took the seven years from lowly Washington instead of the three from Philadelphia.

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this,” Werth said. “Obviously the years were important to me. The chance to come to a city, guaranteed to be here for a long time, the no-trade was a big deal for me. I have a chance to set my family up for years to come here.”

It’s hard to fault a guy for thinking like that. However, Werth is not without his pride. Baseball is his job for goshsakes. Sure it’s fun and a remarkable way to make an obscene amount of money, but Werth isn’t messing around out there. He wants to perform well, win games and celebrate at the end of the season. Looking for examples? OK, how about when he hit that home run against the Yankees in the World Series at the Bank, slammed his bat down and yelled into the Phillies’ dugout?

Or what about Game 4 of the 2008 World Series when Werth hit a homer in the eighth inning and circled the bases with a fist in the air. He looked as if he could feel the championship ring being placed on his finger right then. Of course there was that incident with the kid and his father in right field last year, too… didn’t they know Werth thought he could stretch into the stands beyond his reach to catch a foul ball? Didn’t they know ballplayers use those types of words when things don’t go their way?

If anything, the pride aspect of Werth’s personality is what makes the move to Washington puzzling even when factoring in the $126 million. That’s especially so when listening to him speak on Wednesday afternoon at his new ballpark.

“I’ve been in the postseason a lot the last couple of years,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about. That’s what you play for. That’s what you work out for. That's what you get to spring training early for. I hate to lose. I’m here to win.”

That task didn’t seem so daunting when Werth first signed the deal. After all, the Phillies were basically the same team that fell short in 2010 minus their everyday right fielder. Then the Cliff Lee thing happened and everything changed.

“They got their boy back, I guess,” Werth said. 

Yes they did and it wasn’t Jayson Werth. Instead he was allowed to run off much like Aaron Rowand, a player who signed with San Francisco for a lot of years and a lot of dollars because the view from management was that his stats were enhanced by Citizens Bank Park and the Phillies’ lineup. Maybe that’s where the twinge of bitterness might come in for Werth.

No, he wasn’t double-crossed, but he wasn’t really needed, either.

That’s not the case in Washington, though. Instead, GM Mike Rizzo submitted on nearly every point to Werth and his agent Scott Boras. From the Nats, Werth got big money, a huge length of the contract and a no-trade clause on top of it all with promises of more players to come. Actually, the undercurrent from the Nats’ view was that Werth was the first one onboard and the one who gives them credibility with other potential ballplayers.

That’s the sense “No Discounts” Boras gets, too.

“When Jayson signed, the first thing (players) all asked me was, ‘Oh, so Washington's stepping up? They’re taking those steps? They’re looking to win now?’” Boras said. “In the player community, when you gain that kind of street credit, you have taken a huge step as far as what players will look at your organization, and how they’ll look at it differently.”

It’s not going to happen overnight, though, but Werth hammered home the theme that promises were made.

“The thing about this team is, I think there's some pieces of the puzzle that could be put together and make this team a winner,” Werth said. “I was assured by the Lerner family and Mike Rizzo that they’re going to take steps needed to go get those players and fill the roster accordingly—not with just anybody, but the right-talented guy and the right mix, the person that will make the clubhouse a good place. That was important to me, and that was one of the things that led me to sign here.”

No, that doesn’t sound like a bitter guy at all. Actually, it sounds like a guy with a lot of pride and a hunger to lift the Nats to the top of the standings.

“He doesn’t like losing. I certainly don’t like losing,” Rizzo said. “My job is to put a winner on the field, and we’re hell-bent on doing that.”

It’s not going to be easy, though. After all, Jayson Werth can’t pitch.

Nationals go familiar route, but can Werth lead the way?

Stick around baseball long enough and you’re bound to hear something new every once in a while. That is the beauty of it, after all. Nothing stays the same, which is good because it chases away the boredom. Still, it was a remarkable thing to hear some of things Roy Halladay said just about a year ago.

“This is where we wanted to be,” Halladay said during last December’s introductory press conference at Citizens Bank Park. “It was an easy decision for me.”

Halladay just didn’t say it that one time either. Oh yes, the big right-hander made it point to drive home his point that more than anywhere else, he wanted to be in Philadelphia.

My, how far we have come.

“He did say that his was the place where he wanted to be,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. pointed out the day the Halladay trade went down. “A player of his caliber saying that? I’m not sure [if that’s happened].”

Remember how it used to be, though? Ballplayers used to go out of their way to avoid our fair city. Some even had it written into their contracts that they could be traded anywhere in the world as long as it wasn’t to Philadelphia. Then there was J.D. Drew and Scott Rolen, for whatever reasons, needed to play anywhere else. In fact, with Rolen it was turned into something personal instead of what it really was…

He was sick of losing.

But even Rolen admitted that in order for the Phillies to get to the level they enjoy now where players like Roy Halladay beg to be sent here, he was the one who had to go. See, before the 2002 season then general manager Ed Wade reportedly offered Rolen a deal that he would still be playing out. Oh sure, with Rolen at third base and healthy, the Phillies never would have had David Bell, Wes Helms, Abraham Nunez, Pedro Feliz or Placido Polanco. Chances are they would be trying to find someone take the last few years of the 10-year, $140 million that was said to be offered.

See, it was OK that the Phillies had a veritable revolving door at third base because that meant players had changed their minds about going to Philadelphia. Plus, 10-year contract aside, if Rolen had taken the deal, he said.

“If I would have stayed there, there was no way they would have gotten Thome,” Rolen told me during a conversation at old Yankee Stadium in 2003. “They might have been able to get [Kevin] Millwood, but there's no way they would have been able to have Thome and me on the same team.”

Jim Thome was the linchpin. Without Thome there is no Cliff Lee or Pedro Martinez. Without Cliff Lee there is no Roy Halladay. Without Rolen, Bobby Abreu and those not-quite-ready ball players, the Phillies don’t get the draft picks for Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell or Ryan Howard.

Still, it was Thome who made all the difference… Thome and that crazy six-year deal worth $85 million that just came off the books last year.

“We needed to do something at the time,” Rollins said. “He brought excitement back to Philly baseball.”

More than that, Thome was the secret to the formula. Getting the future Hall of Famer to agree to a six-year deal even though he would have preferred to stay in Cleveland sent a message to the rest of baseball that the Phillies were serious about being serious. Sure, it might have been the best contract, but that $85 million looks pretty cheap these days.

“At that point he was the most-coveted and the best player during the off-season and we really made a push to get him to Philadelphia,” Amaro said last December. “I really believe, honestly, that put us over the hump.”

Yes, getting that one player can have a trickle-down effect. It’s like a snowball that rolls downhill and turns into a runaway behemoth by the time it gets to the bottom.

“He came at kind of the right time for all our kids," Amaro said. “The Rollinses and Utleys and those guys weren’t quite coming into their prime and we’re fortunate to have those guys, with Ryan Howard, step up and come into their own. … All those guys didn’t get to their primes until after Jimmy was gone, but he certainly helped legitimize what we were trying to do.”

So is that what the Washington Nationals are attempting to do with Jayson Werth? No doubt the seven years and $126 million makes the Thome deal look like tip money, but is Werth the kind of guy a team uses to draw the others to town?

That is the $126 million question.

Let’s get it out of the way right here… Jayson Werth is no Jim Thome. Not even close. Sure, Werth is popular with the stat geeks and is certainly a better fielder than Thome was, but as far as the whole package goes, no, not in the same ballpark. Thome is revered by teammates, coaches and the press. He is a leader whose words carry weight in the clubhouse. Werth is an acquired taste. Sure, he’s a tireless worker and has a lot of friends in the clubhouse, but in certain circles he can be merely tolerated.

Jayson Werth is a piece teams like the Phillies add, not a centerpiece to be built around like the Nationals say they are going to do.

“He’ll be a centerpiece of our ballclub on the field and in the clubhouse,” Nats GM Mike Rizzo said to The Washington Post. “It kind of exemplifies Phase 2 of the Washington Nationals’ process. Phase 1 was a scouting-and-player development, build-the-farm-system type of program. We feel that we’re well on our way of doing that. We feel that now, it's the time to go to this second phase and really compete for division titles and championships.”

Rizzo isn’t laying out an unfamiliar program. In fact, it is the program to build a winning team. It’s the same one the Phillies relied on many times in their history, like when they got Thome or Pete Rose before the 1979 season. Not only were they deals that resonated in terms of the finances (Rose got $3.2 million for four years), but they changed the way everyone saw the franchise.

They changed the culture of the organization.

Werth is doing that in Washington, but he’s not going to be able to do it all by himself. Ryan Zimmerman will be by Werth’s side until at least 2013, and ace of the future Stephen Strasburg should be recovered from Tommy John surgery in time for the 2012 season. The ETA on last summer’s top pick of the draft, Bryce Harper, could be 2012, too. But there are still many question marks that go with prospects. If Werth is going to be what the Nats expect, the Lerner family (owners of the club) need to spend some more cash.

Werth’s close friend Cliff Lee would be a good place to start.

“I think in a short time, we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” Werth told The Washington Post. “I’ve been given a lot of assurance by the Lerner family and by Mike that we’re going to go after some guys that are going to make a difference, that are going to put this team where it needs to be. . . . I came here to win.”

Hey, maybe Werth is the man to build a club around. Why not? He's a young 31, a former first-round pick who has been to the top of the game with the Phillies and nearly quit a few years ago when he was unsure if his injuries would clear up. He's from a baseball family in which his grandfather and uncle spent a combined 33 years in the majors, and his dad played 11 pro seasons with a cup of coffee with the Yankees and Royals in the early 1980s. Yes, Werth has a baseball education, but can he pass it on?

Give Rizzo, the Lerners and the Nats credit for taking big risks. After all, there is a chance Strasburg never comes back at all and playing in a city that is rather ambivalent about its third crack at a big league franchise, the future of the team very well could be on the precipice.

Think about it… Washington is a two-time loser in baseball, yet when the Expos where no longer right for Montreal, MLB insisted on giving the city a third shot. Worse, they stuck it to the overburdened taxpayers of D.C. and forced them to build a ballpark that no one goes to. So yes, there is plenty of culture to change for Werth and his young sidekicks.

The future of the team could depend on it because Washington could be a three-time loser with baseball with a guarantee that there will not be a fourth chance.

Nats pay what others wouldn't to ink Werth

To properly understand the deal that sent Jayson Werth to the lowly Washington Nationals after spending the past five of his last six seasons in the playoffs, there is only one number that matters.

Seven.

That’s seven years with $126 million tied to it for a player who has been in one All-Star Game as an injury substitute and played just two seasons as an everyday player. In fact, it wasn’t until veteran Geoff Jenkins got injured that Werth finally got a shot to be the starting right fielder for the Phillies.

Now, he’s the centerpiece of the Nationals' offense after the team’s brass decided to let slugger Adam Dunn take a four-year, $56 million deal with the Chicago White Sox. Dunn, in comparison, has belted at least 38 home runs and driven in 92 RBIs for seven straight seasons. Moreover, Dunn is a 10-year vet who is actually younger than Werth.

So just what is it that general manager Mike Rizzo and the Nationals are trying to do? Or, is this the type of deal that solidifies Scott Boras as the agent most able to deliver the bottom line? More importantly, what’s the difference between a three year deal worth $16 million per season like the one CSNPhilly’s Jim Salisbury reported, and the $18 million Werth will get from the Nationals?

Surely those playoff shares make up the difference along with the idea of building a legacy as one of the few men to help the Phillies win the World Series.

Still, $126 million for seven years. Seven years!

“It is an elite player,” Rizzo said at a news conference from the Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. “Elite players get a lot of money.”

In that regard, Werth and Rizzo are both shortsighted. After all, Werth isn’t exactly an elite player. At least he is not compared to Matt Holliday, whose contract with the Cardinals served as a model for the one Boras and Werth sought. Sure, Werth had strong numbers in categories favored by devotees to advanced metrics, posting a .921 OPS, .532 slugging percentage, .296 batting average and led the league with 46 doubles. But those numbers seemed to ring hollow. In 2010, Werth was incredibly streaky and certainly benefitted from batting behind Ryan Howard in the Phillies’ lineup.

Despite a favorable spot in the batting order, Werth hit a league-worst .186 with runners in scoring position and .136 with runners in scoring position and two outs. As a result, Werth was the poster boy of a July slump that saw the Phillies sink to 48-46 and fire hitting coach Milt Thompson. During a four-game series in Chicago to start the second half, Werth went 2-for-14 with nine strikeouts. He whiffed without even moving the bat off his shoulder in five of his first seven hitless at-bats.

Regardless, who would have thought Werth would be in this position when general manager Pat Gillick plunked him off the scrap heap before the 2007 season? When Gillick signed him in December of 2006, it was a move that slipped under the radar. The acquisitions of Abraham Nunez and Wes Helms rightfully made more news that winter.

Werth did nothing to change that in 2007 when he nursed injuries and appeared in just 94 games after missing all of 2006. Shane Victorino, a former teammate of Werth’s with the Dodgers and Phillies, remembered talking to Werth during his season spent adrift where the talk was about giving up.

“I remember him calling me in 2006 and telling, ‘Hey, I’m on a boat and I’m battling my wrist injury and it hasn’t gotten better and I don’t know if I’ll ever play again.’ He said that. That’s crazy,” Victorino said. “He was so frustrated with his wrist injury that he doubted it would ever get better. And now to see where he is today, I’m happy for the guy. I’m overly happy for the guy. Whatever he goes out and gets he deserves.”

Of course, that’s the player in Victorino talking. Rival general managers around the league are undoubtedly shaking their heads at the Nationals’ largesse. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, new Mets GM Sandy Alderson scoffed at the announcement.

“It makes some of our contracts look pretty good,” Alderson said. “That's a long time and a lot of money. I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington.”

Moreover, deep-pocketed teams like the Yankees and Red Sox quickly backed away from pursuit of Werth when they learned what he and Boras were after.

Perhaps it was postseason abilities that got Werth the big cheese? After all, in 2008 Werth was so good during the playoffs the Phillies let Pat Burrell walk away because they had a capable right-handed bat to put in the lineup behind Howard and Utley.

 Then, when doubters wondered if he could handle the rigors of playing the full slate of games in 2009, he belted 36 homers, got 99 RBIs and made the All-Star team.

“When he first came here, he came here with a lot of talent. Pat Gillick always liked him, and he definitely was the one that kind of like wanted him and kind of persuaded him to like to come with us,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “It took him a while to really, I think, adjust to our team and really kind of get things going. I think that he was like he needed to play. He hadn't played in like a year, year and a half or something. And once he got started, he earned a spot and he actually beat Geoff Jenkins out of right field. He earned a spot to play, and he definitely enjoys playing here. He’s been a solid player for us, and he's got a ton of ability.”

Certainly postseason ability probably won’t matter in 2011 since Werth is joining a young team that rated in the bottom half in the league of every offensive category and just allowed a younger, perennial 40-homer slugger walk away. Worse, Werth joins a team that hasn’t had a winning season since 2003, when it was playing in Montreal, in a city that has not fielded a baseball team with a winning record since 1969.

The last World Series played in Washington, D.C. was 1933 when the first version of the Senators lost to the New York Giants. The city had a winner in 1924 when Walter Johnson came on in relief to beat the Giants in 12 innings of Game 7.

Then again, a lot can change in seven years. Back when the Phillies were battling mediocrity, it took a six-year, $86 million deal to Jim Thome to get folks to take them seriously. Plus, with phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg expected to return from Tommy John surgery in 2012, a season that could be the arrival time for 2010 No. 1 draft pick Bryce Harper, the Nats could be building toward something.

Whether they get there with Werth, of course, is the big question. 

Have the Phillies seen the last of Jayson Werth?

Ed. Note: This story has been revised from its original form from Saturday night.

Jayson Werth didn’t think it would end this way. Not with these guys, on this team. This was supposed to be the glory stretch where he celebrated one more time with his friends and teammates in the place where it all came together for him.

But Jayson Werth is a star now. The Phillies helped make him one, of course, but in doing so it might have made re-signing him much too cost prohibitive. Baseball players put in all the hard work and lonely evenings in the weight room and batting cage for the winter where they can test the open market. Werth is no different from most ballplayers in this regard.

After this winter, with the help from super-agent Scott Boras, Werth will be set up for the rest of his life. His children will probably be set up for the rest of their lives, too. That’s the reality. That’s why Werth made sure not to waste his big chance in Philadelphia where general manager Pat Gillick picked him up from the scrap heap when the Dodgers were too impatient in waiting for his injuries to heal.

When he was cut by the Dodgers, Werth didn’t know if he would ever play again or if any team would want him.

Now he’s so good that the Phillies probably can’t afford to keep him.

"I haven't had any discussions with Scott [Boras] yet," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "I obviously will over the next 48 hours, we will make contact. I guess the following question is, do we have enough money to do it? And would we like to bring him back? I think the answer to both questions is yes. However, that will all kind of depend on what the ask is and ultimately how that will affect us with other possible moves to do it."

That was a popular sentiment in the Phillies’ clubhouse after the 3-2 loss in Game 6 to eliminate the Phillies two games short of a third straight trip to the World Series. Certainly the players know the reality of Werth’s situation and how the business of baseball works, but they also understand the dynamics of the team’s clubhouse, too. It’s not easy to do what the Phillies have done over the last few years and Werth has been a big part of that. Before the NLCS began, Werth talked about the bitterness he had from losing in the World Series to the Yankees and how “empty” he felt and how that surprised him.

In a sense, it seems as if there is some unfinished work left in Philadelphia for Werth. It’s as if he is part of a nucleus of players like Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, and the powerful pitching staff that got together to build a strong foundation on a house, only they haven’t put a roof on it.

Who would have thought that when the Phillies signed Werth before the 2007 season that it would come to this? When Gillick signed him in December of 2006, it was a move that slipped under the radar. The acquisitions of Abraham Nunez and Wes Helms made more news that winter.

Then, Werth was injured much of the 2007 season, appearing in just 94 games after missing the entire 2006 season with a wrist injury. But by the end of the 2008 season, Werth was an everyday player. He answered every question and rose to every challenge. Werth was so good during the playoffs in ’08 that the Phillies knew they could let Pat Burrell walk away because they had a capable right-handed bat to put in the lineup behind Howard and Utley.

When doubters wondered if he could handle the rigors of playing the full slate of games in 2009, he belted 36 homers, got 99 RBIs and made the All-Star team. Moreover, he’ll leave as the franchise’s all-time leader in postseason home runs with 13, including two in the NLCS.

 “When he first came here, he came here with a lot of talent. Pat Gillick always liked him, and he definitely was the one that kind of like wanted him and kind of persuaded him to like to come with us,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “It took him a while to really, I think, adjust to our team and really kind of get things going. I think that he was like he needed to play. He hadn't played in like a year, year and a half or something. And once he got started, he earned a spot and he actually beat Geoff Jenkins out of right field. He earned a spot to play, and he definitely enjoys playing here. He’s been a solid player for us, and he's got a ton of ability.”

This past season he lead the league in doubles and posted career-highs in runs (106), batting average (.296), slugging (.532) and OPS (.921). Gone are the questions about whether Werth can play every day. Now folks wonder which team is going to break the bank and pay him.

Victorino, another player let go by the Dodgers that the Phillies snagged up, marvels at how far his friend has come.

“I remember him calling me in 2006 and telling, ‘Hey, I’m on a boat and I’m battling my wrist injury and it hasn’t gotten better and I don’t know if I’ll ever play again.’ He said that. That’s crazy,” Victorino said. “He was so frustrated with his wrist injury that he doubted it would ever get better. And now to see where he is today, I’m happy for the guy. I’m overly happy for the guy. Whatever he goes out and gets he deserves.”

The numbers are definitely there for Werth and there are a few teams that have the cash to spend that the Phillies probably won’t. The Yankees and Red Sox will probably make a presentation. So too will the Cubs and Angels.

The Phillies? They already have more than $143 million committed to 18 players, which is more than they spent for the entire roster in 2010. Joining Werth in free agency are Jose Contreras, Chad Durbin, Mike Sweeney and Jamie Moyer. Plus, Ben Francisco, Kyle Kendrick and Greg Dobbs are eligible for arbitration. Come 2012, Ryan Madson and Rollins are free agents and Cole Hamels will be eligible for arbitration.

With a handful of roster spots to fill and up-and-comers like Dom Brown ready to for their chance, Werth’s last at-bat for the Phillies was probably a strikeout against Tim Lincecum in the eighth inning, Saturday night.

“We all want what we think we should get, but sometimes you go into free agency and play somewhere I don’t want, or do you want to go somewhere like Philly?” Victorino said. “Jayson is loved here. I’m not him and I know what goes on and I was an acquisition that could have gone year-to-year and held out. But I looked at the big picture. I wanted to play in a city where I was loved and where the people are behind me.

“Jayson is in a different place than me because he hasn’t gotten anything yet. So I’m happy for him and whatever he gets he deserves.”

How much that will be seems open for debate. Amaro clearly isn't going to break the bank for Werth when the negotiations begin.

"Jayson had a good year," Amaro said. "It wasn't an extraordinary year. He had a tough time with men on in scoring position. It wasn't as productive a year as he's had in the past. But I think if he's not with us, there are players we can either acquire or are in our own organization that can help us."

Werth didn’t seem ready for it to end. When Juan Uribe’s eighth-inning home run barely cleared the right-field fence and dropped into the first row of seats, Werth stared at the spot where the ball disappeared in disbelief for what felt like hours.

It’s was as if by staring he could add another foot to the top of the fence.

When it finally ended, Werth didn’t want to leave. He was one of the last guys to walk into the clubhouse and change into a yellow t-shirt with his black cap turned backwards on his iconic hairstyle. He informed the media that he would talk later in the week and slowly made his exit, taking time to hug some of his soon-to-be ex-teammates. Ross Gload wrote down Werth’s e-mail address and as he walked through the clubhouse exit for the last time, he heard words from Gload that will make Phillies’ fans cringe…

“Don’t let those Yankees boss you around.”

If only it were that easy. There will be a lot of talking before Werth settles on his new team and understands that it probably won't be as much fun as it was with the Phillies the past four years. 

So when asked if there was the one thing that would tip the scales in favor for Philly if everything else was close, the answer was easy for Werth.

"Teammates," he said.

Was Scott Boras listening?

Werth, Howard know that experience matters

When Jayson Werth got home after last season’s World Series, he didn’t expect to feel the way he did. Sure, losing the World Series to the Yankees is never easy and it would seem that winning it all one year and then falling short in six games the next would temper some of the disappointment, but Werth says he was actually surprised at how emotional he felt.

Granted, Werth didn’t have any expectations of what losing the World Series is supposed to feel like, but when it actually happened it was like a punch in the jaw.

“Looking back I might be a little surprised about the emptiness, but it’s not like I’m sitting around and thinking about, ‘what if, what if,’” Werth explained. “We just have to get out there and start playing. It’s the stuff that comes after—the emotions.”

Perched at a table in a parking lot turned conference hall, Werth went over what he went through during the off-season and how that has shaped the team’s goals for this season and the playoffs. With Game 1 of the NLCS against the Giants set to begin on Saturday night at the Bank, Werth and the Phillies are getting closer to where they want to be, but know all too well how much work remains.

For some reason Werth and his teammate Ryan Howard understand that their experiences have hardened their focus on the current task. They are ready for anything and everything that comes their way. But mostly Werth wants to avoid that emptiness again.

“When I look back to last offseason, I got home and I had a sour taste in my mouth,” Werth said on Friday afternoon. “I definitely have always been the type of person who wants to win and hates to lose, so it probably started last winter. You take a few weeks off and you start to work out and everything hurts and you feel like you haven’t worked out in a couple of years, you slowly build up and you get to spring training and you get ready to go at it again, but the thoughts of all your accomplishments and non-accomplishments are very fresh.

“At the start of the year I definitely had a goal in mind and here we are many months later with a chance to see those goals through with a chance to succeed on the grand stage. It’s an exciting time, but at the same time your ability to focus goes way up and the end result is so near and so close—we’re not many games away. It has a lot to do with a lot of things. You wake up in the morning and you know why you’re going to the ballpark, you know why you’re out there practicing, and you have a sense of what’s going on maybe more than a lot of people realize.

“The old saying that we live for this, I guess it holds true.”

That’s where Werth and the Howard believe the Phillies have an advantage. Experience, especially playoff experience, cannot be measured. Sure, there have been some inexperienced teams that won the World Series, but those runs rarely last more than a season or two. And yes, some seasoned baseball men will tell you that experience rarely supersedes talent or luck, but in the same breath they will explain how it’s the greatest intangible.

The Phillies are loaded with experience. In fact, Werth, Howard, Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz have started 35 straight playoff games together. They have been through it all… together.

Oh sure, the Giants have six players with World Series rings, including Edgar Renteria who ended Game 7 of the 1997 World Series with a walk-off single in the 12^th inning, and Pat Burrell whose long double set the table for the Phillies’ clinching victory in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series. But the Giants also have 16 players who are advancing past the first round for the very first time.

“Each year you learn a little bit more—you grow. Starting in 2007 we didn’t know what to expect so we were the new guys, but once we made it again in 2008 we knew what to expect,” Howard said. “We stayed focused and we knew what we wanted to accomplish. From 2008 to 2009, we wanted to do it again and we got there, but fell short.

“Now we’ve seen all the different aspects of it from just getting there, to getting there and getting on top, to getting there and coming up short.”

Losing to the Yankees last year after setting the record for most strikeouts in the history of the World Series bothers Howard. He doesn’t like talking about failure. Never did. Then again, most ballplayers are like that, which is why Werth describing his disappointment at losing last year is significant. When it all came to a close at Yankee Stadium last November, Werth, Howard and their teammates said all the right things. They built a convincing façade that hid the reality that the defeat stung as bad as it did.

Hell, word around the clubhouse after Game 6 was that Werth announced there were 100 days to spring training during the team’s final gathering for a post-game beer.

At the same time, the Phillies would trade that experience for anything. There’s something about calloused and hardened focus that can push a guy. As one Phillie likes to say, quoting a buddy in the Marines, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

Yes, experience matters.

“It helps. It definitely does. If you look back at 2007 when we first got into the playoffs we went up against a buzz saw team in the Rockies and we didn’t fare too well. I think experience had something to do with that,” Werth said. “The next year we go to Milwaukee and the first game there—that first night in Milwaukee—it was louder than any place I’ve ever been and it affected us. We were shell shocked a little bit and we lost that game and then the next night we came out and it was just as loud, and it had no affect on us.

“We’re in our fourth year of the postseason now and there’s definitely something to be said for postseason experiences and all that going forward.”

Said Howard: “Being there. Being in those situations from before. We don’t panic. We’ve been in these situations before so we’re not going to panic. We’ve been up, we’ve been down and had to come back. We’ve seen it all.”

That’s what the Phillies are clinging to. Even going up against Tim Lincecum, who threw a magnificent, two-hit, 14-strikeout shutout against the Braves in his playoff debut hasn’t fazed the Phillies. They know Lincecum and respect him.

But then again every pitcher this time of the year is dangerous. All of them. The Dodgers were supposed to have the pitching staff and deep bullpen that was going to outlast the Phillies in 2008 and 2009, but it just didn’t happen that way. Both times the Phillies won in five games.

“We’ve seen him quite a bit. We know what he’s featuring and what to expect,” Werth said about Lincecum, but then again...

“We’ve seen some pretty good pitching over the years,” he added. “When you get to this level they’re all pretty good. We’ve been here before and with the experience we’ve had it definitely helped us along the way.”

A veteran and tested playoff club, the Phillies can’t wait to get started. They want to get back to work.

“I’m feeling good, I’m feeling alright. I’m excited for tomorrow night,” Howard said.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to rhyme. That was my Muhammad Ali moment.”

The Big Red Machine of the 21st Century

Baby boomers selling you rumors of their history
Forcing youth away from the truth of what's real today
The kids of today should defend themselves against the ‘70s

-          Mike Watt, “Against the ‘70s”

CINCINNATI — We’re getting closer to a definitive answer. If we are led to believe anything after three games of the NLDS, it’s that the Phillies have the pitching to win the World Series. In fact, the Phillies pitching is so good it doesn’t even matter if they don’t hit a lick.

The Phillies didn’t hit a little bit in the NLDS and cruised to the sweep, but does that tell us how good they are? If there is one question we came looking for during the first round of the playoffs it was that one.

Really, how good are the Phillies?

OK, that’s a loaded question because, obviously the team is good enough to win it all. However, because we are at the point in this era of the Phillies’ Golden Age that nothing less than a World Series title will suffice, we have to think of the question in the historical sense. In that regard there are two measuring sticks for National League teams—the 1940s St. Louis Cardinals and the Big Red Machine of the 1970s.

The Cardinals were the last National League team to go to the World Series three seasons in a row. From 1942 to 1944, the Cardinals won the World Series twice and added a third title in 1946. With Stan Musial, perhaps the greatest hitter in history[1], the Cardinals are the benchmark for which all National League teams should be measured. Sure, the Dodgers of the 1950s and 1960 were juggernauts, as were the Braves teams that won 14 straight division titles. But the Cardinals won three titles in five seasons.

The Phillies should equal the Cardinals three straight trips to the World Series this season, but the team they are most compared to are the Reds.

The Big Red Machine sprang to life in 1970 when they lost the World Series to the Orioles. They lost it again in 1972 to the Oakland A’s, fell short in the NLCS in 1973 and 1979, but came through with back-to-back titles in 1975 and 1976. No National League team has won back-to-back titles since and only the 1921-22 New York Giants and 1907-08 Chicago Cubs have won two World Series in a row from the senior circuit.

So, are the Phillies as good as The Big Red Machine? It probably won’t be a question that truly gets answered with some authority until after the World Series, but make no mistake that folks are talking about it. In fact, resident team baseball historian Jimmy Rollins had called his group The Little Red Machine as a homage to the Reds and gave a nod to both team’s power hitters and speed games. Both teams also had strong bullpens and played great defense with multiple Gold Glovers on both clubs.

Fortunately there are a lot of guys around from the days who both covered and played for The Big Red Machine. In fact, 1976 MVP Joe Morgan attended all three games of the NLDS with Reds’ GM Walt Jocketty and said that the comparisons are fair.

“If you're a good team, you’re a good team,” Morgan said. “You’re supposed to win. That’s the way you look at it. The experience doesn’t really factor into it. When I was with the Reds, we saw ourselves as the best team, so we felt like we were supposed to win.”

Listening to their words and watching the body language at Great America Ball Park for Game 3 on Sunday night, it was clear that the Phillies believe they are the best team in the league. It’s a cliché, but the Phillies have an aura and an intimidation factor that often overwhelms teams. During pregame stretch before the Reds finished up their BP rounds, Phillies’ players stood along the baseline and watched the opponents go through their paces. Typically, teams tend to quietly go about their business and ignore the other team, but the Phillies seem to be staring them down like a basketball team settling on the half court line while the opposition goes through its lay-up line.

Maybe the intent isn’t to intimidate, but these Phillies have a definite swagger. Sure, they are pretty good guys who enjoy being together, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some cockiness when they step on the field.

“With our pitching and our lineup, we match up well against anybody,” Jayson Werth said. “We feel confident whoever we face the rest of the way. Don't get me wrong—we still have to play the games and win them, but we are where we need to be.”

Listening to Morgan speak about the Reds of his day, the sentiment is exactly the same.

“If you think you have the best team, then you have blinders on and you just go play,” Morgan said. “You don’t care who you’re playing. Now, if you’re the 1927 Yankees, and you know [as the opponent] that they have the best team, then you have to have a different approach.”

The consensus amongst some of the old-timers who watched the Reds play and were at the ballpark to cover the series break it down this way… The Big Red Machine had better hitters, but the 2010 Phillies have better pitching.

And pitching wins, right?

Then again, the Reds lineup had Hall-of-Famers Johnny Bench, arguably the greatest catcher ever; Morgan, arguably the greatest second baseman ever; and Tony Perez, a veritable RBI machine and the leader of the club.

But don’t forget Pete Rose, the all-time hit king and bona fide Hall-of-Famer if his lifetime suspension hadn’t fouled things up. Don’t forget guys like Davey Concepcion, the best shortstop in the National League before Ozzie Smith’s emergence; Ken Griffey Sr., a three-time All-Star; slugger George Foster, the one-time owner of the record for most homers in a season by a National League player; and Cesar Geronimo, a four-time Gold Glove Award winner and a .306 hitter in 1976.

Obviously it’s tough to counter a starting pitching staff made up of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, and the Reds didn’t have a standout ace until they traded for Tom Seaver in 1978. However, in winning 102 games in 1976, the Reds had seven guys win at least 11 games and a team-wide 3.51 ERA. Meanwhile, the bullpen saved 45 games and turned in a 3.15 ERA. The Phillies’ strength, obviously, is in the rotation, which is the nexus of that swagger.

But whether the Phillies get to the status of The Big Red Machine is still to be determined. There are two more rounds of playoffs to get through, which is something the Reds never had to contend with. In the meantime, the Little Red Machine moniker works… for now.

Needless to say, the Phillies are working to get into that rarified plateau of greatness.

“We’re a veteran group of guys,” Werth said. “We weren’t always that way. As much time as we spend together and the type of guys we have on this team, I would say that’s what you can expect from us, you know?”

---

[1] Here it is… Stan Musial was the most underrated player in Major League Baseball history. That’s right. Sure, it’s tough to slip under the radar with 3,630 hits, 475 homers and a .331 lifetime batting average, but Musial hardly gets the due as his contemporaries Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Unlike Williams, Musial’s teams won championships, and frankly, winning matters. Of course Williams lost years of his prime to military service and there is no telling what could have happened in those seasons—reasonably, Williams could have hit 700 homers and got 4,000 hits. However, the sense from the scores of books and stories written about Williams indicates he was more concerned with his own stats instead of what was good for the Red Sox. Williams’ notable moments were when he hit a home run to win the All-Star Game and went 6-for-8 on the last day of the 1941 season to bat .406. Musial’s best days were all the times he showed up at the ballpark. To this day Musial is known by everyone in St. Louis and regarded as one of the nicest men ever to grace a uniform. Maybe it has something to do with playing in St. Louis instead of Boston, but the point remains… if I was putting together a team and had to choose between Williams and Musial, give me Stan the Man.

Jayson Werth has 'moved on'

If this is a strange period in Jayson Werth’s life, he’s doing an excellent job of remaining inside the insular world of baseball where seldom do outside forces penetrate. According to the Phillies’ right fielder, not only hasn’t he paid attention to the trade rumors, but he also seemed oblivious to the bad press swirling after an incident involving a fan and his son.

Sure, calling it an “incident” might lend itself to the connotation that something sinister occurred when it was nothing of the sort. Instead, replays showed a fan extending his arms straight up into the air to make a catch of a foul ball as Werth lunged into the stands with his glove hand in attempt to make the catch.

Whether or not Werth could have caught the ball with two outs in the 12th inning is debatable, however, there is no evidence whatsoever that the fan did anything to impede or disrupt the game. Nevertheless, after the man made the catch and handed the ball to his young son — both dressed in Phillies shirts — Werth appeared to angrily shout at the man and child with a curse or two added for emphasis.

As the replays showed, it was not a moment for Werth to be proud of though he admitted he still has not given the incident much thought.

“I may have not still realized that,” Werth said hours before Friday night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds at the Bank. “I’m assuming people are upset, but to me it was just something that happened and I moved on right after.”

Yes, Werth apologized… kind of. When asked if he had reached out to the man or child, Werth said he had not. In fact, Werth says he had “moved on.”

“There has been some backlash. Honestly in the heat of the moment and the situation that goes on on the field I’m definitely in a different mindset than I would be in a normal setting,” Werth explained, never using the words “sorry” or “regret” once. “I don’t think I would have yelled at anybody like that if that wasn’t the case. We had the game on the line. If a guy comes up and hits a home run on the next pitch, I think it’s a pretty big deal.

“Obviously I feel bad for the guy and the kid and the people that were sitting around there. It was definitely out of character a little bit. I don’t feel bad about playing hard and going after balls in the stands and stuff like that. It’s just one of those deals — it is part of the game.”

In other words, the only thing that matters to Jayson Werth is Jayson Werth. Considering he is heading into his free-agent winter and has stated that his pending free agency is “something that he has played his entire career for,” his mercenary nature is evident. Sure, Werth has stated that he enjoys playing for the Phillies and would love to remain with the club beyond this season, but, y’know, as long as the price is right.

Still, Werth’s verbal assault on a child and his father mixed with Shane Victorino’s claims that players are beginning to hear some catcalls and boos from the paying customers make it seem as if the bloom is off the rose for the two-time defending National League champs. Resting in third place in the NL East by five games and sixth in the wild-card race by 2½ games, some of the paying customers might not be too pleased with the state of the ballclub. Sure, injuries are partially to blame, but some folks still seem disappointed that the popular lefty ace Cliff Lee was traded away last winter in what some see as a cost-cutting measure.

Plus, with the organization announcing its 81st consecutive sellout crowd on Thursday night—not counting the three “away” games at the Bank against Toronto—a perceived cost-cutting move might not go over well.

Werth acknowledges this.

“I know where we’re playing,” he said. “I know what’s at stake here and the fans know what’s at stake. I was at the parade. There were a lot of people at the parade. This place can be as good as any. When we’re winning and you’re on a float down Broad Street , there is nothing better. Right now we’re not winning. We have to play better.”

But will Werth be one of the guys trying to take the Phillies to an unprecedented fourth straight playoff appearance? According to reports, the Phillies have listened to offers for the right fielder, though some of the reports claim that the price is too high for other clubs. Plus, if Werth were to be dealt it he would be the second of the core group from the 2008 World Champions to depart.

Coincidence that it could be Pat Burrell and Werth?

“It’s part of the game. Right now my focus is playing baseball right here for the Philadelphia Phillies and my teammates and winning ball games,” Werth said.

Manager Charlie Manuel did not offer much insight aside from the notion that he wants the team to add a pitcher. He’s also not sure his wish list will be met since, as he puts it, “my picks are too high.” Certainly he can scratch off Lee from the list after he was traded to a team in bankruptcy.

Back at the Bank, Werth said he had not reached out to the man and child he shouted and it doesn’t appear as if the thought crossed his mind. When asked when he realized the incident had become a big deal, Werth said he might not have come to that conclusion.

Based on his comments and attitude before Friday night’s game, it appears as if he’s not going to get there.

“I may have not realized it was a big deal,” Werth said. “I’m assuming people are upset if that’s what you’re telling me, but to me it’s just something that happened and I moved on right after.”

Meanwhile, reports are that the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays are interesting in brokering a deal for Werth, and if that were to occur, expect him to talk about moving on and trades being part of the game. Apparently brushing past bad behavior is part of the game, too.

Maybe Werth believes that because something occurs "in the heat of the moment" it's OK to excuse dignity and class.

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.

Adapt, evolve, survive

Well now everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
—Bruce Springsteen

NEW YORK — Now we don’t know what is happening with the Phillies. The issues regarding the collective offensive slump could be one of those fluke things or maybe even something larger at work. We’ll be able to figure out those things at the end of the season when we ask what went wrong or right for this ballclub.

But make no mistake about it… something is wrong with the Phillies these days and walking in to Yankee Stadium for three games beginning tonight is probably not the best remedy. After all, not only do the Yankees have the best record in baseball, but also they are 22-7 at home this season.

So as the Phillies hope for a resurrection and look for a big-time measuring stick, we can only project and ask questions. No, it’s not the best situation, but until something breaks it’s all we have.

The question:

Is this it? Is this 32-29 version of the Phillies — the team that is 6-14 in the last 20 games — what we’re going to have to deal with for the rest of the season? And if so, how did we get here?

No, things don’t look too promising, and though manager Charlie Manuel remains upbeat and continues to trot of the mantra that his guys will hit (and pitch?), secretly he is worried. Why wouldn’t he be? Manuel knows as well as anyone that sometimes the twists and turns of the game have a way of settling in. At some point the trends stop being aberrations or spikes in a chart and become the norm. Just listen to Manuel speak if you need proof. He’ll cite line and verse about a time when the Phillies dropped into an offensive swoon, stayed there and never really wiggled out of it.

It began, Manuel recalls often, with a 20-run explosion in St. Louis in 2008, followed by the thought that the Phillies were on the way to scoring 1,000 runs for the season only to replaced with the reality that the team wasn’t going to score many runs without slugging a home run.

Worse, the great hitting coach’s team went on to win the World Series that year not by slugging past teams, but with pitching and defense.

Of all the indignities!

In the meantime the numbers are pretty harrowing. Worse, the owners of some of the ugliest digits are the players the Phillies can least afford to post them. After tying Reggie Jackson's World Series record with five homers in last October's Fall Classic, Chase Utley has dropped off considerably. Though he clubbed 10 homers in the first two months of the season, the All-Star second baseman has not hit one since May 20, a span of 21 games. Uglier yet, Utley has batted just .153 in that span. That's far worse than the .230 with two homers Ryan Howard has provided over the last 20 games or the .164 average and lone homer from free-agent to be, Jayson Werth in that same period.

As the manager might say, “Not good…”

The most alarming of the team-wide slumps is with Utley, who looks as if he is a marathoner who hit the wall. It’s not that Utley isn’t posting the numbers because sometimes that can be subjective and/or not an accurate measure. No, the part that Utley barely has warning track power anymore is what is strange. Last year Utley was whipped at the end of the season because had off-season hip surgery, rushed to get back to the lineup and then played in 156 regular-season games and 15 more in the playoffs. It was understandable for a guy to wear down under those circumstances.

However, how could Utley look so tired just 59 games into this season considering Manuel promised to give his second baseman more days off during the season? Instead, because of the Phillies’ struggles it’s become a vicious cycle. Manuel can’t rest Utley because the team needs to win games, but by continually trotting him out there he has begun to take the shape of a pencil worn down to the nub.

There are other variables at work, too. For instance, pitchers appear to have regrouped after being bludgeoned during the so-called “Steroid Era.” In making up for lost time and fighting back against ballparks built to cater to baseball’s lost age, the big-league pitchers have mounted an insurrection with three no-hitters and two perfect games already this season. Those tallies would be four and three if Jim Joyce hadn’t missed a call at first base in Detroit two weeks ago.

Like any living species, pitchers adapt and evolve. So after more than a decade of being treated like chum for hitters, the tables have turned. For a team filled with talented yet strikeout-prone and flawed hitters like the Phillies, opponents finally appear to be exploiting certain weaknesses.

All of those theories and questions only create more theories and questions. Still, the only question that matters in the short term is to wonder how quickly can the Phillies adjust, adapt and evolve.  Because if the answer is not, “very quickly,” what we see might just be what we’re going to get.

The Meech abides

NEW YORK—There is something pure and wholesome about personal restraint. It’s one of those things that can make a person stronger or sharper. Sometimes withholding an insatiable urge can even make us better.

At least that’s what they say.

So what about the Phillies’ ability to just say no to scoring runs? Sure, it flies in the face of fundamental baseball theory, but the fact that the Phillies have only been able to score in one inning out of the last 45 shows the resolve of a Tibetan monk.

Take a second to think about how difficult it is to go practically five games without scoring a run… Then take a look at the Phillies’ offense and the fact that they slugged their way into the World Series for two straight years. That makes the fact that the Phillies have been shut out by the Mets in three straight games that much more incredible.

Charlie Manuel figured his guys would get one by accident on Thursday night against the Mets at CitiField. How could they not score one off Mike Pelfrey with runners at the corners, one out and the crafty Placido Polanco coming to the plate? It’s been well documented here and in other spaces that Polanco is one of those gritty ballplayers who do all the little things that don’t show up in the box score. He’ll hit the ball the other way, put it in play, and take a few pitches to extend the inning to allow his teammates to get a look at a pitcher’s repertoire.

Except, of course, when he doesn’t.

With the tying run on third base ready to dash home and put the Phillies in a game for the first time in nearly a week, Polanco didn’t hit the ball the other way. He also didn’t do any little things that don’t show in the box score or take some pitches. He didn’t do any of that. Instead, Polanco grounded into a double play to end the team’s best chance to score a run.

The ol’ GIDP shows up in all of those expanded box scores these days.

It’s not fair to pick on Polanco though, especially since he seems to taking it so hard. After last night’s game he admitted that he was incredibly frustrated by the team’s extraordinary restraint and didn’t attempt to mask his displeasure. Jayson Werth, contrarily, dealt with the frustration by shaving off nearly all of the hair from his face. But in his first game with smooth cheeks, Werth made five outs in four plate appearances by striking out three times and grounding into an inning-ending double play when he was able to make contact.

“No matter how you want to spin it, we're still in first place and we've got a real good ballclub,” Werth said.

Werth is right about that, and that’s what makes this uncanny ability to hold back so much more amazing. Figuring that the purification process in nearly complete, the Phillies are probably a game or two away from an offensive explosion.  That’s how it always happens, right?

“Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you,” Manuel said, but not in a way like Sam Elliott. It would have been better if he sounded like Sam Elliott.

Nevertheless, as written after the game: And sometimes you don’t eat at all.

At least that’s the case for a father and husband from Northeast Philly named Mike Meech. You see, so dedicated to his team is Meech that he decided to go through a purification process of his own just like the Phillies by staging a hunger strike until the team deigns it necessary to score a run. Since 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Meech has not eaten a crumb of food. Reports indicate that he purchased a stromboli for $15 to feast upon when the time was right, but Polanco, Werth and the rest of the Phillies had other ideas.

So now Meech is entering a world of pain. Mark it zero, dude. By the time the Phillies dig in against the Marlins on Friday night it will be more than 48 hours into the hunger strike. Needless to say, he’s fragile… he’s very fragile, man. He needs some nourishment and that stromboli is getting rotten waiting for the Phillies to score a run.

So we have to ask: Has the whole world gone crazy? Is Meech the only one who gives a bleep about the rules? A man has to take up a cause from time to time, and our friend Meech has decided that if the Phillies are going to go down, he’s going with them. Undoubtedly Charlie Manuel can appreciate the plight of one of his biggest boosters considering ol’ Chuck has decided to show more restraint when it comes to his diet, too. In fact, Charlie has been imbibing on a certain brand of diet food, which makes a hunger strike more preferable by comparison.

So when you’re sitting down to watch the Phillies tonight, think of Meech. Better yet, make a sort of Lenten appeal by standing with a man who has put his team’s welfare in front of his own. That’s right, I’m telling you to put down that fork and that hillock of food compressed into a box or a bowl and do the right thing.

Meech and Charlie will know about it and will appreciate the gesture.

Werth the money? The fans think so

Congressmen often make the assumption that the folks who write letters to their office typically are ardent voters. Certainly that seems like the proper conclusion to make since if people are moved enough to put their feelings into words, they probably will drag their rears out of the house and go to the polling place.

A similar assumption can be made by taking a look around the ballpark on Friday night. Indeed, it’s one thing to go out and purchase a team shirt with a favorite players’ name on the back, but it really says something about the fan if they spend time creating a sign or poster with some sentiment attached to it.

Think about like this: money comes and goes. Certainly folks waste a bunch of hard-earned cash on trivial things that they will grow tired of or too big for. Of course there’s always a chance that favorite ballplayer could get traded and there you are stuck with a Kenny Lofton shirt.

Hey, it happens.

But if a person wastes time, it will never return and can’t be replaced. That makes one’s time the most valuable commodity. It also means if a person gets out the markers, poster board and glitter gun, they are invested in something significant. What makes it doubly important is that if a person takes on a big project that sends words out for all to see. Moreover, carrying a sign with a message arranged on it means the person is hardly sitting on the fence.

That message… yes, they mean it.

So considering the number of homemade signs imploring the Phillies brass to re-sign right fielder Jayson Werth, an interesting predicament could arise if the off-season arrives without a new contract in place.

How will the fans get out the message if Werth is allowed to test free agency?

It could be an interesting development considering the Phillies are reported to have a limited amount of cash to spend on player payroll and a significant portion of that money already committed to some key members of the team. Plus, with Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and Ryan Madson available for new contracts after the 2011 season, the Phillies have some decisions to make.

Based on the feelings put onto poster board on Friday night, the decision is pretty easy. Then again, it’s always easy to spend someone else’s money.

We don’t yet know what type deal Werth will be seeking come this winter, but it’s safe to assume it will be a bit more than the $7 million he’s getting this season. Sure, Werth should cool down a bit as the season wears on, but there are very few players in the game producing the way the Phils’ right fielder has.  Heading into Friday’s game, Werth ranked in the top 10 in most every significant offensive category in the league, including the second-best OPS and the most doubles. Moreover, based on the Phillies’ attendance at home and the amount of signs professing love for Werth, it’s difficult to envision a scenario where he is not playing in July’s All-Star Game.

In fact, Ryan Howard says the rest of the lineup is keying off Werth, who slugged his second two-out, three-run homer in as many days on Friday night. Eventually, Howard says, the opposition will have to figure out whether it’s better to go after the cleanup man or Werth.

“In time it will. It’s one of those things where I will probably get some better pitches, but now I’m just trying to get on and ride on Jay-Dub for a little while,” Howard said.

Oh yes, even with a late start to his career, Werth, soon to be 31, is becoming a star. When GM Pat Gillick snapped up Werth for $850,000 after the Dodgers let him go before the 2007 season, who could have guessed the player would be so beloved? Seriously, when the Phillies picked up Werth in December of 2006, the most common reaction was, “Who?”

Certainly Werth would have joined that chorus considering he was nearly out of baseball because of a wrist injury and had bounced around through the Orioles, Blue Jays and Dodgers organizations before Gillick snuck in and grabbed him. His career was over before it started until Geoff Jenkins was injured during the 2008 season and Werth could finally move into an everyday role.

“I don’t see any reason why he can’t keep it up,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “He’s a big strong guy with a lot of talent. I’ve said it before, but I see him getting better.”

But where Werth’s worth (like that?) is most evident is not from the prodigious numbers he’s posted through the first month-plus of the season. Sure, that stuff helps when it comes to contract time and voting on the awards and stuff like that, but Werth is one of those guys who can, in Manuel’s parlance, “be whatever you need.”

It’s not unreasonable to believe that Werth could be a leadoff hitter because of his speed and ability to get on base and milk pitchers, just as it’s not insane to see him batting cleanup. Sure, Manuel uses him for protection in the lineup behind Ryan Howard, and he’s come through with big-time slugging. However, Werth’s versatility is what the Phillies cannot replace.

“He’s playing very good,” Manuel understated.

And they know it.

“He’s just going out there and having good at-bats and he’s not missing,” Howard said. “Basically, he’s there waiting for Chase (Utley) and I to have good at-bats so we can get on for him.”

Does Howard's deal put Brown on fast track?

READING, Pa. — The steady rain and foreboding forecastleant itself to some light workouts on Monday, so the Reading Phillies’ right-fielder Domonic Brown knocked off a little early. With a doubleheader on the slate for Tuesday against Harrisburg’s star Stephen Strasburg, a little extra rest was in order.

Besides, Brown suffered a concussion last week when he collided with teammate Tagg Bozied when chasing after a fly ball. With a long season ahead that likely will surpass Brown’s previous career-best for games played, an easy day here and there isn’t a bad thing.

Then again, that’s just the thing — what are the Phillies plans for Brown this season? When asked last week, the team’s latest can’t-miss prospect said he didn’t know what his immediate future held. For now the plan is to suit up for Reading, get his at-bats and wait for further instructions.

It’s not known if those instructions will include a late-season call from the big club, because teams aren’t too keen on getting the service-time clock started on a player sure to command a big paycheck in the future.

After all, as of Monday afternoon the Phillies are paying out a lot more cash to a handful of players for the better part of the next decade. In fact, it might just be because of Ryan Howard’s new five-year, $125 million contract extension that Brown is officially placed on the fast track to South Philly.

See, if Jayson Werth hits the free-agent market this winter looking to cash in, then yes, chances are the Phillies won’t be able to sign him to a contract extension. Sure, the Phillies are making plenty of money with sold out crowds every night at Citizens Bank Park, but to quote Bill Gates as depicted in an episode of The Simpsons, “You don’t get rich by writing checks.”

However, if Werth wants to give the Phillies the ol’ hometown discount, then general manager Ruben Amaro should be ready to listen.

“Naturally we’d like to keep all of those guys, but we’ll go by a case-by-case basis,” Amaro said from San Francisco during the press conference to officially announce Howard’s new deal.

That’s kind of like saying, “Water is wet.” It’s obvious the Phillies will weigh all their options before deciding which players to keep and which ones to let go. Clearly the team had no trouble in letting Brett Myers walk away even though he might not look too bad pitching for the Phillies these days. Along those lines, the Amaro Gang was not averse to shelling out three years to veterans Raul Ibanez (at age 37) or Placido Polanco (age 34).

Plus, after the 2011 season Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and Ryan Madson can become free agents. Theoretically the Phillies will have enough money to go around re-signing all of those players, but you know what they say about theories.

So with the harebrained theory that the Phillies will be benevolent with that extra dough they are raking in from all those sellouts, it might be wise to look ahead at cheaper alternatives. That’s where Brown comes in.

And by most accounts Brown could have cracked the 25-man roster this spring if the Phillies needed the depth on the bench. The thing there is that Brown is at the stage in his development where he needs to play as much as possible. At 22, Brown has hit .289 in 49 games for Reading, including a .325 mark this season though he has hit just one homer.

Still, Brown has a .386 on-base percentage this season and said he hoped to improve his plate discipline since jumping to Double-A. That’s an interesting notion considering Werth routinely leads the Majors in pitches seen per plate appearance and has a robust .400 on-base percentage this year.

Brown was the one player the Phillies would not part with in any deal even if it meant they would not be able to trade for Roy Halladay. He rewarded the Phillies for sticking with him by batting .417 in 11 games this spring with two homers and a pair of doubles with eight RBIs. Only Howard and Ben Francisco had better numbers in Grapefruit League action.

Here’s the crazy part… Brown was the team’s 20^th-round pick in 2006 and 606 players were taken ahead of him. Yeah, that’s right, Brown, the untouchable, was a 20th round pick in the 2006 draft for the Phillies. The reason he dropped nearly off the charts was because he had a scholarship offer to play wide receiver at the University of Miami (Fla.). Odder yet, Brown was listed as a left-handed pitcher when the Phillies drafted him.

Needless to say Brown hasn’t thrown a pitch since turning pro.

“He’s ridiculous,” said former Phillies starter and Brown’s teammate Scott Mathieson. “He’s one of the best outfielders I’ve ever seen.”

Still, Brown needs some honing. In 49 games at Double-A, Brown has struck out 46 times. He also has been caught stealing 29 times in 102 attempts in his minor league career. In other words, there are a lot of rough edges. Still, the potential and the raw talent that project to a five-tool All-Star is what turns heads at Reading.

“It should be lot of fun to watch him develop,” manager Steve Roadcap said.

That’s what the Phillies want to see happen. Ideally, when Ibanez’s contract runs out, Brown could create a seamless transition. But if the money runs out and Werth moves on, Brown might be needed much sooner.

Catch him in Reading while you can.

Phillies sell out

The Phillies PR staff sent out an email this morning announcing an unprecedented moment in the team’s history. Approximately a month before the season is to start, the team says it sold more than 3 million tickets to its 81 games and has a few seats left for just 73 other games this season.

Three million tickets sold before the season even starts is a huge deal. More notably, the Phillies also announced in the very same release, that they will cap season-ticket sales at 28,750 with just approximately 250 packages left.

That’s very impressive, to say the least. Considering that Citizens Bank Park holds a little more than 43,000, tickets to Phillies games are going to be a hot commodity this summer. Actually Phillies games might turn out to be more of a happening or an event than an athletic competition. That’s the way it has been in Boston at Fenway Park during the past few years. It used to be that a guy could call up the team on the day of the game and order tickets to see the Red Sox. In fact, we did just that plenty of times during the mid-1990s.

Those days are long gone at Fenway and they could be on the way out in Philadelphia, too. Times are tough, financially speaking, and with other forms of entertainment failing to pack as much bang for the buck as they once did, a night out at the ballpark isn’t so bad. It still costs more than it should, but there’s a lot available for the dollar.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the average ticket price for a Phillies game was $28 back in 2008. Based on those figures along with the current attendance figures and the team is putting more than $1.3 million into the coffers every game. And that doesn’t even include parking, food, novelties or whatever else it is folks have to pay for at a baseball game. Certainly those totals make the $1.3 million per game figure just the tip of the iceberg.

Obviously, there are operating costs for a big league team. Just imagine what the electric bill is for a place like Citizens Bank Park. But when a club is raking in millions of dollars each time it opens its gates, well, it must be a good time to be with the Philadelphia Phillies. I hear the staff money fights are wild!

Nevertheless, since the Phillies are raking it in these days when, not so long ago folks stayed away from The Vet in droves, one has to wonder where that cash is going. Specifically, how is the team reinvesting in ensuring that it will have the best players to continue annual trips back to the playoffs?

That seems like a pretty good question considering what has developed in the past few months. Just last night I wrote that since the Phillies are operating under the guidelines of an expandable salary cap, maybe they ought to consider dealing Jayson Werth. The fact is, I don’t think they should do that at all. I think the Phillies should re-sign Jayson Werth to a three-year deal and move Dom Brown into the outfield rotation when Raul Ibanez’s deal expires.

Based on the e-mailed press release from the Phillies, Werth’s future with the team shouldn’t be a question. In fact, based on the numbers presented by the Phillies, Werth and Cliff Lee should be signed up for a couple more years.

Why not? They sent out an e-mail explaining how well they are selling tickets. Nowhere did it indicate that they are giving away 43,000 seats for each game.

On one side the Phillies are bragging about how much money they are making in a depressed economy, no less, but on the other hand they don’t have an unlimited budget to get the best players?

Something doesn’t make sense here?

Let’s give the Phillies the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are saving all that cash for a rainy day? Perhaps they believe they are so good right now that they can get by without a roster loaded like an All-Star team and when Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley move on, they can tap into those reserves.

That has to be it…

Right?

And since we're talking about bold trades...

Since we like to be progressive and forward thinking here, and since we’ve been discussing wacky trade ideas over the last couple of days, maybe it’s time to discuss a topic that a lot of folks aren’t keen on talking about.

Yeah, leave it to me to be a buzz kill. Seeing as we’re in the midst of one of the two greatest eras in Phillies baseball history, it makes sense to want to sit back and enjoy the ride. After all, baring a major catastrophe the Phillies are going back to the playoffs for the fourth year in a row this October. That’s significant considering the franchise has more losses than any pro team in this hemisphere.

But citing that progressive, forward thinking and general manager who views his job as one in which he has to keep the team competitive even after the stars of this bunch have moved on (and the fact that he traded Cliff Lee in order to rebuild the farm), it just might be the time to do something extreme.

And by extreme I mean trade Jayson Werth.

Look, I know he’s a popular player, who very well might be coming into his prime and slated for a big season. Then again, Werth also has completed just one season where he didn’t have to share playing time with anyone, or spend time recovering from an injury. Of course he bashed 36 homers, had 99 RBIs and went to the All-Star Game in that one season, but that’s kind of beside the point.

There are a few interesting variables that make trading Werth now seem not so foolish. The biggest reason to do, of course, is his contract. Werth is in the final year of his contract and will be paid a salary of $7 million this season. This year, if he posts numbers even remotely close to the stats he produced in 2009 then he could command a pretty hefty deal as a free agent. Considering that Werth already has a World Series ring and had to wait until he was 29 until he played more than 102 games in a season, he might want to cash in.

One of the topics that were most on the minds of the fans and the scribes last winter was Werth’s potential affordability. Working under an obvious salary cap, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. will have to get very creative in order to re-sign Werth to a deal greater than the $7 million he’s getting in 2010.

But Amaro has options. In fact, he has a 22-year-old star in the making that was just sent back to the minors after going 3-for-3 with a pair of home runs in a Grapefruit League game against star Justin Verlander and the Tigers. Oh yes, Domonic Brown has the type of talent that can make folks forget about Jayson Werth very quickly.

Though he hit .417 in his first big league camp, Brown was slated to spend the season at Triple-A in 2010. The guy needs to get his at-bats more than he needs to be sitting on the bench watching Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino and Werth play. Still, if there is an injury or a slump expect the Phillies to get a police escort to get Brown down the Turnpike from Allentown.

Of course the fear is rushing the kid, who very well could match the speed and power numbers of a young Darryl Strawberry or Reggie Jackson. Hey, there was a reason why the Phillies didn’t get Roy Halladay in July at the deadline and that reason was Dom Brown.

Conversely, the Phillies are notorious for making their top prospects sit in the minors longer than they should. Chase Utley didn’t stop looking over his shoulder until Placido Polanco was traded in 2005 and manager Larry Bowa, against his will, was forced to send him back to Triple-A in 2004 so Doug Glanville could take the last bench spot.

When he wasn’t being mentioned in trade talks with whatever pitcher Pittsburgh felt like trading away at the moment, Ryan Howard had to wait for Jim Thome to get injured before he got a legit shot in the big leagues. Yet when that day finally came, Howard was closing in on his 26th birthday.

There’s no way Brown is going to be in the minors when he’s 25. Shoot, there’s probably not much chance that he’ll be in the minors when he’s 24, either. I imagine if Brown was in any other organization that hadn’t been to the World Series two years in a row or had three outfielders in last summer’s All-Star Game, he might already be playing in the Majors.

So here’s the idea: since Amaro said he traded Cliff Lee was to replenish the minor league system that saw seven of its top 10 players traded, maybe Werth could be dealt for a prospect or two. Of course if he leaves via free agency and is labeled as Type A, the Phillies will get a compensatory draft pick(s), which will help. If Werth is gone for 2011 and Ibanez is headed for his last year on his deal, the Phillies are going to need some reinforcements in order to remain competitive.

At least in the meantime, Brown is nearly ready to take over and he’ll cost perhaps $10 million less than Werth.

Jayson Werth: Before and After

From the my-how-we-have-grown file, we give you Jayson Werth as a first-round draft pick for the Orioles back when he was a budding catcher, followed by Werth in the midst of his professional wrestling career. Yes, he's all growns up.

Safe at home

I made an offer to the kids in the writing press that if they ever needed filled in on what happened during the Reagan Administration as well as the late Carter Era, I was their guy. During those days I pretty much spent all of my time watching and reading about baseball and listening to obscure rock music. Apparently I went to school, too, though the records of that are spotty at best. My report cards from those times look like an alphabet sampler rather than something a hard-working student would submit.

Apropos of that, Bob Ford and Rich Hofmann are the go-to guys if you want to really know what happened in the 1970s.

Anyway, there was a game played on May 11, 1980 where Pete Rose swiped second, third and home in succession. I blathered on about it like crazy last night, though I wrongly thought it was 1979.

Hey, those days were a blur.

The reason I remember Rose’s larceny (old-timey phrase) around the bases was because I actually watched it on TV. It also was shown on The Today Show the next morning as their main baseball highlight. Back then The Today Show was actually a news show with Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw and since not every game was on TV back then (and some of us had bed times), Rose’s steals were notable.

Actually, I had never seen nor heard of a player stealing all three bases in a row since Pete Rose did it against the Reds on a day, not coincidentally, when Johnny Bench had the day off.

Do you think Pete would try that on Johnny Bench?

But I had never heard of anyone pulling the steals around the bases since Rose did it until last night when Jayson Werth pulled it. The difference, of course, was that Werth stole home on a delayed steal, which is kind of a little league play. The catcher throws the ball back to the pitcher who isn’t paying close attention and, zoom!, there he goes.

Pete stole home on the backend of a double steal. When Mike Schmidt took off for second, Rose took home… headfirst slide and all.

According to research by the Society of Baseball Research (SABR) via The Zo Zone!, the triple steals have occurred a bunch of times in the last 80 years. In fact, it happened five times between Rose and Werth did it for the Phillies.

Check it out:

• Jayson Werth, Phillies, 5/12/2009 (7th inn)
• Eric Young, Colorado, 6/30/1996 (3rd inn)
• Chris Stynes, Kansas City, 5/12/1996 (1st inn)
• Devon White, California, 9/9/1989 (6th inn)
• Paul Molitor, Milwaukee, 7/26/1987 (1st inn)
• Dusty Baker, San Francisco, 6/27/1984 (3rd inn)
• Pete Rose, Phillies, 5/11/1980 (7th inn)
• Dave Nelson, Texas, 8/30/1974 (1st inn)
• Rod Carew, Minnesota, 5/18/1969 (3rd inn)
• Don Kolloway, White Sox, 6/28/1941 (9th inn)
• Jackie Tavener, Detroit, 7/25/1928 (7th inn)
• Harvey Hendrick, St. Louis Browns, 6/12/1928 (8th inn)

Looking at the list it seems as if May 11 and/or 12 are the days for this oddity to occur. It also seems to happen every six years or so, though not once in the last 13 seasons. Hearing from Werth last night, he doubts it will happen again anytime soon. Back when the straight steal of home wasn’t as rare as it has been in the past few decades, pitchers didn’t do the slide step. The pitchers appeared to pay attention to pitching.

Werth says he used to watch videos of his grandfather Ducky Schofield play in the Majors during his 19-year career (both are World Series champs… Ducky won it in 1960 with the Pirates) and was struck by the pitching motions even with runners on base.

Werth’s uncle Dick Schofield also spent more than a decade in the big leagues (mostly with the Angels) and never stole three bases in a game, which Ducky swiped 12 in his entire career.

Step-father Dennis Werth? Just one stolen base in a four-year big-league career – the same amount of times Jayson swiped home