Hot Corner Gold Glover

Scott Rolen is the greatest defensive 3rd baseman that I have ever seen in my lifetime.

For any real fan of baseball, and especially for those who both know me and my passion for what I regularly call "The Greatest Game That God Ever Invented", you'll know that is no small statement for me to make.

It is also a fairly controversial statement. After all, this is the town where Phillies legendary 3rd baseman and Baseball Hall of Famer Michael Jack Schmidt played for all of his nearly 18 big league seasons, and I got to see him in every one of those seasons.

It is also controversial because my lifetime takes in the majority of the career of another Baseball Hall of Famer, the legendary Baltimore Orioles 3rd sacker Brooks Robinson. During their careers, Schmitty was a 10-time Gold Glover at 3rd base, including 9 in a row from 1976-1984 and Brooks won the Gold Glove a record 16 times at the hot corner, all consecutively from 1960-1975.

In fairness, it's difficult for me to comment on any first-hand witnessing of Robinson's greatness. I didn't really begin following baseball until the 1970 season when I was 8 years old and Brooks was playing at age 33 in his 15th MLB season. Even after that, in those pre-cable TV days the only time I got to see him was on the occasional Game of the Week or other national TV broadcast such as the All-Star Game or the playoffs. I will toss in this caveat, that my pick Rolen has a ways to go to match the number of Gold Gloves won by Brooks Robinson.

I did get to watch Mike Schmidt's entire career here in Philly. I was 10 years old when he broke in for a September 1972 call-up, and 27 years old when he retired early in the 1989 season. I probably saw Schmitty play in more than a hundred games at Veteran's Stadium over the years, and in hundreds more on television. He was incredible at the hot corner, a human vacuum cleaner with a cannon for an arm, tremendous instincts, and uncommon athleticism. He could charge a slow roller and make the bare-handed pickup and throw in one motion play as well as anyone who ever played the game.

My opinion on Rolen is no knock on Schmitty, who in my books is simply edged out just slightly, and who comes in 2nd out of the hundreds that I have seen play 3rd base.
 Schmidt was certainly a stronger offensive player, and was just as good a baserunner. He is the greatest all-around 3rd baseman that I ever saw play, and in fact is the greatest ballplayer to ever don a Phillies uniform, period.

I also got to see a number of other great 3rd baseman over the years. Some of those who stand out for their glove work include Doug Rader, Craig Nettles, Buddy Bell, Robin Ventura, and Terry Pendleton. And in today's game, both Evan Longoria of Tampa Bay and Ryan Zimmerman of Washington continue the baseball tradition of great athletes at the hot corner making unbelievable plays. Given health, those last two guys will have a bunch of Gold Gloves to their credit before their careers are finished a decade or more from now.

Zimmerman won his first of what many assumed would be a long line of consecutive National League Gold Glove Award honors following the 2009 season. But he was at least temporarily slowed down when the 2010 recipients were announced this past week. When the 2010 NL Gold Glove Award winners were announced, it was Scott Rolen who was honored with his 8th career award.

Some Phillies fans will never, ever give Rolen his due. That is somewhat understandable if you know the dynamics of the player's career and his relationship with the town's passionate fans. Scott Rolen broke in with the Phils at the tail end of the 1996 season. In 1997 he was the NL Rookie of the Year, but played for a club that won just 68 games, finished 33 games out of first place, and drew just 1.4 million fans, the lowest franchise attendance total since 1973.

Rolen was an undeniable talent at that point. The 6'4, 240-lb Midwest kid from Indiana played with passion and athleticism. His bat boomed with the promise of a perennial 30-homerun season hitter. He ran the bases as well as any player in the big leagues. And man, could he play defense. He more overpowered the position than played with grace and fluidity. He attacked balls, dove for them, charged them, overwhelmed them. He was the future in Philly, and in his 2nd full season of 1998 won the first of his Gold Glove Award honors.

The problem, however, was that Rolen was mostly alone in Philadelphia as a winner. He and pitcher Curt Schilling often appeared to be the only two players who played with both obvious passion for the game combined with excellence on the diamond. Many fans, including myself, embraced them as the two beacons of light on the team, the two biggest reasons to go out to the ballpark and spend your good money on the franchise in those days.

Rolen's first break-in season of 1996 through the 2000 season resulted in five years in which the club finished a combined 106 games below the .500 mark, and the frustration began to grow on the young 3rd sacker. He added another Gold Glove in 2000, but had watched that summer as the team traded away it's lone other All-Star caliber player and it's only legitimate starting pitcher when Schilling was dealt to Arizona. Rolen, and the club's increasingly disgruntled fan base, began to question management and ownership's commitment to fielding a winning ballclub.

Then in 2001, things finally looked like they might be changing. The 2001 Phillies led by Rolen, rightfielder Bobby Abreu, and a speedy young shortstop named Jimmy Rollins battled for the NL East title right down to the final weeks of the season. On the emotional evening of Monday, September 17th, Rolen homered twice and led the Phillies to victory in a first-place showdown with the Atlanta Braves in front of a frenzied full house at The Vet that included my wife and I in attendance on baseball's first night back following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The club ultimately fell short, but won 86 games, and Rolen was rewarded with his 3rd career Gold Glove.

That 2001 highlight season in Philadelphia would prove to be the final one for the 3rd baseman. Despite the team showing it could begin to move forward and compete on the field, the front office continued to wring it's hands, doing nothing to add to the talent base. Schilling had won a World Series in 2001 with the Diamondbacks, and Rolen saw nothing happening in Philly that pointed towards the same happening here any time soon. His displeasure towards ownership and management got more and more vocal, and he demanded a trade, preferably to a franchise market closer to his Midwestern roots.

Just before the 2002 trade deadline, the Phillies finally cut their ties, trading Rolen to the Saint Louis Cardinals for three players, including Placido Polanco. The Cardinals loved Rolen, and he loved them. He signed an 8-year, $90 million contract at the end of 2002 season which saw him selected to his first All-Star team, win his first Silver Slugger as the best offensive 3rd baseman in the game, and finally his 4th Gold Glove Award. He won All-Star and Gold Glove honors in both 2005 and 2006 as well, and finally reached the ultimate when the 2006 Cardinals won the World Series.

Many here in Philly will always hold a grudge against Rolen for wanting out of town, and for going public with that sentiment. Turn your back on us, and many of us will not only hope you get your wish to leave, but also will happily drive you out or pay your way out, and will never let you forget that you asked to leave for the rest of your career or life. The usual media suspects in town did a nice job at the time, and some have continued the idea, of portraying Rolen as a crybaby quitter. To me, Rolen was exactly what Schilling was - a winner stuck in a loser organization that made no commitment to win for years, and that was showing no signs of doing it any time in the near future. But instead of rallying around their stars, many of the fans and in the media turned on them in spite of the team's apparent commitment to losing.

So Rolen and Schilling both moved along with their All-Star careers and won their World Series away from Philadelphia. For Rolen, the 2007 season was a lost one as injury woes particularly to his shoulder wrecked his year from the outset. Manager Tony LaRussa began to question Rolen's commitment to the game, questioning the repeated injury problems. Finally in January of 2008, Rolen was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. He spent another mostly injury-marred season and a half in Toronto, never able to return to more than flashes of his early career brilliance. Finally at the trade deadline in 2009, Rolen was dealt to Cincinnati.

It was a curious move at the time, with many wondering why the young, rebuilding Reds would take on a player apparently on the decline at the trade deadline during a year in which they were not in contention. But Reds management believed that they had an up-and-coming team, believed in Rolen's talent and quiet leadership-by-example approach, and saw a perfect fit. They were rewarded with a tremendous comeback 2010 season in which a rejuvenated Scott Rolen helped lead the Reds back into the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade, and for which he was rewarded with that 8th Gold Glove.

For any Phils fan with an honest memory and who saw Scott Rolen play during those first five years of his career here in Philadelphia, and who is a baseball fan able to appreciate what he did the next few years at Saint Louis, and who got to enjoy this past comeback season with the Reds, you simply must acknowledge what the man is between the lines of a baseball diamond.

Many can successfully argue the cases for Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson being better defensive 3rd basemen than Scott Rolen. They will point to more Gold Glove Award honors and will fall back on Hall of Fame careers for those players. I won't spend a lot of time arguing, because I truly appreciate those two men and their place in the game, and I honestly value their greatness, including as defensive players at 3rd base.

But again, I have watched this game now for over four decades. I have seen great ones come and go. I have seen good ones shoot onto the scene and have a great season or two or three. I have seen tremendous offensive players have mediocre defensive seasons and still be rewarded with Gold Glove honors based more on offensive prowess or past reputations. For me, Scott Rolen is the best glove, arm, and athlete that I have ever seen at the hot corner in all my years of enjoying this great game, and I will take that opinion to my grave.

In Cincy, 'V' is for 'Votto', and 'Victory'

It has been 73 years since St. Louis Cardinals' Hall of Famer Joe 'Ducky' Medwick hit .374 with 31 homers and 154 rbi to lead the National League in all three categories, in the process becoming the last man to win the 'Triple Crown' in the senior circuit.

It has been 15 years since the Cincinnati Reds won their only NL Central Division crown, and 20 since their last National League pennant and World Series titles in 1990. In fact, it has been a decade now since their last winning season, when the 2000 club led by returning-hometown hero Ken Griffey Jr led the club to a 2nd place finish.

In short, it's been a mostly long, hard ride for the fans of the Redlegs out in western Ohio since the days when Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Tony Perez and the rest of the 'Big Red Machine' under manager Sparky Anderson were dominating the National League during the 1970's.

But in 2010, the winning is back in the Midwest. Victories have piled on top of victories, and the team woke up this morning in first place, 20 games over the .500 mark, 4 games in front of the previously favored St. Louis Cardinals. But the letter 'V' does not only stand for those 'victory' totals this summer in Cincy. The letter also stands for 'Votto', as in Joey Votto, the team's 1st baseman and leader whose performances are MVP caliber, and also have him challenging to win the Triple Crown.

Votto woke up on Saturday morning with a .327 average, 31 homeruns and 91 rbi. He has also scored 90 runs and even stolen 11 bases. Votto's average has him 7 percentage points ahead of fellow Triple Crown contender Albert Pujols and Colorado Rockies' phenom Carlos Gonzalez at the top of the NL leader boards. The 31 homers have him tied for 2nd in the league with Adam Dunn, 4 behind Pujols. The rbi total leaves him 3 behind Pujols.

The fact that both Votto and Pujols are legitimate Triple Crown and Most Valuable Player contenders in the NL is, in fact, being bolstered by the competition to get their respective teams to the top of the NL Central standings at the finish.
 And the two clubs will meet one final time head-to-head, next weekend in Saint Louis, in what should be a major showdown for both team and individual honors.

Pujols' place among the leader boards is expected most seasons. He has already won the NL MVP Award three times, including in the last two straight seasons. He is a 5-time winner of the NL Silver Slugger Award as the top offensive player at his position. Twice he has won the NL Hank Aaron Award as the top hitter in the league. His team is also a perennial contender, with the Cards having won the World Series as recently as 2006, another NL pennant in 2004, and the Central Division 7 times in the past decade.

The Reds and Votto have now emerged to challenge on both the individual and team fronts. As a 1st baseman, Votto is a direct challenger to Pujols' dominance of the position over recent years. Here in Philly we are happy to have Ryan Howard and his prodigious power manning 1st base, but the numbers prove out that both Pujols and Votto are far superior all-around offensive threats the 'The Big Piece'.

Many of Votto's hits this year have been of the game-winning or game-changing variety, further highlighting his MVP candidacy. But he is far from the only reason that the Reds are in contention. They have an excellent all-around veteran infield with 3rd baseman Scott Rolen, shortstop Orland Cabrera, and 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips. Right fielder Jay Bruce is considered one of the best up-and-coming players in the game in his own right. Their young pitching staff has deep talent, and is supported by strong closer Francisco Cordero.

The Cincinnati Reds are back, and with players like Joey Votto leading the way, it appears at this point that they will remain strong contenders in the National League for the foreseeable future. That future is bright not just for the team, but also for the 1st baseman himself, who turns 27 years old on September 10th, and is thus only beginning what should be the prime productive years of his career.

Roy Halladay Is Perfect

Florida Marlins' catcher Ronnie Paulino smashed a ball into the hole between 3rd base and shortstop, and for a brief moment everyone watching the game at Sun Life Stadium, players and fans who were in attendance as well as those of us watching at home here in Philly on television, held our collective breaths.

There had been two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when Paulino came to bat, and the Philadelphia Phillies new ace starting pitcher Roy Halladay had a 'perfect game' going. This meant that not a single batter had reached base during the game. 26 men had come to the plate with a bat in their hands that night for the Fish, and all 26 had returned to the dugout having made an out. No hits, no walks, no one reached on an error.

So history was in the offing when Paulino struck the ball. There had been only 19 perfect games in the history of Major League Baseball going back well over a century, and only one in Phillies history, pitched by Hall of Famer Jim Bunning on Father's Day in 1964.

As Paulino's smash left his bat, playing third base was the regular backup shortstop, Juan Castro. Castro was there as a defensive replacement for the Phils' regular 3rd baseman, Placido Polanco. The move would prove a stroke of genius by manager Charlie Manuel. Castro quickly ranged to his left, stabbed the hard shot grounder, wheeled, and gunned a throw to 1st baseman Ryan Howard. The throw beat Paulino easily, and Halladay's historic night of perfection was complete.

The usually calm and reserved Halladay let loose with a big smile as he was embraced by catcher Carlos Ruiz and the rest of his teammates on the mound. Back in the locker room, his teammates called on him to make a speech, and Halladay simply pointed at Ruiz and said "Chooch is the man!", referring to Ruiz' nickname and the fact that the catcher had called pitches in the game.

Ruiz later said that he had learned some lessons regarding the Marlins hitters during an effective start the previous night by Kyle Kendrick, and decided that he would utilize those lessons in calling Halladay's start. Whatever it was that Chooch picked up, it worked, and Doc delivered by executing his pitches to perfection. He rarely left the ball out over the plate, needed just a couple of big defensive plays, and struck out a number of hitters on the night.

The Phillies traded for Roy Halladay in the off-season to become a bona fide ace for the Phillies rotation. He has lived up to every bit of the expectations that a veteran former Cy Young Award winner can bring with him. Though the Phils have struggled somewhat with injuries and inconsistent play, they remain on top of the National League, and Halladay is the main reason. He makes the Phillies the favorites to win every 5th day. On this particular 5th day, Roy Halladay was perfect.

MLB 2010: National League

In nearly every major publication and from most every prognosticator you will find that the 3-time defending NL East winning, 2-time defending National League champion, and back-to-back World Series participant Philadelphia Phillies are considered the odds-on favorites to repeat at least where that eastern crown is concerned. In fact, many have them again winning the NL pennant and advancing back to the Series, some predicting they will win.

An admitted lifelong Phillies fan, this absolutely prejudiced observer is calling it that way. Phillies to win their 4th straight NL East crown, 3rd straight National League pennant, and then a 2nd World Series title in 3 years. Did you expect anything else from me under the current circumstances? However, it will be a struggle, there will be highs and lows, they will be pushed. I will cover the Phillies specifically in detail in my next article here in the coming days.

In that NL East race, the team that will push the Phillies the most this year will be...the Atlanta Braves. In fact, some might even find a reason to pick Atlanta to Tomahawk Chop their way back to the top of the division and unseat the Fightin's from their lofty perch. Atlanta's rotation of Tim Hudson, Jair Jurrjens, Derek Lowe, Tommy Hanson & Kenshin Kawakami is talented and deep. The lineup is led by declining veteran and future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and perhaps the best offensive catcher in the NL in Brian McCann. However, the biggest reason that the Braves will challenge the Phils will be the play of tremendous rookie right fielder Jason Heyward. If you haven't heard of him yet, you will, and soon. Bobby Cox has a strong bullpen as well, and in his final season as manager he should push for a playoff spot.

The Florida Marlins have a superstar and NL MVP candidate in shortstop Hanley Ramirez, a pair of exciting young outfielders in Chris Coghlan and Cameron Maybin, a slugging 2nd baseman in Dan Uggla, and a pair of strong starting pitchers in Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco. But they lack the overall roster depth to beat out either the Phils or the Braves. The New York Mets are not as deep or dangerous as in previous seasons, and are once again battling injury. The starting pitching behind Johan Santana is just not deep or talented enough either. They should be good enough to stay ahead of the Washington Nationals, but maybe just for one more season. Once Nats uber-prospect starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg arrives this summer, he may help vault them past New York.

In the NL Central the safe and sexy pick are the St. Louis Cardinals. The best hitter on the planet, Albert Pujols, will now be joined for a full season by the support of star outfielder Matt Holliday. Those two and the 1-2 rotation punch of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are formidable, but I don't think it's going to all be enough to repeat at the top of the division. I like the Cards to slip to 2nd place behind the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brew Crew will be led by a pair of genuine MVP candidates of their own in Ryan Braun (pictured) and Prince Fielder. Yovani Gallardo and Randy Wolf will give them a strong 1-2 rotation punch. I'm calling this a very close race, with an MVP season from Braun providing the difference for the Brewers.

Behind those two top central dogs, I'll call the order: Cincinnati, Chicago, Houston and Pittsburgh. The Reds, like their AL Central and Ohio brothers in Cleveland, have 'dark horse' contender written all over them. If their rotation stays healthy, and if young bats Joey Votto and Jay Bruce produce to their potential, the Reds could surprise and push the top two. The Cubs look like aging underachievers to me, though ace Carlos Zambrano appears to be in shape and motivated. The Astros have talent, especially in it's lineup with Carlos Lee, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, and Michael Bourn, but it is fragile. The Pirates are still just too young, though outfielder Andrew McCutchen will prove one of baseball's most exciting players.

In the NL West, I am looking at perhaps the closest 1-3 race in the league. The Rockies, Dodgers, and Giants (I'll call the finish in that order, since I have to make a prediction) can all win the division here with the right answers to their respective questions. For Colorado, are the young bats at the top of the order in Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler for real? For the LA Dodgers, can Manny Ramirez still be a Hall of Fame offensive force in the middle of the order? In San Fran, can they manufacture enough offense to support what is perhaps the best pitching in the division? In fact, the Arizona Diamondbacks have the roster talent to join this group and make it a 4-team race, but only if they can get ace Brandon Webb healthy early and keep him healthy all year.

I think that the Rockies kids are indeed for real, and that the club will find enough pitching led by starter Ubaldo Jimenez to win the division. The Dodgers will find that Mannywood is shutting down, and that the star slugger will both decline in production and prove to be a disruptive presence in the clubhouse. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Brian Wilson lead a strong and deep Giants' staff, but the 'Kung Fu Panda', Pablo Sandoval, will not have enough offensive help for the team to push past the top two clubs. The health issue will prove to much for Arizona, despite the presence of one of the game's emerging superstars in outfielder Justin Upton. The San Diego Padres will pull up the rear out west, with the biggest item there all season being when, to where, and for what will they trade stud 1st baseman and pending free agent Adrian Gonzalez.

In the playoffs, I think that the Phillies and Brewers will advance to meet one another in the NLCS, repeating their matchup from the 2008 Divisional playoff round which the Phils won by a 3 games to 1 count. I think that the Phils offense will wear down and overwhelm the Brewers pitching, putting Philly into the World Series for the 3rd consecutive season. This would mark the first time since the Stan Musial-led St. Louis Cardinals of 1942-44 that a team from the Senior Curcuit went to 3 straight World Series appearances.

In that World Series, I am going to pick, oh, I don't know, how about those Phillies to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in a rematch of their 2008 battle. This one could be much closer. The Rays starting pitching is better now, but so is the Phillies. The Rays offense is more experienced now, but then so are the Phillies players. I am  going to give the World Series nod to the combination of Ray Halladay and Cole Hamels, with the Phillies taking it in the full 7-game limit. Another parade down Broad Street for the Fightin' Phils and their fans in early November of 2010.

Picks for the National League award winners are Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers outfield stud, as the NL Most Valuable Player. The Cy Young Award will go to the Phillies big acquisition, ace righthander Roy Halladay. I will pick outfielder Jason Heyward of the Braves to begin a long and storied career with a Rookie of the Year Award in 2010. However, Heyward will be seriously pushed for that award by starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg, taking the honor only because Strasburg will start out with a few weeks in the  minor leagues.

Happy Halladay

Just six weeks have passed since the New York Yankees extended their baseball dynasty with a 27th World Series championship by dethroning our own Phillies in six games. With the change from fall to winter have also come changes to the Fightin' Phils roster.

In the last few weeks, and as the Christmas holiday fast approaches, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. and his management team have shown that they are not at all satisfied having won the 2008 title and nearly won a second.

Early this week the Phillies successfully concluded what was a 4-month pursuit of the acknowledged top pitcher in baseball when they completed a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays that brought Roy Halladay to town.

The cost for Halladay was significant. He gets a 3-year deal that likely flips to 4 years at a salary of about $20 million per year. The cost also includes the package of prospects sent to the Jays led by pitcher Kyle Drabek and outfielder Michael Taylor. Both are considered future major league regulars by most baseball observers, with Drabek a potential future rotation ace.

Also dealt to Toronto was catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud, meaning that the Phils have now dealt away their top two catching prospects in the last few months. The other was Lou Marson, sent away to Cleveland back at the 2009 trade deadline as part of the Cliff Lee deal which also included pitching prospects Carlos Carrasco and Jason Knapp.

Perhaps the one annoying part of the deal for some Phillies fans was the linked trade of Lee to Seattle in exchange for prospects. Some of the fan base thought the Phils could have kept both Halladay and Lee, giving them one of the best starting rotations in all of baseball next year with Halladay, Lee, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton, and J.A. Happ.

However, Amaro knows his business. With the boatload of prospects lost by the Phillies minor league system in the two deals with Cleveland and Toronto over the past few months, that system was seriously depleted of top level talent. When Seattle was willing to part with a former #1 draft pick and highly regarded prospect arm in Phillipe Aumont, the Phils jumped to send Lee back to the American League.

Looking at the overall totality of the deals, the Phils got 3+ strong pitching months from Lee, performances without which the team likely doesn't return to the World Series, all for marginal or far-off prospects from Cleveland. Then they basically recouped the talent level on those prospects in flipping Lee to Seattle this week.

While the club theoretically could have kept both Halladay and Lee for this coming year, there was little likelihood that they could have met Lee's salary demands beyond 2010. So they jumped on a deal being offered right now that included strong prospects coming back to them.

Just yesterday the Phillies announced that they were excercising their 2011 contract option on shortstop and team leader Jimmy Rollins. This means that the club has contracts in place with 7 of their 8 position players through that season at least, with only Jayson Werth likely to test the free agent waters after the coming season.

The salary certainty with Halladay as an ace now in place, the Phillies can turn their attention to decisions and negotiations involving Werth next year and players like Rollins, Ryan Howard, Ryan Madson and others in the following year. The big Halladay deal was not the only move that the Phillies have made to improve this off-season.

Another key for management was rebuilding the team's bench, which seemed to become exposed as a bit of a liability in the post-season. To that end the club signed veteran Phillie-killer Brian Schneider to be the backup catcher, Juan Castro as a slick-fielding defensive infielder, and Ross Gload as a veteran pinch-hitter. Along with returnee Greg Dobbs, they will make up the majority of the Phils bench in the coming season.

Finally, the Phils have replaced the slick-fielding but offensively inconsistent and one-dimensional Pedro Feliz with returning veteran Placido Polanco at third base. There are not many better glovemen at the hot corner than Feliz, but Polanco is a vast improvement as a hitter who should bring greater flexibility and patience to a batting order that can use both at times. Although he won a Gold Glove as a 2nd baseman, he has the experience and athleticism to succeed at 3rd.

Amaro still has a little bit of work to do in finalizing the shape of the 2010 bullpen. Brad Lidge, Ryan Madson, J.C. Romero, and Chad Durbin should continue to have prime roles there. The team will have decisions to make on possibly adding or bringing back 2-3 other bullpen arms. Veteran Jamey Moyer will likely battle young Kyle Kendrick for the 5th starter role.

Phillies fans can now relax and enjoy a team in both 2010 and 2011 that will include Halladay fronting a rotation with Hamels and J.A. Happ both years, and with a lineup including Howard, Utley, Rollins, Victorino, Polanco, Ibanez, and Ruiz both years. All the while, prospects will develop and players will come and go around them, but health-allowing, the team will be a contender both years.

With back to back World Series appearances, one world championship in the bank already, three consecutive N.L. East titles, one of the most beautiful ballparks in the game, and a mostly set and talented lineup and rotation, the Phillies and their fans can truly sit back now and enjoy a happy holiday season with a happy Halladay on hand. Merry Christmas, Phillies fans!

Vote 'Pat the Bat' Onto the All-Star Team

MLB announced the names of the players for the NL & AL All-Star teams, with the Phils 2nd baseman Chase Utley and closer Brad Lidge named to the NL club (Chase will also participate in the Homerun Derby.) The Phils' Pat Burrell has been named one of five finalists eligible to be voted onto the National League All-Star team by the fans as an extra player. Click in and vote for Pat today. The final voting will end on Thursday, July 10th at 5pm EDT.