It's go time!

When the Yankees’ Philip Hughes came out Tuesday night’s game in the seventh inning despite working on a no-hitter, it didn’t really seem like that big of a deal. After all, it was just Hughes’ second start as a big leaguer and it’s much better to be safe than sorry with the franchise’s top prospect.

But upon hearing it was a hamstring injury, I thought something was amiss. With Hughes out with a hamstring injury, he joins teammates Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina and Chien-Ming Wang on the sidelines with hammy injuries. Mix that with Andy Pettitte (sore back from lifting weights) and Johnny Damon and his calf injury (calves and hamstrings are related) and it’s easy to wonder what in the name of the assistant to the travelling secretary is going on in the South Bronx?

So it really didn’t come as much of a surprise when the Yankees announced that they had fired their strength coach on Wednesday. But when reading the story about the strength coach, 34-year old Marty Miller, it’s not surprising that he was a little unpopular with the players on the Yankees. Most baseball players, believe it or not, take fitness very, very seriously. Miller just didn’t seem to have the credentials to be in charge of keeping the Yankees loose and limber for a 162-game season.

Why not? Well, Miller had not worked in baseball for 10 years before general manager Brian Cashman hired him just before spring training. Prior to that, Miller’s previous job was director of fitness at the Ballen Isles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.? What, the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association didn’t want the gig? Was Izzy Mandelbaum available?

Regardless, reports on the Internets indicate that Tim McCarver had the answer for all the hamstring trouble plaguing the Yankees and other clubs during last weekend’s telecast of the Yanks-Red Sox game… how about mandatory yoga? Yeah, that’s right, yoga.

Oh don’t laugh. Yoga is extremely popular with not just baseball players, but also many other top-level professional athletes. On the Phillies, Mike Lieberthal was a devotee for years, which influenced many other players on the team to take it up. Geoff Geary tells some entertaining stories about his Bikram Yoga sessions.

McCarver is definitely on to something, and maybe Miller (Marty, you’re doing a heckuva job… ) wasn’t quite hip to the trends of fitness, who knows. Either way, I will go out on a limb and say there is no better stretch than the downward facing dog, though my best pose is savasana.

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Remember when Bobby Abreu played for the Phillies and fought the notion that he could be one of the best leadoff hitters in the game if he would just agree to moving up on the batting order? Remember all of that? Well, guess who has hit leadoff twice already this season?

You got it, Bobby Abreu.

For the record, Abreu hit leadoff for the Yankees for the first time since Larry Bowa bumped him up there for about 20 at-bats with the Phillies in 2003.

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Someone told me that the NBA Playoffs were going on… really?

Abreu finally takes a break

It seems so long ago, but the Phillies used to have Bobby Abreu. In fact, it’s hard to imagine the current team going through its paces in Clearwater in preparation for the 2007 season filled with high expectations with a player like Abreu. Just imagine a lineup with Rollins, Utley, Howard, Burrell and Abreu.

Think those guys could post a few runs?

Isn’t that what they did when he was here? It’s so hard to remember.

It’s been seven months since Abreu was a Phillie, which in baseball time is almost a lifetime ago. Seven months ago no one talked about protecting Ryan Howard in the lineup, because Howard was protecting Abreu. The opposition preferred to pitch to guys like Howard and Chase Utley instead and gave him nearly a walk a game. Compare that to the total he got when he joined the Yankees (33 in 58 games) and it was clear that Abreu was The Man with the Phillies.

Abreu, as we all remember, wasn’t really appreciated by certain elements of the sporting press and fandom in Philadelphia. His crime, it seemed was that he wouldn’t injure himself. And then even when he was injured Abreu still kept playing. During the stretch run of the 2005 season Abreu was so injured that he should have been on the disabled list. But since the Phillies were chasing the wild card Abreu ignored suggestions to take some time off in order to play.

He just thought that the team was better when he played.

For more than 151 games in the last nine straight seasons, Abreu has been out there working counts and getting hits in order to post the stats and help his team win. It’s just that in all of those games he chose not to run into outfield fences because, well… he wanted to play. Abreu believed that he was more valuable to his team over the long season by playing rather than being injured.

In Philadelphia, it seemed, we want out players to be injured unless, of course, they are actually injured.

Now with the Yankees, it appears as if the durable Abreu is finally injured. Actually, Abreu is so injured that he is going to be shut down from activity for at least the next two weeks because there is nothing the Yankees’ trainers can do for him.

The problem: a pulled oblique muscle in his right side.

“It was painful,” Abreu told reporters on Tuesday. “You just have to hang with it, and don't try to worry about too much. It's sore. I felt a little pain there and thought it was nothing to worry about. I kept swinging and then, after one swing, I felt a big pain.”

But come opening day everyone – Abreu included – expects the right fielder to be out there.

Like it or not, that’s just what he does.

Elsewhere...
The Phillies announced that Flyers' play-by-play man Jim Jackson has joined the broadcast team as the host of the pre- and post-game radio shows.

Fear not Flyers' fans, Jackson is not giving up hockey. Instead, the 20-year hockey veteran will get his first taste of Major League Baseball action.

Friday leftovers

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday, everyone. I hope those tryptophans didn’t make you too sluggish.

Nevertheless, Pat Gillick and the Phillies brass appears to be on the verge of heating up the hot stove, or some other overused imagery like that. According to ESPN’s baseball sage Buster Olney, the Phillies are one of three teams – the Astros and Orioles are the other two – in the mix to land slugger Carlos Lee. On Thursday Olney wrote that if the Phillies get Lee it’s a serious 180-degree turn from the team’s stance when dealing away Bobby Abreu.

Actually, it’s the same issue I had with the pursuit of Alfonso Soriano, however, Lee like mercenary Soriano, is right-handed. The Phillies, apparently, are willing to overlook a lot of flaws and financial constraints for simple right-handedness.

Anyway, as Olney wrote:

If the Phillies wind up winning this bidding, it's doubtful that there will be a more glaring example of a front-office strategic flip-flop that costs the team tens of millions of dollars: On July 30, the Phillies essentially gave away on-base percentage machine Bobby Abreu to the Yankees because they wanted to get out from underneath the $23 million still owed to him, in '06 and '07 salary. And now, four months later, they are on the verge of signing another player who is A) roughly the same age (Abreu is 32, Lee is 30); B) much worse defensively, considering his range and throwing arm; C) an inferior athlete -- Lee's thickening body greatly concerns some general managers; and D) much, much, much more expensive, with the team's financial obligation for an impact corner outfielder increasing by perhaps as much as $85 million, if the Phillies' bid takes them over $100 million.

Now, the one real plus that Lee has, in how he fits the Phillies, is that he's a right-handed hitter who will slot in well with left-handed hitters Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.

By the way, I think we can safely assume that the Yankees are going to pick up the $16 million option on Abreu's contract for 2008, barring a serious injury, in light of how contract costs have skyrocketed this off-season.

Lee, of course, has four straight 30-plus homer and 100-RBI seasons in a row, as well as two straight All-Star appearances. He also does not strikeout as much as typical power hitters (or walk as much) and has played in at least 140 games in the last seven seasons. This means that Lee, like Abreu, is consistent. It also means that Lee just might be what Gillick thinks the Phillies need to “protect” Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.

Looking to the winter

For anyone who has followed the news lately, there doesn't need to be an explaination about what has been happening here in Lancaster County. Though I live a short 25 to 30 minute drive from the so-called Amish Country, my part of Lancaster may as well be on the other side of the earth from there.

But when something happens out there it resonnates throughout our city. More than that, an attack to the Amish way is an assault on all of us.

On to the baseball...

Needless to say the Phillies season ended rather anti-climatically after a month in which it seemed as if the wild-card race was a bottle of soda being shook up in an industrial paint mixer. But before the top could be popped, the Phillies fizzled.

Surprised?

I get the sense that the Phillies will head into this winter more optimistic than they had been during the past failed seasons. Maybe that has something to do with how well the team played after the trade deadline, or that proven GM Pat Gillick is in charge... who knows? Just be sure that the Phillies really think the future is very bright and expect them to market the '07 season accordingly.

Nevertheless, there are a few pressing issues Gillick and the brass have to iron out. The situation with Pat Burrell and the outfield is high on that list, along with shoring up the five spots on the pitching rotation and adding strength to the bullpen.

In regard to the pitching, don't expect both Jamie Moyer or Randy Wolf to return. Wolf is a free agent who would like to return to the Phillies, while Moyer is a 20-year vet who would prefer to pitch for a team that trains in Arizona and plays near his home in Seattle. Interestingly, though, Moyer has an option for '07 that he will likely exercise. Where that leaves him and the Phillies is any one's guess.

Could Moyer be traded for a reliever? Doubtful, but you never know.

Meanwhile, if Jon Lieber and Brett Myers are going to remain at the top of the Phillies' rotation, both pitchers must do something about their fitness... or else. Not only did both pitchers' girth effect their performances -- especially in regard to injuries and athletic nature of the game -- it was also a bit embarrassing. I know Manuel said something to Lieber about his weight in the past, but it has now reached the point where it can't be a dirty, little joke. Lieber and Myers have to get into athletic shape and the Phillies have to make them.

As for the bullpen, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so about Arthur Rhodes. Go ahead, click here and read the story I wrote when they traded for him. I'm not often correct, but whn I am I like to gloat.

Still, though he pitched well until he was worn down to a little nub, Geoff Geary is not the answer at the back end of the Phillies' bullpen. Maybe the answer is Ryan Madson, who went through something of a lost year this season as he bounced back and forth between the rotation and 'pen. Expect Madson to be back where he belongs for the entire season in 2007.

But the Phillies will still need some horses back there. Gillick definitely knows that championship teams are often built from the back to the front, and, like last year, expect the GM to attempt to strengthen the pitching staff.

Live, from New York...
I must admit that my favorite part about watching the baseball playoffs is watching the former Phillies in action. That's always been the case -- I even have a vague recollection of Jay Johnstone playing first base for the Yankees in the clinching game of the 1978 World Series. It was a day game and we lived in D.C. and Johnstone played for the Phillies earlier that year.

That's about all I remember from that World Series.

However, I remember sitting in a conference room in Citizens Bank Park listening to Ed Wade refuse to talk about Scott Rolen, Curt Schilling and Terry Francona making the run to the World Series in 2004. I think Ed thought we were picking on him.

Anyway, I especially enjoyed Bobby Abreu deliver a clutch, two-run double to open up the scoring for the Yankees in the blowout victory in last night's opener. And there, at third base was Larry Bowa waving those runners in.

Man does Bobby Abreu fit in well with that team.

Good reading...

Here are some stories that stood out on Monday morning:

Scott Lauber's feature in the Wilmington News Journal on Tommy John surgery is outstanding. This is his first year covering the Phillies, but already Lauber has stood out with his enthusiasm. He could turn out to be another Doug Lesmerises.

The New Yorker's take on the Bobby Abreu deal in The Times from local kid Tyler Kepner and Jack Curry. According to the story, the Yankees believe they got a steal. It's hard to argue with that.

From the before-and-after file, here's on from Dennis Deitch of the Delco Times published on Feb. 16, 2003 and the reprisal from July 31, 2006. Deitch has an innate ability to cut through the crap and tell the real story. For anyone who appreciates real iconoclasts, Deitch is your man. Better yet, he wisely believes that the Pixies are the greatest band in the past 25 years.

I call them No. 1a, standing astride Fugazi, but that's a different post for later.

And, of course, there is Todd Zolecki's short interview with Cory Lidle, who hucked a Moltov cocktail on his way out of Philadelphia. Very nice.