Tomorrow is the deadline for teams to offer their free agents arbitration, which would ensure that they don’t sign elsewhere without their previous team receiving anything in return.

The Phillies don’t figure to offer arbitration to Rudy Seanez or Tom Gordon, but offers to Pat Burrell and Jamie Moyer seem likely, according to MLB.com’s Ken Mandel.

Having to do one year arbitration contracts with Moyer and Burrell is really the worst-case scenario. Todd Zolecki thinks the Phils may not offer Burrell arbitration, as they may not want to pay $14 million or maybe more for 1 year for him. This could limit the Phillies options as it relates to signing free agents, Zolecki believes.

I don’t think the Phillies should let the potential of having to sign Burrell for 1 year at a higher number than what he would average for a multi-year deal deter them from still offering him arbitration. Letting Burrell walk for nothing, as compared to 2 draft picks should he sign elsewhere, seems like bad business to me.

The real surprise is that Moyer and the Phillies have been unable to reach a contract agreement. For a couple of weeks we’ve been led to believe that it was simply scheduling, and that there was no rush. Now it seems like there may be more to this than simply getting Ruben Amaro and Moyer’s agents calendars lined up. The Phillies should tread carefully on anything exceeding 1 year guaranteed. I’d love to see the Phils sign Moyer to 1 …

Matt Stairs is one of those guys that we’ll never forget in Philly – 10, 15 years from now he’ll still be fodder for nostalgic conversations at bars all across the Delaware Valley. By the time we tell our kids about his homer in Game 4 of the NLCS, it’ll sound like he hit it completely out of Dodger Stadium.

What’s so refreshing about Stairs is how honest and unassuming he his. Admitting after that game that he goes up to bat with one thing in mind each time – jacking a homer – is just what we’re looking for in our heroes. You hear guys all the time tell us how their homers are “mistakes” or how they never go up thinking about hitting one out – and you know 95% of them are full of it.

Anyway – Stairs is back in Maine coaching hockey, and the Bangor Daily News caught up with him.

One the more interesting parts of the article is when Stairs discusses how a new acquisition can ignite a fire among previously slumping players:
“The biggest thing is it is more of a wake-up call for some of the players who were struggling at the time,” said Stairs, who noted such a move can jump start the players who are struggling.

“Jayson Werth stepped up and hit two homers and had six RBIs in the first game I was there,” pointed out Stairs.
Stairs also give a shout out to the Philly phaithful the way Jimmy Rollins should …

Todd Zolecki reports that Utley had successful hip surgery on Monday, and that his timetable for return remains the same – 4-6 months. According to Zolecki, “Utley had an arthroscopic debridement of his labrum and a bony lesion that was present.” Sounds like a lot of fun.

Dugout Central theorizes how the Utley gap will be filled by the Phils.

Lenny Dykstra has settled a lawsuit with an accounting firm, but not before dissing Mitch Williams and vamping about assorted other issues. Man, is he a head case.

Jamie Moyer and the Phillies are still talking, according to Mr. Z, but nothing has been finalized. Perhaps it’s just a scheduling issue, or maybe they can’t agree on years, but it looks like the Phillies are exploring their options with other free agents. Is it gamesmanship to get Moyer to sign, or are they serious about Burnett or Lowe, both who would be far more expensive?

Jason Weitzel over at Beerleaguer laments the loss of R.J. Swindle.

The Good Phight lists some things to be give thanks for before we engulf the bird tomorrow.

The complicated career of former Phillie Dick Allen is again in the spotlight as the slugger is on the ballot for consideration by the Veteran’s Committee. The announcement will be made on Dec. 8 during the Winter Meetings.

Allen did 2 tours of duty with the Phillies – first, from 1963 to 1969, and then again at the end of his career in 1975 – 76. The first go ’round was eventful to say the least. For those of us who weren’t even alive during this time, by all accounts it rivals anything we’ve seen over the last 25 years, including Owens vs. McNabb, Allen Iverson, Mike Schmidt’s well chronicled relationship with Philly fans, and the Lindros/Clarke fiasco of the late 90′s.

The Cons

Detractors contend that Allen was a clubhouse cancer, creating factions of enemies and friends that were pitted against one another. They continue that Allen created enough distractions that teams he played on were worse off for having him. Perhaps no one more succinctly explains this theory than sabermetric guru and Red Sox adviser Bill James. James writes in his book, The Politics of Glory (1994):

The stuff that is gradually being forgotten and revised and rewritten out of existence is that Allen never did anything to help his teams win, and in fact spent his entire career doing everything he possibly could to keep his teams from winning.

and then concludes with this:

Did he have value? Did he help his teams win?

He …

It was 18 years ago today when former Phillies catcher Bo Diaz was killed when a satellite dish fell on him at his home in Venezuela.

Diaz played from 1982 to 1985 with the Phils. His best statistical year offensively, 1982, ranks as one of the 5 best ever by a catcher, trailing only Darren Daulton (1992, 1993), Mike Lieberthal (1999) and Stan Lopata (1956).

In fact, Diaz is only the second Phillie catcher ever to have a season with a BA over .275, 25 doubles, and 15 homers. Only Mike Lieberthal joined him when he achieved all 3 in 1999. Darren Daulton had the 2 greatest overall offensive years by a catcher in 1992 and 1993, but his average in those years were .270 and .257, respectively.

Diaz’s numbers declined in 1983, his last season playing full-time for the Phils. 1984, Diaz played in only 27 games due to a knee injury, and lost his starting job to Ozzie Virgil Jr. In 1985, he was traded early in the year to the Reds for a player to be named later, who turned out to be Freddie Toliver .

In a move surprising no one, both Chase Utley and Pedro Feliz will undergo surgery next week – Utley for his hip, and Feliz for his lower back. Utley could be on the shelf for 6 months, although I expect he’ll be chomping at the bit to be on the field asap.

Chase clearly was playing hurt the second half of 2008. He was on pace for a historic offensive year after the first 2 months. Then, a complete 180. The sooner they get this resolved, the better off the Phils and Utley will be. This could either be an opening for Jason Donald to show what he’s got, or for a journeyman like Tad Iguchi to fill in until Utley is ready to strap his cleats on again.

On Utley – knowing that he was playing with a bum hip for months, and still cranked 2 absolutely critical homers in the postseason, adds even more to what is shaping up to be an amazing Phillies career. In Game 1 of the NLCS, when it looked like the Phils wouldn’t do squat against Derek Lowe, Utley launched one in the 6th inning. Then, in Game 1 of the World Series, he jumped on a Scott Kazmir offering in the first inning to stake Cole Hamels to an early lead.

It sounds like Feliz should recover more quickly, but you wonder if he’ll fight back issues throught ’09, resulting in more of a platoon situation with Greg Dobbs. Feliz played 129 games …

Todd Zolecki, among others, is reporting that the Phils may be interested in Raul Ibanez as a possible replacement for Pat Burrell should the Phillies not be able to come to terms with their veteran left fielder.

Color me unimpressed. At least as it relates to replacing Burrell. It’s not that Ibanez isn’t a good player, but I don’t like the idea of adding another LH bat into a line up that is already loaded with them. I realize that he batted well against lefties last year (.305 vs. LH, .288 vs. RH), but that was the exception, and not the rule, as it relates to his career stats (.268 vs. LH vs. .293 vs. RH).

On the plus side for Ibanez, he hits for average more than Burrell (career .286 vs. Burrell’s pedestrian .257), but that doesn’t translate to his OPS, which is a career .818 vs. Burrell’s .852. Ibanez is a better fielder, but Burrell is 4 years younger than Ibanez.

If Ibanez wants a 3-4 year deal, what would be the justification for giving it to him instead of giving 3 years to Burrell? Ibanez would be 40 when his contract expired vs Burrell, who would be 35 and still younger than Burrell is today. Is his superior batting average and better defense enough to outweigh the age difference plus the lefthanded vs. righthanded argument?

At this point, I haven’t heard a better option for 2009 than Pat Burrell returning to patrol left field. We pretty much know exactly what …

One of the best things about the afterglow of a World Championship is how irrational we as fans get about the players who took us there. We wax poetic about every positive they bring to the table, while disregarding anything remotely negative since, “We won it all”. We forget the business side of it and commit ourselves to seeing only the good in them.

It’s like we become their Mom. No objectivity whatsoever.

Listen, I’m as guilty of this as anybody.

“Pat Burrell HAS to come back next year. He’s not that slow. Plus, how can we replace that consistent production?”

“Ryan Howard’s strikeouts are overrated. Albert Pujols is Ryan Howard’s ballboy.”

“Kyle Kendrick is going to totally bounce back and fulfill his destiny as a Phillies starter”.

“Adam Eaton is going to totally bounce back and fulfill his destiny as a Phillies starter”.

“I’d let Brett Myers date my sister”.

Here’s the one I heard the other day, though, that got me thinking. And stat checking:

“Jamie Moyer is a Hall of Fame pitcher”.

Now, I love Jamie. As much as everyone else does. He is, as they say, “a gamer”. His first two 2008 postseason games notwithstanding, he has been as consistent a pitcher as the Phillies have had since he arrive here in mid 2006. His 246 wins could become 280 if a lot of things go right for him over the next few years.

But Jamie Moyer is not going into the Hall of Fame. Not unless he wins 300 games. And that would …

Phil Sheridan goes medieval on the BBWAA for not giving the MVP award to Ryan Howard, as well as a general distaste for the fact that the writers have any say in the voting for awards in the first place.

I don’t really like the idea of the writers deciding these awards either. The same goes for the Hall of Fame. But I also don’t have a great idea for who should do it if they don’t, and it doesn’t seem like Sheridan does, either.

Maybe a consortium of writers, Hall of Famers, current players and other baseball minds would be better than putting all of the onus on the writers.

Sheridan’s second point, that Ryan Howard deserved the MVP award, is just silly. Howard had a good year, but caught fire mostly at the end. His first few months were awful. His batting average was atrocious, and no MVP should be given to any player with a batting average of .251, unless he drives in 200 runs and hits 80 homers.

The award is to the player who was most valuable to his team. There were many reasons why the Cardinals finished 4th in their division, and none had anything to do with Pujols. The fact that he couldn’t will them to a higher finish despite a .357 BA, 116 RBI and 37 HR should not preclude him from being awarded.

Clearly there were some stupid votes cast, as Sheridan points out, but in the end the right guy won the award.

No news at all on the free agent front for anyone. It will be really interesting to see how the overall economic conditions impact the signings across Major League Baseball.

On a non-Phillies, but slightly related news front, I finally know what happened to Tim Panaccio, who gave an interview to the700level.com regarding his wherabouts and the circumstances surrounding his exit from the Inquirer.

Also seen on The 700 Level was a link to this blog, where a guy chronicled the Phillies season with one sentence synopses of each game. Pretty cool.

Ruben Amaro appears to have settled on an Asst. GM to take his place, and it’s Scott Proefrock, who was the director of baseball administration for the Orioles for the last few years. He was chosen over a few more higher profile names, including Jim Duquette. He is the second former Orioles employee to join the Phils, after former manager Sam Perlozzo was hired for TBD spot on the coaching staff. 3rd base, perhaps?

Todd Zolecki has a good wrapup of where things are right now in terms of free agents etc.

Can’t Ryan Howard go to a strip club without it making the papers?