After a 2008 season in which he led the Phillies in wins and win pct. and won a World Series for his hometown team, no one would have blamed a soon-to-be 46 year old Jamie Moyer from retiring from the game he’d been playing for over 2 decades.

Instead, the Phillies ageless lefty expressed a desire to continue pitching, and he doubled down by searching for a two-year contract for his services.

On Dec. 11, just a month and change after the World Series triumph, David Murphy reported that Jamie Moyer was being courted by the Milwaukee Brewers. It was one of the few reports linking Moyer to a team other than the Phils.

On Dec. 15, Moyer agreed to a 2 year, $13 million deal with the Phils.

At the time, it seemed like a lot to pay for a back of the rotation starter who would be on the verge of 48 at the end of the contract.

By the end of last June, a 6.05 ERA and several really ugly starts (including a 2.1 inning 7 run drubbing at the hands of the Mets), that 2 years and $13 million seemed like a really bad idea. Moyer was maintaining his standing as the staff Yoda that the likes of Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ would gravitate to, but $13 million is a lot of money for Rich Dubee’s assistant.

Jamie’s second half performance improved, as he posted a 6-4 record and a 3.78 ERA before his season was ended by …

In my real job, I manage people. Sometimes my folks come dragging themselves into work despite having no business being in the office due to some contagious malady.

The last thing I want to hear from one of my employees is something along the lines of, “I’m not feeling too good today. Damn, this stomach bug is kicking my ass.”

Umm…go home. Right now. Don’t even get your coat. We’ll burn it for you.

In 2009, Brad Lidge had the pitching equivalent of the loosey juiceys. Luckily, it wasn’t something that anyone else on the pitching staff contracted, but he had no business coming to work regardless.

What’s worse, his bosses let him do it. Over. And over. And over.

I offer as new evidence the article in today’s Inquirer about Lidge using the Johnny Damon 2 base swipe in Game 4 of the 2009 World Series (referred to on this site as “Ruiz to Feliz to no one”) as motivation for improving his ability to hold runners on first base.

Lidge had this to say about the hoops he had to jump through to get the ball to the plate:

In order to minimize pain last year, he took to twisting the knee at the beginning of his motion, which relieved some of the pressure but slowed the pitch’s arrival at home plate.

“I had to twist, but that gave the runner extra time, about 0.4 [seconds],” Lidge said. “All of a sudden it becomes almost impossible for [catcher] Carlos …

The fun of filling out a March Madness bracket has created the opportunity for all sort of iterations of the seeding and one and done mentality of the NCAA tournament.

More often times than not, these types of brackets are annoying and stupid.

But not when The Shibe Times gets a 10 seed in the Lauber Region of The Phield. Sweet!!!

I’m going to need some serious help from my miniscule legion of readers, my Mom, and whoever else has an internet connection. I am up against Phinally Philly, an all-Philly sports blog with a killer design and far more updated content than this thirty-something father of 3 with no co-bloggers can muster.

There were 65 blogs (naturally) chosen for the bracket, and that certainly doesn’t cover all of the Phillies blogs out there. So I was happy to be seeded PERIOD, let alone get greedy for a better seed. Based on my less than robust posting frequency during the offseason, I gotta love a 10 seed.

Anyway, I don’t know which day our matchup will be, but this is a David vs. Goliath matchup. Phinally Philly has 2400 followers on twitter. I’d love to get to 150 by opening day.

Buster Olney is no dummy. He worked the Yankees beat for the New York Times, he’s an author and a Hall of Fame voter.

But, man, he laid an egg this weekend.

Olney is the subject of much criticism right now for a report he filed with ESPN that cites a source that said that the Phillies have kicked around the idea of trading Ryan Howard for all-world slugger and first baseman Albert Pujols.

So let me get this straight. The Phillies have spoken about trading one of their players for the best player in baseball? I’m sure the other 28 teams that don’t employ Pujols have never sat in the conference room and daydreamed about scoring Pujols and plugging him into the 3 hole of their lineup.

It’s just a stupid article, and Olney’s comments since his article has gone viral are no better. He is quick to let everyone know that this trade is nowhere near complete and that he was simply reporting that the Phillies have kicked around the idea. If that was “all it was” – just a harmless little note about the Phillies kicking around Pujols as a possible trade target – why even write it? At least at this point when there is nothing more than a source saying the Phillies discussed it and an adamant denial from Ruben?

Sometimes a story shouild be allowed to gestate a little to see if it has a chance to go anywhere or at least add some meat to a …

It was one of those surreal “How did we get here?” moments.

Halloween, 2009. Sect. 421. My Dad and I were still buried under our ponchos even though the rain was pretty much gone. Cole Hamels was walking off the mound in the top of the fifth inning after squandering an early 3-0 Phils’ lead in Game 3 of the World Series.

Before Charlie Manuel had taken the ball from Cole, you knew what was coming. Hamels ambled his way off the mound – dejected, and a healthy round of booing acted as the soundtrack for his long walk back to the dugout.

This was just one year after the parade. Is there any precedent for a Philly athlete going from the hero of a championship team to heel in one years’ time?

Hamels, for his part, laid pretty low after the Series was over. After his ill-advised postgame remarks from Game 3 about looking forward to the end of the season, Hamels essentially vanished. All that was left was plenty of ink to burn through on speculating about what 2009 would mean for Hamels’ 2010 and beyond. Talk of secondary pitches was popular, as 2009 clearly demonstrated that Cole could not dominate based on a plus fastball, killer change and subpar curveball.

By all accounts, Hamels has come to spring training with a renewed focus. He showed up early, has demonstrated a desire to master not just one, but 2 …

The Phils’ base coaches have been getting some much-deserved ink recently. Davey Lopes was in the news regarding the possibility that the former Dodger and baserunning guru was contemplating retirement. Luckily, it sounds like Davey isn’t going anywhere, at least not yet.

Today, Lopes’ counterpart at third, Sam Perlozzo, was featured in an Inquirer article by Andy Martino that explained all the work that the Phillies’ second year coach is doing with all 4 infielders to addressed aspects of their fieldwork.

Lopes’ contributions to the Phillies are numerous, but Todd Zolecki broke down the team’s baserunning prowess with Lopes as the first base coach:

His presence in Philadelphia has been invaluable. The Phils have an 84.5 stolen-base percentage the past three seasons, which easily leads baseball. (The Rangers are second at 78.7 percent). The Phillies set a Major League record with an 87.9 stolen base percentage in 2007. Their 84.5 percent mark in ’08 ranks second in baseball history.

Players like Werth, Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley talk about Lopes like he is the Jedi Master of basestealing. One wonders what would happen to the team’s basestealing fortunes when he leaves.

Perlozzo has taken on the task of working on the infielders’ defense. What struck me most about Martino’s article on Perlozzo was this nugget about Ryan Howard:

For the second consecutive year, Howard contacted Perlozzo in January, and the two worked at Bright House Field five times before spring training.

“It’s something we made strides …