It looks like David Akers has no company as the longest-tenured pro athlete in Philadelphia. Tsn.ca is reporting today that the other oldest Philadelphian, Simon Gagne, is now a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. What the Flyers will receive in trade has yet to be announced.

Gagne had played 664 games with the Flyers, recording 259 goals and 265 assists. The #1 pick in the 1998 draft, Gagne’s scoring production was good for 10th place on the Flyers all-time list. Gagne will be missed for his scoring touch. So as they say in his native Quebec, adieu.

While watching the game yesterday, JGT speculated aloud whether Jimmy Rollins was too hungover to play in the game against the Nationals. Rollins reportedly had a “strained calf” after he looked fine in pregame warmups. The scratch came after the linepus were officially announced and (according to Beerleaguer) some have speculated that Rollins was late (again) to the ballpark and that violation landed him on the pine. Juan Castro filled in at short and looked ok (despite an error) but let’s be honest: Ruth Bader Ginsburg could have started at shortstop against the Nationals and the Phillies would have probably won the game anyway.

Beerleaguer cites the Comcast postgame report as the source of speculation about Rollins’ tardiness. Also mentioned is CBS3.com which reported “Jimmy Rollins late, Scratched from Phillies’ Lineup.” It must have been the stress of dealing with the unworldly Houston Astros that drew Rollins to the bottle late Sunday night and early into Monday morning. The anxiety attending facing a winless team with a pitching staff that has a 5.95 ERA was most likely the banana peel on the slippery slope of drunkeness that caused Rollins’ lateness. Which led to Castro booting that ground ball which led to a butterfly which led to chaos…drunkeness is never good, my friends, and it is the sole cause of lateness, as we all know.

UPDATE: Several people much closer to the Phillies than I believe Rollins is injured, not drunk.

On the Dan Patrick show yesterday, Jimmy Rollins essentially ripped Phils management for making a deal that still has many Philadelphians seeing red. When asked why the Phils traded Lee, J-Roll responded: “I have no idea. I’m sure we could afford him (Lee). We turned nearly four million people through the turnstiles last year. I don’t know. You should have Ruben on here…When the trade happened, I actually got a text from Jayson Werth and he was like, ‘What are we doing?’ And I was like, ‘Didn’t we get Halladay?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, but we traded Lee.’ And my mouth dropped like, ‘That wasn’t part of the deal…”I thought we had enough to keep (Lee),” he said. “I thought we could have done enough to keep him. I guess that’s just a move the Yankees do. … That’s just the truth. The Yankees would have been like, ‘Hey, we got a chance to keep both of them. We’ll pay them both for a year or two and we got a chance to win a championship.’”

Another reason we love J-Roll: he thinks just like we do, an admirable trait in anyone. With the performances of Hamels and Kendrick to open the season, the voices are not getting quieter. Amaro put an astounding amount of pressure on his starting pitchers by trading Cliff Lee. If 2009 Hamels shows up and Kyle Kendrick is as bad as he looked yesterday, the anti-Amaro chorus will get louder.

Much is being made of the fact that Jayson Werth is in the last year of his contract with the Phillies. Werth is due $7.5 million this year, which will make him the 7th-highest player on a team that has a $138 million payroll for the 2010 season. Ruben Amaro has made a lot of noise about the fact that this team is not the New York Yankees, presumably meaning that the Phillies cannot afford to have more than 4 or 5 players making more than $15 million per season. How this relates to their ability to resign Werth is unclear at this point, so let’s take a look at some of the Phillies’ payroll commitments for the near future.

In the short term, the six Phillies who will make more money than Werth this season are Ryan Howard ($19 million), Roy Halladay ($15.75), Chase Utley ($15.29), Raul Ibanez ($12.17), Brad Lidge ($12) and Jimmy Rollins ($8.5). All six of these players are under contract for the 2011 season and only two of them, Howard and Halladay, are due raises in ’11 ($1 million and $4.25, respectively). This means that the Phillies are committed for about $88 million in 2011 for their top players and $133 million altogether.

Going a step further, Raul Ibanez’s advanced age and free agent status makes him a certain subtraction from the Phils’ payroll in 2012. Brad Lidge (who knows what he’ll be like in 2 years) is only due $1.5 million in 2012. Utley and Halladay are both under contract through the 2013 season so Jimmy Rollins will have to be renegotiated (2012 is the last year of his deal). With the bulk of the Phillies minor league talent existing in the form of outfielders, the need for Werth’s services past the 2011 season are questionable, which may make parting ways with him palatable for Amaro and the organization. But that all boils down to how much money Werth can expect from suitors in the free agency market.

Obviously, Ruben Amaro is better in touch with the mechanics of free agency than we are, so let’s just do a cursory look at what Werth, a career .265 hitter, can expect in the form of a raise. Statistically, Werth is coming off his most impressive season. He hit 50% more home runs in 2009 than in his next-most productive season (24 in 2008). He’s never tallied more than 100 RBI (max was 99 last season) and he’s never had an OPS better than .879. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio isn’t good (just about 1 BB for every 2 Ks) and while Werth does have good range in right field, his speed hasn’t translated that well to his stolen base totals: his best seasons were ’08 and ’09 where he stole 20 bases each season. For his career, he steals a base about once in every nine games he plays.

Let’s take Jason Bay’s signing by the Mets as a comparison. Bay’s contract will pay him $54.5 million over the next 4 years, plus a $17 million club option for 2014, meaning he’ll average about $13.63 million in his guaranteed years with the Mets. Considering Werth is making $7.5 million, should he expect a $6 million raise on par with a guy like Bay?

Like Werth, Bay has played 7 Major League seasons. His career average is .280. He hit the same number of home runs as Werth this past season (let’s consider Fenway Park and Citizens Bank Park to be washes in terms of their favorability to power hitters–two of the smallest lots in baseball). Bay has hit twice as many home runs in his career than Werth (185-93). Bay has tallied more than 100 RBI in 4 of his 7 seasons (119 in 2009) and has a career OPS of .896 which is better than Werth’s best single-season OPS. Bay’s SO-BB ratio is about 6% better than Werth’s. While Bay has a career best of 21 stolen bases (exceeding Werth’s best season), that was in 2005 and he only steals a base every 14 games.

We know the Mets are a relatively free-spending team when it comes to free agency. Considering they are spending less than $15 on Jason Bay (who has had a markedly better offensive career than Werth), can we really project that Werth will be able to command a contract that pays him in excess of $15 million per season? And assuming we can’t, how should we take Amaro’s argument that a likely parting with Werth will happen because the Phillies don’t want to overspend, on par with a team like the Yankees?

Jayson Werth is a very good outfielder who is coming off his best season. But it seems unlikely to me that Werth will command the kind of money that will prevent the Phillies from making him a competitive offer in free agency. So if the magic number is $140 million for 2011 and the Phillies are already committed to $133 million (with all the other top players under contract), it will be interesting to see how far over $140 Amaro will be willing to go to resign Werth.

Maybe it’s because I’m a glutton for frustration that I continue to do this to myself. Or maybe it’s because, as a professional journalist, I have to know what’s going on in the major media outlets in this town. But when I do subject myself to the sports “news” outlet in this town that is the information equivalent of anti-matter, I always end up wanting to throw my radio (and myself) down a flight of stairs. You guessed it, I’m listening to WIP.

All through the day today callers to the various shows on 610 AM were basing their predictions for a Phillies World Series on the assumption that the Phillies have “heart” and the Yankees don’t. Of course, having “heart” is universally the first intangible that any local fan will go to to describe why his/her team is in the driver’s seat. The reason is that “heart” is the most readily identifiable trait that a fan can have with a team. After all, fans can’t hit a Major League pitch, run faster than Shane Victorino or make a diving play in the hole like Jimmy Rollins. But what fans can do is emote and will that their team somehow, some way will find the guidance to do exactly what they themselves are doing in their armchairs: wanting it more than the other guy.

As I write this I realize it may sound like I don’t believe that the Phillies have heart or that heart doesn’t matter in sports. Quite the opposite is true on both counts. Few teams get where the Phillies are by playing aloof or disliking each other or failing to overcome obstacles. Their individual talents are nothing without the emotional trust they have in each other and the collective focus and drive to win. Some teams are blessed with this more than others and I most definitely think of this Phillies team as one that plays ball the right way and shows that magic on the field that we call heart.

But so do the Yankees. Perhaps because of their image as a team comprised of hired guns, fans of their opponents see them as emotionally vacuous, as mercenaries along for the ride less out of love of the game and more out of greed and vanity. While this is certainly true of some players on the Yankees (and players on just about every sports team that’s ever existed), the 2009 Yankees are not some heartless machine. They went 35-8 at home after the All-Star break. They came back from a 4-0 deficit against the Angels’ best pitcher in Game 4 of the ALCS. They had the most come-from-behind wins in baseball this year. And they feature (at least) three guys who are legends of post season baseball in Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera.

Look, the Phillies are the defending World Champs and one of the best two teams in baseball. And most of the people who read this site have watched scores of Phillies games this year and associate both on a statistical and emotional level with their beloved team. But for every Phillies fan who bleeds red, there’s a Yankees fan who knows his team just as well and bleeds just as much, if only in a different color.

As a Red Sox fan, I have years of Yankee hating in my blood. I detest that franchise and am rooting as hard as I can for the Phillies to win. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years in watching the core of the New York team as closely as I have, it’s that they’re not the heartless robot we like to think of them as. In fact, they’re a lot like the Phillies. They’re talented, hit for power, pitch well up front and play excellent defense. And they’ve got a lot of heart.

So I’ll be watching the World Series, hoping the Phillies win and probably doing all kinds of irrational stuff in the process. But this year I’ll try and keep in mind what my dad has always told me (he played minor league ball in the Dodgers system back in the day when Dodgers-Yankees made Eagles-Cowboys look like erotica): as a fan don’t forget that the other team is also trying to win the game.

Andy Martino’s “The Phillies Zone” at philly.com has a bunch of quotes today from Yankees players about the Phillies. Most of them are stock answers and they all pretty much fail to provide any bulletin board material in the Phils locker room. The one quote that I found most interesting was from A-Rod. When asked about what he thought the keys to the series would be, Orange Roid said “power is a big weapon for both teams…two Hall of Fame shortstops and two great leaders.”

While he doesn’t name Rollins as such, clearly one of the two HOF shortstops he refers to is Derek Jeter (who is a lock for Cooperstown). So unless Rodriguez is talking about himself as the other HOF shortstop (a position he has played quite a bit of in the past), one has to assume he’s refering to Jimmy Rollins.

But is Jimmy a Hall of Fame-caliber shortstop? Thegoodphight.com has a piece on this topic from a few years ago and puts together a number of questions, the answers to which suggest that Rollins has built a pretty solid candidacy. Baseballreference.com has Rollins significantly behind likely Hall of Fame pace in both its “Hall of Fame Monitor” and “Hall of Fame Standards” (though both these refer only to offensive production). Though when you look at the website’s “similarity scores,” the names of Bobby Doerr and Ryne Sandberg (both in Cooperstown) are listed as “similar players” to Rollins.

To me Jimmy Rollins is a long way from the Hall of Fame. For a player who’s been in MLB for only 10 seasons to be spoken-about as a Hall of Famer, that guy needs to have Pujols-like stats. Through 10 campaigns, Rollins is a .274 hitter and has 1629 hits. While his defensive skills are among the best in baseball, to say he’s punched his ticket to Cooperstown is surely premature.

With that said, Rollins has an MVP to his credit, 3 All-Star appearances and 2 gold gloves. While those numbers aren’t sufficient to Willy Wonka him into the Hall, perhaps the most important thing he can do for his legacy in the short term is to produce in the leadoff position in this World Series. After all, 2 World Championships go a long way with the voters.

Why in the hell were the Rockies outfielders playing shallow when Howard was at bat? People are going to point the finger at Huston Street, but the Rockies outfielders dropped the ball on that one. The only way you can get burned in that situation is by a double. So why not guard the warning track?

Should Utley have gone to first in the 8th when Fowler hurdled him? I argued yes, some people at my table argued he made the right move, and others said Fowler would have been safe anyway because the umps would have called interference on Utley. 

I’d just like to take a quick moment to thank the Cleveland Indians organization for Charlie Manuel, Cliff Lee, and Ben Francisco. Feel free to keep giving us what you don’t want. We’ll take it. (I still can’t believe they threw in Francisco on the Lee deal. Like Amaro wasn’t going to trade 4 nobodies for Lee if the Indians didn’t sweeten the deal with Ben Francisco.)

Why in the hell was Miguel Cairo playing left field in the 9th? In case you were curious, Cairo hadn’t played left field since last season, when he played all of  4 innings in left for the Mariners. Apparently the 9th inning of a one-run playoff game was the best time for him to get his feet wet.

The Phils need to extend a Laurel and Hardy handshake to the umpires, as the umps seem to be giving the Phils the Yankees treatment. After blowing a call that led to a win in Game 3, the umps blew a few in favor of the Phils last night as well. The one that immediately comes to mind was the tag of Victorino in the third inning, though there was a Rollins tag out of Fowler that was questionable as well. 

Poor TBS. Through no fault of their own they had to show the best game of the playoffs other than the Twins-Tigers epic at a decent hour when both kids and hard working adults could watch. “Our hands were tied,” said a top TBS executive. “We wanted to either air the game at 10 a.m. or 11:45 p.m., but those other teams got swept and we had no choice. We apologize for forcing America watch the World Champions pull off a dramatic win by scoring three runs with two outs in the 9th inning. Next time we will just black out the game and show highlights of the 2004 Yankees-Red Sox NLCS.”

Here’s a pretty wild fact, courtesy of the Denver Post: The last time Lidge was this happy after a game in Colorado, he had pitched Cherry Creek High School to the 1995 state title over Arvada West. That day in Colorado Springs, he beat a pretty fair pitcher named Roy Halladay…He blew off the team hotel for his own bed at Mom and Dad’s place. Some Phillies even came over to see his old room. Some of the Phillies came over to Brad’s folks house to see his old room? God, I freaking love this team. 

Before the game last night I posted on twitter, “I predict a 4-3 Phils victory. I also predict me getting drunk and eating wings.” I was off by a run for each team, but the rest of the prediction was rather accurate.

As I’m writing this, Jimmy Rollins has hit his 10th home run of the season today against the Cardinals. His homer came as one of four 2-run shots hit by the Phillies. This outburst marks the second day in a row the Phillies have hit four 2-run homers.

On July 1 the Phillies were beaten 11-1 by the Braves, putting them into a tie for 1st in the N.L. East. The first day of July also marks the lowest Rollins’ average had fallen since May 25. While the Phillies lost 5-2 at Atlanta on the 2nd, Jimmy Rollins went 2-4 and his average jumped .004 points to .209.

Since that Atlanta series, Rollins has hit .346, has an OBP of .426, driven in 16 runs, hit 10 doubles and slugged .605 giving him an OPS of 1.030. To put Rollins hot streak in perspective, his full-season projections based on production during this stretch looks like this: 85 doubles, 9 triples, 26 HR, 51 stolen bases, 136 RBI and most importantly for a leadoff hitter, 162 runs scored which means Rollins would be scoring a run, on average, every game.

It seems especially worthy of note to point-out Rollins’ leadoff successes of late on a weekend when Ricky Henderson, one of the great leadoff men of all time, is inducted into the Hall of Fame. While Rollins may not be quite on Henderson’s level, his production throughout the month of July has been amazing and it goes directly to the most important stat of all: during his hot streak, the Phillies have gone 16-3. The lesson in all this is pretty simple, but incredibly true: when the leadoff man scores, the team wins.

Since the Phillies are currently romping the hapless Pirates behind another good performance from J. A. Happ and Josh Beckett’s bid for 100 wins is going swimmingly (he’s 1-hitting the Royals), I’m listening to the Cubs-Cardinals game. I’ve been rewarded for going outside my comfort zone by hearing the call of Carlos Zambrano’s home run. And as I’m writing this, the dreamy Albert Pujols has made 6 unassisted outs through 6 innings. Here are some other facts that will make you a better person.

• With the addition of Jayson Werth to the N.L. All-Star lineup, the Phillies will be sending 5 players to the Midsummer Classic. Looks like A.L. and Tampa Bay manager, Joe Madden, has made an addition of his own by replacing the unable-to-attend Dustin Pedroia with A.L. home run leader, Carlos Pena. This move means that the entire Tampa Bay starting infield will be on the American League roster, impressive when you consider they lost stud 2nd baseman, Awinori Iwamura, early in the season to injury.
• Jimmy Rollins walked 16 times in his first 69 games this season. In the first 11 games of July, he’s walked 10 times and is hitting .380 this month.
• J.A. Happ has given up 4 hits and 1 run through 7 today against the Pirates. His K-BB ratio has improved to 2-1 and his ERA has lowered to 2.90. On his way to his 6th win (against no losses) and 4th-consecutive outing logging at least7 innings, Happ may be a candidate for N.L. Rookie of the Year according to Johnny Goodtimes.
• ESPN Insider is reporting that the Brewers may have thrown their hats in the Roy Halladay ring. If true and the interest is serious, this could be a problem for the Phils. The Brewers showed last year they’re willing to mortgage the house (if even for half a season) to get a top-notch pitcher (C. C. Sabathia); I’m not sure the Phillies have ever made a mid-season move that big.

What I’m not going to do is mention PEDs in this post since bloggers who mention players and drugs in the same sentence are doomed to scorn and righteous indignation from the players themselves and the mainstream media. With that said, there are a number of big-time players in baseball this season who are having seasons that seem to indicate that they’re slowing down. Obviously, Jimmy Rollins’ 2009 campaign has raised some questions and the one that seems the most pertinent is whether he is over the hill.

Rollins is currently sitting in the corner for two games because of his performance, or lack thereof. His numbers this season are significantly below his career average in every offensive category, but the stats that are most pertinent to the team are the following: the Phillies are 28-7 this year when he scores a run and they were 42-15 last season when he crossed the plate at least one time. More than the player himself, the leadoff position on this team is being hurt by Rollins’ struggles and so the impact his slump is having can’t be overstated.

I don’t know what the solution is, but the situation reminds me of some other players in the game who seem to be having significantly subpar seasons after amassing awesome careers, and these guys aren’t exactly in Jamie Moyer’s age group. Despite his recent upturn, David Ortiz looked like his career was over after hitting .186 after the first 47 games. And then there’s Alex Rodriguez, who is coming off an injury but to hear it from Buster Olney, he may be a man in decline.

Is age the factor in these players’ cases? Is it injury? Whatever the causes, we see three guys who are having seasons that aren’t just off, they’re significantly off. So the question is why. Or perhaps more importantly to their teams, how do they right the ships?