It has been two weeks since the Phillies’ roster holes were exposed by the New York Yankees, so now begins the part of the year that keeps us glued to the Internet and sports-talk radio stations, because the hot stove is burning white hot around the winners of the National League pennant.

At this point, the Phillies could head in two possible directions with their offseason moves, because their core group of players is guaranteed to be here through 2011, with only Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Brad Lidge and Carlos Ruiz extended through 2012 or beyond.

With that in mind, General Manager Ruben Amaro could make a flurry of one-year signings, designed to win in 2010, or he could make one or two big moves designed to start a new core group, which would eventually include Domonic Brown, Michael Taylor and Kyle Drabek, who are all tearing up the minors.

Looking at the roster as it currently stands, the Phillies’ starters are set basically everywhere except third base, but they will need to fill in at least one starting pitcher, two relievers, and probably two or three bench spots.

Here are my predictions for the Phillies’ moves this offseason:

Third Base: After saying goodbye, at least temporarily, to Pedro Feliz because his equipment bag includes only a glove, everyone is clamoring for the Phillies to sign Angels’ third baseman Chone Figgins. I would love to see Figgins’ 101 walks and .395 on-base percentage leading off for the Phillies, but unless they find an extra $50 million in a hidden account, he’s not coming here.

The most likely candidate to replace Feliz is former Penn quarterback Mark DeRosa, who could probably be signed for a maximum of three years/$18 million. The only problem with DeRosa is that he struggled last year, hitting just .250 after three consecutive years of .285 or better. If the Phillies sign DeRosa, they will be hoping that he can bring his batting average back up toward .300, and that his power sticks around, because despite hitting 44 homers in the last two years, he only smashed 48 bombs in the previous seven seasons combined.

Wish List: Figgins. Best Guess: DeRosa, with the slight chance that the Phillies believe that Adrian Beltre’s stunning drop-off in power is not a chemical issue.

Starting pitching: With Cliff Lee, Hamels, Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ occupying four spots in the rotation, the Phillies need to decide whether Jamie Moyer can be trusted in the final slot, or if they should release the suddenly not-so-ageless wonder.

Moyer was dumped from the rotation in August, after seeing his ERA, hits per nine innings and home runs allowed all skyrocket compared to his 2008 revival. He succeeded in 2008 by giving up his fewest home runs since 2003, but in 2009, Moyer gave up seven more homers in 34 fewer innings, and saw his ERA jump from 3.71 to 4.94.

It would be great if the Phillies made a big splash and signed Ben Sheets or Rich Harden, because despite their injury history, those are the best bang-for-your-buck guys available. However, the most likely option remains Moyer, or even Kyle Kendrick, who, with new pitches at his disposal, posted a 3.42 ERA in 26 1/3 innings last year.

Wish List: Harden or Sheets. Best Guess: Moyer or Kendrick. Wild Cards: Kyle Drabek and Antonio Bastardo.

Bullpen: The Phillies usually carry either seven or eight relievers, with one or two more stashed on the disabled list or in Lehigh Valley, so after accounting for Lidge, Ryan Madson, Chad Durbin and J.C. Romero, there are four spots open in the bullpen. Scott Eyre and Chan Ho Park, who are both Type B free agents, should return, meaning Clay Condrey will be back with the Phillies only if two relievers aren’t signed.

If the Phillies open up the check book this offseason, they could find themselves with Jose Valverde or Rafael Soriano to play setup man for Brad Lidge, but more importantly prepare for another disaster season from “Lights On” Lidge. Both Soriano and Valverde are proven closers, who posted ERAs under 3.00, while striking out more than one batter per inning in 2009, and would look great mowing down hitters at Citizens Bank Park.

Wish List: Soriano. Best Guess: Fernando Rodney. Wild Card: Scott Mathieson.

Bench: To steal a phrase from Dr. Seuss, the three words that best describe the Phillies’ bench in 2009 are: “stink, stank, stunk.” Matt Stairs will probably take his seemingly 0-for-2009 elsewhere, and Eric Bruntlett will not be offered arbitration. That leaves Ben Francisco for defense, Greg Dobbs as the lefty, and Paul Bako or some other nondescript catcher.

For the final two spots, the Phillies should bring up John Mayberry, Jr., for right-handed power, and sign Mark Loretta to give Ryan Howard a break against tough lefties. Last season, Howard hit .320 against righties, with 39 homers and 108 RBIs, but against lefties, he hit, and I use that term loosely, .207 with 6 homers and 33 RBIs, while striking out 83 times in 222 at-bats.

Wouldn’t it be great to see Howard hit well for a few days against righties, and then get a quick rest so that a four-strikeout night against a lefty doesn’t cause him to go into a three-week slump?

Loretta is a .306 hitter against lefties in his career, and could easily hit seventh in the lineup, allowing Jayson Werth, who hit 46 points higher and homers nearly twice as often against lefties, to bat cleanup once or twice per week.

Wish List: Loretta. Best Guess: Jerry Hairston, Jr.

It would be great if the Phillies added guys like Figgins and Soriano this offseason to make sure that they stay strong when the contracts of Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez expire after the 2011 season, but that would mean a huge jump in payroll for the next two years. I think they will opt for the lesser options in each scenario, while relying on Utley, Howard, and Rollins to get them another parade before 2012.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As the author of this article, I sincerely apologize if I offended Domonic Brown. The NFP (Not For Print) note was obviously not meant for publication, but was inserted so the editor would not change the spelling of his name. Nevertheless, it was a bad joke made worse by the poor judgment of placing the note in the run of the story. The only idiot in this case is me.

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Like the “On the Edge” blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show. This week, we will talk about whether Brian Westbrook should be shut down for the season, and discuss the very latest hot stove rumors and reports.

I had to let this loss settle before I could write coherently about the Phillies squandering their chance at repeating as "World Champions of Baseball."

After the loss on Wednesday night, I had so many thoughts running through my mind, but two of them stuck out from the jumble in my head.

My first thought was that this loss didn't cause the pain and agony that I expected to feel after Shane Victorino's ground ball was gobbled up by Robinson Cano.

If the dream season of 2008 had not occurred, my column and blog would be appropriately titled right now, but it has only been 53 weeks since I stood in section 428 and watched the Phillies celebrate the first Philadelphia championship in my lifetime.Even after losing to the Yankees, I am confident the Phillies will be back for more next season, and that it won't be too long before we are standing along Broad Street for another championship parade. I won't say it will happen in 2010, but it won't be another 25-year wait.

My second thought was that while these Phillies had many of the same players from last year, they were not nearly as good as the 2008 Phillies.

Baseball, like all sports, is a game of inches, and this year, those inches went against the Phillies.

Last year, Jayson Werth's blooper fell between Tampa Bay second baseman Akinori Iwamura's body and glove, allowing Geoff Jenkins to score in the sixth inning of game 5, part II.This year, a few inches allowed Alex Rodriguez to circle the bases in game 3 of the World Series, causing Cole Hamels to mentally shut down. In game 4, if Brad Lidge's slider was an inch lower, Johnny Damon strikes out in the ninth inning, instead of sparking a game-winning rally. And if Shane Victorino catches Derek Jeter's line drive in the third inning of game 6, Pedro gets out of trouble, instead of putting the Phillies in a deep hole.

That was the story of these Phillies.

Last year, the inches went our way because all 25 players had heart and were determined to win it all. This year, it seemed like Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz and Cliff Lee were the only players who showed up for the World Series, and it was evident in each of the four losses to the Yankees.

While you could argue that each of those plays was a freak occurrence that just went the wrong way for the Phillies, I believe that when you are the more talented team, you make your own luck. However, this series showed that these Phillies were not the more talented team. They certainly weren’t as determined as last year’s world champions.

In the 2009 World Series, the Yankees seemed to use pretty much every player on their 25-man roster, and for the most part, they came through.For the Phillies, it was the opposite.Last year's team had 25 guys who could all be counted on to make a positive contribution to the title run, with the possible exception of So Taguchi. This year, the Phillies roster was made up of the same top players, but quite a few useless bodies at the bottom of that list.

For the life of me, I can't figure out what was the purpose of having Brett Myers, J.A. Happ, Paul Bako, Eric Bruntlett, and Greg Dobbs on the roster. Throw in the ineffectiveness of Pedro Feliz, Matt Stairs and Ben Francisco, and you have one-third of the roster with either no role or no ability to contribute.

If Charlie Manuel didn't have faith in Myers out of the bullpen, either because of injury or general dislike for him, then why have him on the roster?

If Matt Stairs was going to be the lefty off the bench regardless of the situation, why have Dobbs sitting there?

While it was obvious that Bruntlett and Bako had no chance of seeing the field, Happ could have been a solid contributor. Instead of remembering that he was the Phillies' best starting pitcher for about three months this season, the Phillies tried to turn him into J.C. Romero's injury replacement, which everyone could see was a disaster waiting to happen, and resulted in a 5.68 ERA for a guy who had a 2.99 ERA as a starter during the season.

For guys like Feliz and Stairs, they wouldn't recognize the guys who played key roles in last year's title run, and while Jenkins doubled off the wall in last year's clincher, Francisco went 0-for-3, with two strikeouts, to help bring about the Yankees' celebration.

Despite the loss, life goes on, and the days that have since past have been pretty nice. (I even got to put the top down on my car a few times.)

And anyway, the Eagles and Flyers have some talented young players, right?

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Like the "On the Edge" blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show. This week, we will talk about the Eagles' cross-country trip to San Diego, along with some Flyers and Sixers talk.

Well one Philadelphia team handled its business on Sunday, Nov. 1, but sadly it wasn’t the Phillies.

Because Cliff Lee and Chase Utley managed to send the World Series back to New York with an 8-6 win over the Yankees in game 5 on Monday, this column will focus on the first place Philadelphia Eagles, and their 40-17 pounding of the Giants.

Coming into this game, each team needed to come away with a victory to show that they were for real, as both had suffered bad losses at the hands of the New Orleans Saints, and most of their wins were against the NFL’s version of Division II football teams.

Three hours later, the Eagles had shown they were for real, despite a lifeless loss to the Oakland Raiders two weeks earlier, and the Giants were left scratching their heads as they stumbled to a third loss in a row.

The Eagles, despite playing without Brian Westbrook, looked like the explosive offense that we all envisioned before the season. Donovan McNabb tossed three touchdown passes, and behind a healthy (finally!) offensive line, had enough time to draw up new plays while waiting for his receivers to get open.

While DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek are doing a great job of getting open for Donovan McNabb, the offensive line is finally starting to gel, which will be the single most important factor in the Eagles’ success this year.

Now that Todd Herremans and Stacy Andrews have gotten healthy on the offensive line, McNabb will be able to go through his progressions and find the open man among all of the weapons at his disposal.

For this reason, the Eagles’ terrible loss to the Raiders can be forgotten, because they were playing with three backups on the line, and McNabb was running for his life. Now, completely healthy, McNabb had plenty of time to pass, despite squaring off against the talented defensive line of the Giants.The offensive line even managed to open up big holes in the running game, as Leonard Weaver and LeSean McCoy scampered for touchdown runs of 41 and 66 yards, respectively.

As the Eagles ride a two-game winning streak into a showdown with the Dallas Cowboys, the Giants are headed in the wrong direction, having lost three in a row since starting the season with five consecutive victories. The schedule won’t provide the Giants with any breaks, as their next three games are against San Diego, Atlanta and Denver, who have combined for a 14-7 record.

The Giants’ problems this season are completely related to turnovers. The defense isn’t causing them, and the offense is giving up too many.On defense, the Giants forced six turnovers in their games against Dallas and Oakland, but in the other seven games, they have managed just nine turnovers in their other six games.

By not forcing more turnovers, and giving up big plays, including three plays of more than 40 yards against the Eagles, the Giants are forcing Eli Manning to lead the offense on longer drives, instead of just managing the game.

With more pressure on Eli’s shoulders, he has reverted back into the turnover machine from early in his career. He started the season with 10 touchdown passes and only two interceptions in his first five games. However, in his last three games, he has tossed just three touchdowns, but threw six interceptions, giving him eight on the season in eight games, and now 82 throws to the wrong team in 81 career games.

He has also completed less than 50 percent of his passes in the last three games, so I don’t know whether teams have figured out how to stop his wide receivers or if he is reverting back to his former self. Whatever the problem is, he needs to correct it because the Giants could be 6-5 or worse at the end of November if he continues playing this way.

As the Giants search for answers, the Eagles are tied for first place right now, but they need to continue this strong play on Sunday, when the Cowboys come to town, or else they could find themselves in third place on Monday morning, with a new set of questions to answer.

Prediction: Eagles win with a late touchdown, 27-20, and improve to 3-0 in the NFC East.

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Like the “On the Edge” blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show. This week, we will recap the World Series, and preview the Eagles’ Sunday night battle with the Cowboys.

I know that the situation is dire after game four, but the Phillies path to a repeat title is not as bad as it seems.
If Cliff Lee can pull out a victory tonight over A.J. Burnett, who is starting on short rest, then Pedro Martinez would head back to the mound in the Bronx to face Andy Pettitte, who would also be on short rest.
So far in the playoffs, Lee has given up just two earned runs in 33 1/3 innings, so a victory tonight would not be unexpected. On the other hand, Burnett is 4-0 in four starts on three days rest in his career. However, while Burnett pitched lights out baseball in game 2, he is the same pitcher who walked more than four batters per nine innings during the season, and had struggled in the playoffs before the World Series.
After tonight, the Phillies would send Pedro to the hill, and he pitched better in game 2 than Pettitte did in game 3 on full rest.
In game 7, the Phillies could send Hamels to the mound, or they could go with an "All Star game" pitching setup, and send guys like J.A. Happ, Lee, Chad Durbin, Chan Ho Park, Brett Myers, Scott Eyre and Ryan Madson out there for an inning or two at a time against Sabathia, who would be starting his third game in nine days. With some planning, the Phillies could send a fresh pitcher to the mound to face Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez each time that part of the lineup was due up.
Remember, tonight is why the Phillies traded for Lee, and Wednesday would be the night that Pedro was destined to pitch when he signed with the Phillies.
I know that the bats have been struggling, but there is still time to step up, especially for Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez, who have struggled against lefties all series, but now get to face a hard-throwing right hander.
The odds are against the Phillies, as only six teams have ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in World Series history, but Lee can get the ball rolling tonight.
One game at a time, the Phillies can still win the 2009 World Series.
Prediction: Phillies win 5-2 and send this series back to the Bronx.

If you listen to the national media, you might not know it, but our Philadelphia Phillies are the defending World Series champions, and despite what you may have heard, the New York Yankees have not dethroned our Fightins.

And they won’t dethrone our Fightins.

If this were 1999, I would be worried about the Phillies having to face the Yankees in the World Series. Those Yankees had won two of the last three World Series titles, and seemingly could pull October victories out of thin air.

Luckily for us, it is 2009, not 1999.

There isn’t a “Yankee mystique” for the Phillies to worry about.Our Phillies won’t have to play at “The House That Ruth Built,” which was the home of 26 World Series champions. They will play games 1 and 2 at “The House That Steinbrenner Bought,” which is home to none of that storied history in the Fall Classic.

In fact, right now, the Phillies are the team with postseason mystique on its side.Nineteen Phillies know how it feels to be called “World Champions of Baseball,” while just five Yankees have won World Series rings, and four of those—Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada—are holdovers from New York’s success in the late 90s. The rest of the Bronx Bombers, such as Alex Rodriguez, C.C. Sabathia, and Hideki Matsui, have only known failure in the postseason.While there is no mystique about these Yankees, they are a good team.However, they aren’t the best team in the World Series this year.

We know that both of these squads can hit, as the Phils and the Bombers each led their league in runs scored during the regular season, so this series will come down to pitching, which is where Philadelphia has an edge, despite what everyone else tells you.

Yes, Rivera is the best closer in baseball history, but he can be beaten. While he has the most saves in postseason history (Fun fact: Brad Lidge is second), and sports a miniscule 0.77 career ERA this time of year, he also has a few of the biggest blown saves in postseason history.If you think the Phillies’ hitters don’t stand a chance against Rivera, I will kindly ask you to check out how the Yankees’ seasons ended in 2001 and 2004. After that little history lesson, go ask Huston Street and Jonathan Broxton about how tough the ninth innings are when trying to close out the Fightins.

I won’t try to fool myself into thinking that Lidge is better than Rivera at closer, but for the first eight innings, the Phillies hurlers have the upper-hand.

Everywhere you turn, someone on television will tell you about how great Sabathia has been for the Yankees, but do you know who has been better? Cliff Lee.

While Sabathia has struggled against the Phillies in his last three starts, giving up 12 runs in 17 2/3 innings (6.11 ERA), you know who is 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA over the last two seasons against the Yankees? Cliff Lee.

Do you know who has a better ERA, more complete games and more shutouts than Sabathia this season? You guessed it; it’s Lee.

As for the rest of the starting rotations, I would take Pedro Martinez, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton over A.J. Burnett and Pettitte, especially once the Yankees’ trio begins pitching on short rest because they don’t have a fourth starter.

While Sabathia has been a workhorse, both Burnett and Pettitte have trouble going deep into games, averaging just over six innings per start, while allowing too many baserunners. The pair comes into the postseason with WHIPs of 1.40 and 1.38, respectively, with Burnett allowing 4.22 walks per nine innings, and Pettitte surrendering 3.53 BB/9.

From the National League dugout, none of the Phillies’ starters allow free passes at nearly this rate, which should concern Yankees manager Joe Girardi.

This means that the Phils need to continue their patience at the plate, and as long as they don’t go into a prolonged slump with runners in scoring position, neither pitcher should give the Phillies’ hitters a problem.

Moving to the bullpen, while J.A. Happ, Chan Ho Park, Ryan Madson and Chad Durbin all could pitch more than one inning regardless of the batters due up, the Yankees middle relief is completely a mix-and-match unit. Phil Coke and Damaso Marte have each pitched in four games and logged just 1 1/3 innings pitched this postseason. Joba Chamberlain, despite all of the hype, has recorded just eight outs in six appearances out of the bullpen.

At this point, Girardi only has four pitchers that he trusts to send to the mound, and other than Rivera, none are worthy of being feared.

After all of this analysis, I can find plenty of reasons for the Phillies to repeat, and if I wanted to, I could use the same set of statistics to show why the Yankees could win their 27th World Series title.

At this point, the Phillies need to keep playing like champions, while getting contributions from the entire lineup. Do that and they should win.

Regardless of all the hype, this year’s World Series promises to be much more competitive than last year’s, and hopefully we will be attending a parade late next week.

Prediction: This series will go six games, but “New York, New York” won’t be the Frank Sinatra tune playing after the final out.

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Like the “On the Edge” blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show. This week, we will discuss the first two World Series games, and preview the NFL’s version of the Philadelphia/New York rivalry.

Trap game.

When the Eagles finished bumbling around in the Black Hole of the Raider nation, it provided credence to the term “trap game,” because there was no reason that this Eagles team should ever lose to a team led by JaMarcus Russell.

However, after watching that debacle, I am scratching my head about how much trouble the Birds might be in for because the Raiders basically just drew up the blueprints for how to beat the Eagles.I know that the Eagles’ defense only gave up 13 points, but that is because Russell is the worst quarterback in the NFL, not because they actually played well.

At this point, it is pretty much a certainty that the Eagles will allow the opposing tight end to have a career day, and Raiders tight end Zach Miller was no exception. Miller caught six passes for 139 yards and a touchdown, which accounted for more than 62 percent of Russell’s passing yards for the game. That comes a week after Kellen Winslow caught nine passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns in the Eagles’ 33-14 victory over Tampa Bay.

When tight ends are shredding your defense, it means you have problems at linebacker, which is something I have been complaining about since February!However, the linebackers didn’t merely turn in an epic failure trying to cover Miller, it looked like they had never witnessed a play-action pass before.

How many times could the Raiders fake a handoff to the left, only to roll back to the right and pass to the fullback in the flat? Apparently, it was at least five times because Raiders fullback Gary Russell caught five passes for 55 yards, including a 13-yard reception on 3rd-and-10 with less than two minutes remaining to essentially end the game. On that type of play, at least one player needs to stay at home, instead of chasing the potential running play to the left side.

After watching the linebackers provide almost nothing in terms of big plays last year, I assumed that they could at least be in the vicinity of a pass-catcher, but after watching this game, I don’t even think that is possible, especially with Jeremiah Trotter and his 75-year-old legs slowly grazing around the field.

While I’m ripping on the defense, I have to ask a rhetorical question: “Why is Asante Samuel in the NFL if he is afraid of contact?”

If you watch highlights from this season, you will see that Samuel has four interceptions, but only 14 tackles. That is because his tackling technique is to merely fall down and then pray that his shoulder hits the lower leg of the ball-carrier. You will also notice that every time this technique fails, he stays down for a few seconds to make it seem like he really tried to come up with the tackle, but injury prevented him from making the stop.

I haven’t seen a player more afraid of contact since Deion Sanders and his patented “slap fight” tackling technique. If I were an offensive coordinator, I would call running plays that went directly at Samuel until he was taken off the field, and then I would throw the ball at his replacement, Ellis Hobbs, and the Eagles’ defense would be burnt like toast.

Switching to the other side of the ball, the supposed depth on the offensive line, which the Eagles bragged about during preseason, was proven to be a complete sham this week.

When Jason Peters left in the first quarter because of a knee injury, the Eagles surrounded center Jamaal Jackson with four backups. As a result, Donovan McNabb spent the rest of the afternoon running for his life, while making errant throws that most likely were dropped if they actually managed to reach the receiver.

Using King Dunlap, Nick Cole (who I am still very high on), Max Jean-Gilles and Winston Justice on the offensive line, McNabb was hurried 18 times, hit 15 times, and sacked six times by a Raiders defensive that managed just nine sacks in its first five games.

I don’t know how the Eagles can fix this mess in the trenches, but it looks as if Peters will be healthy enough to play left tackle on Monday night, and hopefully Todd Herremans will return from injury as well. The real mystery is why Jean-Gilles is playing in place of Stacy Andrews. It would be nice to see Andrews get healthy and bring some stability to the right side of the offensive line.

Now if only someone in the front office would pick up the phone to bring back Jon Runyan, because I can’t imagine what New York’s front seven will do to this pathetic group of linemen in two weeks.

Prediction for the Eagles’ Monday night game with the Washington Redskins: Eagles win 16-12, in a typical Eagles/Redskins ugly battle.

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Like the “On the Edge” blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show. This week, we will discuss the Eagles’ first divisional game against the Redskins, and hopefully be rejoicing about the Phillies making a repeat appearance in the World Series.

“Don’t change horses in the middle of a race.”

“Dance with the one you came with.”

No matter what cliché you want to use, Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel probably has heard it before during his four decades of baseball experience, and in the National League Division Series, he looked like a genius by following those simple clichés about loyalty.

Heading into the playoffs, nobody, probably including Manuel, knew how the Phillies’ bullpen would perform against the Colorado Rockies, let alone who would be getting the call each time he made a pitching change.

Apparently, the one thing he was certain about was that if the situation presented itself, the Phillies’ playoff hopes would be placed in the shaky hands of Brad Lidge.

Throughout the season, Manuel kept telling everyone who would listen that Lidge was his closer and the coaching staff would work with the reliever until he regained his form from 2008.

He wasn’t joking.

Despite blowing a Major League worst 11 saves, Lidge was handed the ball in the ninth inning of both the third and fourth games of the NLDS, and he rewarded Manuel’s loyalty with two saves and a trip to Los Angeles for a date with the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

Two years ago, I remember writing about how the 2007 Phillies battled back to win the division, much like the Cleveland Indians from “Major League.” In the NLDS, it was time for the sequel, “Major League 2,” as Lidge played the role of Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn, struggling all season to recapture his success from the previous year, but coming through in the playoffs.

The biggest problem for Lidge this season was his inability to throw strikes, but in Colorado, his slider was finally breaking at the right time, and his fastball wasn’t tailing away.

I don’t know if he is finally healthy, or has figured out how to pitch successfully despite his injured knee. While Lidge continues on the path of returning to 2008 form, the rest of the bullpen remains a mystery.

Luckily for Manuel, Cliff Lee tossed a complete game in the series opener, but in game two, it was clear that Manuel didn’t really trust anyone in his bullpen, or else starting pitchers Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ would not have been called in for middle relief duty.

It appeared that Manuel may have trusted Ryan Madson, or at least considered him the lesser of all evils. Madson rewarded Manuel’s faith by giving up leads in both games three and four, proving, yet again, that while he may be the most talented pitcher on the staff, he crumbles when put in a pressure situation.

Madson blew six save opportunities during the regular season because he will look sharp, but then inexplicably miss his spots at the worst possible time, just like he did on Sunday and Monday. (For proof, check out highlights from his blown save against Baltimore back in June. Carlos Ruiz wanted the pitch low and inside against Brian Roberts, but Madson left the ball right over the plate, about belt-high, and it was next seen entering the stands in right field. The same thing happened earlier that week when former Phillie Rod Barajas crushed a ninth-inning homer to centerfield.)

With Madson struggling, and with Brett Myers’ health and effectiveness still an uncertainty, the Phillies will have to get through the late innings by using only Scott Eyre, Antonio Bastardo, and Lidge, along with the inconsistent Chad Durbin as a situational righty. In the middle innings, keep expecting to see Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ, because Manuel doesn’t have enough other options to get the ball to the suddenly stable Lidge.

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Quick thoughts from the division series round:

* No wonder the national media thinks the National League is inferior to the American League. Vicente Padilla and John Smoltz both were released by American League teams this season, but wound up throwing a combined nine innings in the deciding game of the Cardinals/Dodgers series. In fact, Padilla threw seven scoreless innings for the Dodgers, just two months after the Texas Rangers, who were starved for pitching while fighting for a Wild Card spot, sent him packing.

* How great will it be to watch the NLCS without having to listen to Fox announcer Joe Buck gushing about how awesome Manny Ramirez is? It was torture last year to hear Buck say how the Dodgers would battle back every time the Phillies scored.

* What has gotten into C.C. Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez? These two serial October choke-artists must have turned back their mental calendars to May, because both Yankees shined against the Twins. Sabathia entered this year’s playoffs 2-3, with a 6.25 ERA in postseason play, but gave up just one earned run in 6 2/3 innings against the Twins. Rodriguez, whose playoff struggles have been well chronicled, seems to be on his way to erasing his October demons, hitting .455 with two homers in three games against the Twins.

Prediction: Phillies in 6, setting up a battle with the Yankees, although I would prefer to face the Angels.