Corey and I are looking for some inventive and interesting ways to waste time this offseason in between speculation of trades, free agents, and the Rule V draft. Therefore, I brewed up the idea of doing some interviews this offseason. First on the docket is writer of Phillies super-blog BeerLeaguer, Jason Weitzel, as he was kind enough to do an interview with yours truly...
1. Statistics aside, who is your favorite Phillies non-superstar of the past? Dave Hollins, without hesitation. My favorite Phil from the ’93 team. Named to the All-Star team and did a lot of things right besides brute force, like base-running and drawing walks. Great intensity. An understated, tough intimidator. Stone hands at third, but certainly one of the key components of the pennant winning team. Greg Gross was another childhood favorite.
2. Why in the hell are you a Phillies fan anyway?
Geography. Grew up on the mean streets of Reading for six years, then moved east to Kutztown through high school. Reading is a Phillies town second only to Philadelphia, but in eastern Berks, you're a stone's throw from Yankees territory. If I grew up just 15 minutes east, our antenna would have picked up channel 11 and I would have latched on to the Yankees during the 80's. Admittedly, I probably followed the Yanks as closely for one or two seasons at a time when the Phils gave fans Phil Bradley and such.
3. Since you are the BeerLeaguer administrator, what beers fit the occasions of a) horrific Phillies loss, b) losing streak, c) Blowout victory, and d) playoffs? I'm more of a wine drinker, so I'll give you a few options. Jacob's Creek is a nice, full-bodied Shiraz to drown out the horrific losses quickly and it is always on special at State stores. For losing streaks, stock your fridge with a case of Lionshead pilsner, because it's a cheap, decent beer and made locally in Scranton. It's not good enough to truly enjoy, just like the dog days of a losing streak. It's the Jason Michaels of beer. Just OK and affordable. Let's do winning streaks - How about Straub? It's very flavorful, made with fresh ingredients, local and won't knock you on your can, so you can keep drinking during the win streak and pay attention/blog at the same time. Makes you pay attention. Taste is too good to ignore. For a blowout victory, it would need to be something cheap and plentiful - my favorite light beer is Bud Light (most people, in my experience, prefer Miller Light). Playoffs - I'd have to go with Dogfish Head, the best beer served at Citizens Bank Park.
4. Discuss the evolution of BeerLeaguer and your desire to conquer the Internet. I don't know where the readers came from, but they found it and stayed. You have to put in the work, but longevity and a good clientele is a key. Another key is to write in a journalistic way. It gains trust. I'll let my personality shine through selectively. I'm playing straight man to the comedians in the comments thread, basically. Oh, and those comedians know their stuff. That doesn’t hurt, either.
5. What is your honest opinion of our Special Olympics manager, Uncle R-Tard? A super nice R-Tard whose passion for baseball clearly rubs off on the team. Sometimes I get a feeling he has pretty good baseball instincts, but a gut reaction alone isn't good enough, as we saw in the NLDS. He's 2/3 of the way there. He keeps his players lose and keeps the focus on the field. That's one part. The other part is baseball street smarts – which he has when it comes to hitting. I watch him behind the cage in batting practice and I know he has the pulse of his hitters. The results would back it up. Offensively, the Phils are hard to beat. The downside is he lacks technical execution and understanding of his opponent, and he isn't the best handler of pitchers.
6. What is your favorite aspect of baseball- pitching, offense, or defense?
I'm becoming more and more drawn to relief pitching, how it works, where good relievers come from and who makes the ideal reliever. The Myers to the pen debate was a top attraction on Beerleaguer. We're seeing an evolution in middle relief. It's not good enough to hand the ball to the Clay Condreys of the world and expect success. Baseball's new middle relievers are often top prospects with pretty good stuff, or guys who could just as easily be starters.
7. Describe your overall impression/opinion of the Phillies fanbase.
The level of mistrust toward Phillies ownership is what stands out most. It's practically universal. Out at the park, you find a mixed bag: Drunk meat heads, families who treat games like a day at the beach, old codgers, etc. But all of them -- to a man -- has no love loss for this ownership. The greatest trend is a growing love for the players. They love this group. And they love the park.
8. Give Patty G a rating on a 1-10 scale (11 being the highest) of the job you think he's done thus far. Probably a 4. His offseason was a worse mess than 2006, between Lieber, Eaton, Garcia and neglecting the bullpen the way he did. I'd give him points for Rowand, Moyer, Iguchi, Dobbs, Utley's contract, but how much praise should we really give him for someone like Iguchi? Kenny Williams threw him a bone there. Romero was a move born out of a desperation he created. He's been a below average GM for two seasons. Not useless, not failing, but in danger of it.
9. What are your other favorite Phillies related sites to frequent?
The standards - all linked on Beerleaguer. Philly.com is the first place I check for news, then go from there. *Of course WSBGM's is good for a laugh and an interesting perspective, plus Carson & Corey are comical baseball geniuses.
*=Not actually part of Weitzel's answer, but implied.
~Carson
File this under "Obvious," but Mike Lowell is going to be verrrry hard to get this off-season. 
Other factors to consider.
As the Red Sox and Rockies battle it out for the 2007 MLB Championship, I decided to go back and look at the first Rockies team in 1993. And who do I see logging 157 games at third base? None other than Charlie Hayes.
Q: Will Bourn be one of the players traded this offseason? I think the Phillies could get something decent in return plus he doesn't seem to fit into the Phillies lineup, in my opinion. They already have Rollins and Victorino at the top of their lineup who have alot of speed. - Mike , Washington, NJ
Q: WHY BRING BACK BACK DUPREE? WORST ERA IN BASEBALL AND YOU BRING THIS GUY BACK. MAKES NO SENSE. - KNICKNAK , ALABASTER 
Q: Is there a chance the Phils might go after Johan Santana or give Greg Dobbs the 3rd basemen job for 2008? Kevin , Endicott
First note their source is that they expect the Yanks to make "eye-popping" offers to Posada and possible Phillie target Mariano Rivera. This really shouldn't be a surprise. Last year NYY paid Roger Clemens about $17 million for a partial season, $11 million for Carl Pavano and about $6 million for Kyle Farnsworth. Basically, the entire Florida Marlins payroll for little to nothing. So why wouldn't they splash $15-16 million for one of the greatest closers in history. Not only do they need a decent closer, after the PR hit of the Joe Torre departure, they can't afford to have two other stalwarts from the good ol' days (i.e. the 90's) go. The Phils have no chance to match what the Yanks can offer.
Take the last part of the above argument and apply it to this rumor too: "the Yanks may make a big play for Aaron Rowand." After Torii Hunter, who isn't coming to New York, Rowand is probably the best OF option, so why wouldn't the Yanks want him? Well, maybe because that would give them 5 OF for 3 spots (Matsui, Damon, Cabrera, Rowand, Abreu.) Unless they decline the option on Abreu (who would you rather have right now, Abreu for $16 mil or Rowand for $12-14?) and trade Cabrera. It makes sense to me.
File Under: Steroid Conspiracy
Byrd, notorious leader of Baseball Church who was on ESPN earlier this week talking about using baseball to spread the message of Christ, apparently found nothing in the Bible about illegal drugs and cheating. Hey, if he asked WWJD and answer is "keep dem nuts big," there's no arguing with the Big Guy.
I'm not surprised by any player being accused of using 'roids, I just wish the ones implicated from the Phils would have played better. At least the Yankees had MVP's Giambi and Sheffield. And the Giants had MVP Bonds and ROY Santiago (Phucco!). We have Byrd and Bell? Who's next, Sandoval, Sefcik, Doster, Marsh...?
I broached the subject of Curt Schilling yesterday (foreshadowing...) and now today you have a vote on whether or not Curt Schilling would be a good fit for the Phillies for next year. Here are some key Schil points.
3. Ability - If he does stay healthy, even at 40+ years of age, he's still a good pitcher. In '07 he threw 150 innings, had an ERA less than 4, a 1.24 WHIP, and a 4:1 K:BB ratio.
Specifically, a bottle of wine that was given to you by a friend and whether it is a type of wine you don't like or a bottle you've already drank and know is putred, you have absolutely no desire to drink it. You have a few options. One: pinch your nose and chug it. It may be bad, but at least you'll get drunk. Two: re-gift it, ideally to someone you don't like that much, thereby sticking them with the bad wine. The biggest problem with these options is that the person eventually will come over, see the bottle not in your collection, and may ask how it was. You'll end up lying and saying it was great and inevitably you'll receive a second bottle later on down the line, putting you right back at square one. So, you end up going with option three: sitting it in the wine rack and not touching it. Short of decoration, it is essentially useless, but you know that keeping it is much easier than getting rid of it.
The Phillies, after extending the contract of Charlie "MD 20/20" Manuel, brought back the entire coaching staff, including much malaigned third base coach Steve Smith. Last year, Smith was much like his predecessor Bill Dancy in consistently making the wrong decision concerning sending/holding runners from third base. There is no reason I can see that he should be back but somehow he is. My only guess is that it was just easier to keep him around than admit they made another mistake hire. It's just a shame that the Phils have followed a bottle of Dom (Vuk) with a couple of Two Buck Chucks.
I’m rolling out a new segment, Ask The GM. I wanted to introduce this a while ago, but nobody cares what I think, so nobody asked me any questions. Luckily, they do 
Q: I don't understand something about third base. It seemed to me that Nunez's awesome defensive play more than offset his lack of offensive power. Every time he played he would save multiple runs with his fielding. Meanwhile whatever extra batting potential Wes Helms gave you was offset by his horrible fielding. Teams play shortstops with batting averages like Nunez all the time. I realize third base is traditionally a power position, but if you're getting power out of the short stop couldn't we afford to have a third baseman who is such a defensive asset? - Mike, Bala Cynwyd
Q: If the phillies are really commited to winning they should go after A-Rod and more pitching what do you think? - rob c. , glenolden
Q: Will Ron Howard ask for a huge salary increase in 2008, or a multi-year contract? I think he is going to ask for a big increase of over $20 million if he doesn't get it, bye bye. What do you think ? - chuck , Margate City
