Philadelphia Phillies

This just in: Roy Halladay is one of a kind.

He’s been baseball’s best pitcher over the past decade and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. With that said, most major league pitchers can probably improve themselves simply by watching Doc work his mastery on the mound like clockwork.

Halladay’s teammate, Cole Hamels, can probably learn a valuable lesson from Roy, too.

According to assistant GM Scott Proefrock via Matt Gelb and his Twitter feed, the Phillies expect to have Jimmy Rollins back next week when they start a seven-game homestand beginning with the Pirates, then the Cubs, and ending against the struggling Red Sox.

The Phils have played well without Rollins in the lineup, so having him back will make them that much better. Juan Castro and Wilson Valdez have performed admirably, but neither has been able to replicate Jimmy's offense.

At the 2006 trade deadline the Phillies, 49-56 at the time, unloaded mercurial OF Bobby Abreu to the Yankees. Not for a windfall of prospects but, to Phillies fans’ dismay, to simply unload an expensive player. Abreu was making $13.6M in 2006, and stood to make $15M in 2007. General manager Pat Gillick didn’t think Abreu was a piece of the puzzle worth the price, and in what Bill Conlin dubbed “the Great Gillick Giveaway”, he traded Bobby for a group of low-level prospects and a Triple-A lifer.

No, I'm not saying he always did. Just that he does now.

I, like many Phillies fans, barely stifled a sigh of disappointment when old "Carlos Ruissss"(as PA Announcer Dan Baker refers to him) steps into the batter's box. A dribbling grounder seemed inevitable, and then the pitcher was up. How thrilling.

At the end of last season however, an entirely new player had filled the squat, stubby body of the Phils' starting catcher. He even called himself Carlos Ruiz. The nerve.

According to Howard Eskin and his brand new Twitter feed, the Phillies are seriously considering trading Shane Victorino in order to free up some money to resign Jayson Werth.

It makes sense on the surface, as finding a way to keep Werth has to be on top of Ruben Amaro's to-do list, and trading Victorino would free up $7.5 million next year. The Phils would then just insert Dominic Brown to play either center or right field, depending on where they feel he's best suited, and move on from there.

No matter how many consecutive sellouts the Phillies have at Citizens Bank Park (they’re up to 58, by the way), the Eagles are always a hot topic.

Especially when the topic is in any way, shape, or form connected to Donovan McNabb.

McNabb is back in the Philadelphia headlines, this time, responding to comments that former Eagle teammate DeSean Jackson made recently to the Sporting News. 

Most teams would love the opportunity to choose between two of the best starting pitchers in the major leagues, but for the Phillies this question became an agonizing decision. Who did they want? The dominating Roy Halladay, or their very own post-season hero Cliff Lee? In the end, amid much controversy back in Philadelphia, the Phillies decided to acquire Roy Halladay and send Cliff Lee to Seattle.

This is going to be my one of final articles here on Bleacher Report. I can honestly say that I enjoyed writing on this site. Now, I could write something narcissistic about how Bleacher Report has changed my life...but I am not.

Bleacher Report has changed my life. I have become a Sports writer and now I am the Sports Editor for Temple University Ambler Campus' student-run newspaper my time here on "the Report" writing about the Phillies and Temple University Athletics. But it really hasn't changed my life that much or to that extent.

After the Philadelphia Phillies fell just short of repeating as World Series Champions, GM Ruben Amaro spent the offseason actively reshaping the club. 

Of course, the biggest news involved the tandem trades of Cy Young hurlers Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Beyond that, Amaro used the free agent talent pool to land a new regular third baseman and essentially perform a makeover on both his bullpen and bench. 

When Cole Hamels won the World Series MVP award at the tender age of 24, few doubted that he had a very promising career ahead of him. 

He was the toast of Philadelphia, the unquestioned staff ace, and the heir to Steve "Lefty" Carlton. 

The only problem was that reality intervened, and the last two years have been riddled with speed bumps for the young Hamels.