Would the trade be worthwhile? Holliday would simply be a one-year rental unless new GM Ruben Amaro plans on locking him up long-term, but he has to deal with the ballooning salaries of a number of arbitration-eligible players including Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels. In other words, Holliday would be a Phillie for one year and one year only.

It wasn't long ago when the phrase "Fire Ed Wade" was a regular part of the Philadelphia lexicon. In fact, a website under that exact title was created and laid out in great detail the extreme failure in his eight years as general manager of the Phillies.

As content as everyone must feel seeing the 2008 World Series flag flapping in the wind at Citizens Bank Park, the focus is still directly ahead and no one is going to rest on his laurels. The Phillies have plenty of work to do if they want to continue to play at an elite level in 2009.

Chase Utley is already super-cool, but he wasn't just satisfied being the serious, extremely productive second baseman on the Phillies. Referencing his "Boo? Fuck you!" outburst when he was booed in New York during the All-Star Game this season, Utley came to the microphone in Citizens Bank Park after the parade, and before a packed house, uttered, "World Championsa€¦ World Fuckin' Champions!"

Here's proof (let's hope it stays up on YouTube):

During the playoffs, Shane Victorino and Charlie Manuel experienced some unfortunate circumstances involving deaths in their respective families, yet never lost sight of the goal nor lost their focus. Victorino did nothing but get important, timely hits (the grand slam off of C.C. Sabathia, the two-run home run in the Phillies' comeback against the Dodgers' bullpen in Game 4 of the NLCS, and the two-run single in Game 5 of the World Series). Manuel continued to correctly pull all the right levers and press all the right buttons and rarely had a decision backfire.

That the Phillies sealed the deal at home means so much. All season long, their celebrations were somewhat muted whether it was clinching a playoff berth, winning the division, the NLDS, or the NLCS. As soon as they won the World Series, they deserved to completely pop the cork on their bottled-up emotions. It would have been somewhat sour if they had clinched in front of a Tampa Bay crowd that only recently decided to come out and watch baseball.

In truth, the game should have been halted before it became an official game. I don't care how many days you have to wait to get the full nine innings in, you want the fairest conditions in which both teams can play the sport's most important game.

This is not just Philadelphia bittnerness; this is overall baseball fan bitterness.

You knew it was going to happen some time: Ryan Howard was going to hit. Someone was going to hang a breaking ball, or feed him a fastball, and he was going to pay for it. It took twelve post-season games in 2008 for Howard to finally break out.

If the Phillies were going to write a book about the first two games of the World Series thus far, "The Audacity of Dope" would be an apt title (my apologies for the lame pun). With runners in scoring position, they couldn't hit water if they fell out of a friggin' boat.

One look at his pitching line in Game 3 of the NLCS in Los Angeles against the Dodgers and you're forced to conclude that Jamie Moyer was absolute garbage. He's no stranger to the garbage start either, as he tends to have one every once in a while: September 16, August 26, and May 10, for instance. But if you look a little deeper, you'll see that Moyer's failure was due less to his lack of "stuff" and more to bad luck and a successful aggressive approach by the Dodger offense.

It wouldn't be a Phillies victory without some curious strategy from manager Charlie Manuel. In the bottom of the seventh against "reliever" Greg Maddux, catcher Carlos Ruiz led off with a single deep in the hole, a tough grounder for Furcal. With the pitcher due up, Manuel could have sent up left-handers Greg Dobbs or Matt Stairs against the right-handed pitcher, but instead opted to go with So "Failure" Taguchi to bunt Ruiz to second base.

A look at the Run Expectancy Matrix at Baseball Prospectus will show you why bunting in that situation is a losing play even if executed properly, so success or not, it was a dumb move. But Taguchi turned regular old fail into epic fail by popping up his bunt attempt, caught by Loney in foul territory.

Last year's debates about the awards led to some controversy but hopefully we have all learned a lesson (which is: I'm always right) and can traverse through this year's awards intelligently. I'm talking to you again, BBWAA. Last year's bonanza was fun, especially when I was told "forget ur format and just watch the games" and "to say your format is flawed is an understatement."

The call for an amendment to the current LDS set-up is infantile and unjustified. There may be legitimate arguments to be made for such an amendment, but all that has been presented thus far has been unwarranted, hair-triggered, emotional appeals for the Cubs.

When looking back on the Phillies' road to the NLCS, Victorino's grand slam will stick out like a sore thumb, but Myers' at-bat was extremely important. Don't forget it!

Albert Pujols is having one of the best seasons of his career, which is really saying something, considering his career 169 OPS+. Ditto Lance Berkman with a career 148 OPS+. Howard is having the worst season of his career. It would be an insult to any baseball fan with a grasp of logic if Howard wins the NL MVP award (or even the Silver Slugger). That means, of course, to buckle up and put on a helmet to protect yourself from the barrage of bad votes to be cast by the BBWAA.

As we can see, Hamels averages nearly a third of an inning more (doesn't sound like much, but it's not nothing), has a lower ERA and WHIP, and strikes out more and walks less. The only mark against Hamels are the home runs, but he's a fly ball pitcher and Webb is a ground ball pitcher, so that's to be expected.