Phillies, Yanks good enough to meet again in 2010 Fall Classic

NEW YORK -- If they bothered to sign onto their computers Thursday, the men who run the Yankees and Phillies would have seen a message:

'102 days until spring training'

The teams that finished behind them this year are weeks into planning for 2010. The Yankees are just drying off from the champagne, just readying for the parade; the Phillies are just washing away the disappointment of losing the World Series.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel on the World Series trophy: 'We gave it up, but we're going to get it back.' (US Presswire)

With baseball's elongated postseason, the 22 teams that missed the playoffs have a five-week running start on the Yankees and Phillies as they head into winter. Even first-round losers like the Red Sox, Cardinals, Rockies and Twins have had nearly four weeks to look ahead.

It may not be enough.

More than any time in years, the two teams that played in the World Series really did seem like far and away the two best teams in the game. More than any time in years, perhaps since the Yankees and Dodgers met in 1977-78, it really does feel like we could see the same two teams meet again, same time, same place, next year.

We see weaknesses in the Phillies now. We see Cole Hamels and especially Brad Lidge, we see a team that batted .227 in the World Series and seemed vulnerable to the Yankees' left-handed starting pitching (although it didn't seem to bother Chase Utley).

But the truth is that the Phillies have less to do this offseason than the Yankees do. The truth is that this is a very good team with nearly every significant player already under contract or under control for 2010.

The Phillies will need some bounce-back years (most notably from Hamels and Lidge), but they shouldn't need major additions. The only real decisions are whether to pick up an option on third baseman Pedro Feliz's contract, whether to bring back Pedro Martinez and how hard to try for a long-term deal with Cliff Lee, who has an affordable 2010 option but can become a free agent after that.

It's perfectly reasonable for the Phillies to say, as they did in the aftermath of their Game 6 loss, that they'll be back.

"They've got the trophy. We don't," manager Charlie Manuel told MLB.com. "We gave it up, but we're going to get it back."

And, Manuel added in his press conference, "Hopefully we play the Yankees again."

They just might.

Much will be made over the next few days of the big decisions facing the Yankees. World Series MVP Hideki Matsui is a free agent, as are left fielder Johnny Damon and Game 6 winner Andy Pettitte. Are Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes starters, or relievers?

But seriously, no matter what the Yankees decide on any of those players and any of those issues, they'll head to spring training as the best team in baseball. They'll go in with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, with Mark Teixeira, with CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett atop their rotation, with Mariano Rivera in the bullpen.

They'll go in with the Yankee attitude restored, with the idea that winning it all is all that counts.

"We try to do it every year," Hal Steinbrenner said. "That's our goal. We don't feel we succeed if we don't do it."

The Matsui decision will be interesting, because we've all seen how teams fall in love with World Series difference-makers. It's been 13 years since a player left his team after winning the World Series MVP, since John Wetteland left the Yankees as a free agent after 1996 (allowing Rivera to become the closer).

The Yankees lineup would look different without Matsui, who Reggie Jackson described as "maybe our best hitter in the clutch, one of our most feared hitters." But it would also look different without Damon, who is still an outstanding offensive player but really would be better off spending some time as the designated hitter, or without Posada, who is signed through 2011 but should be a DH more often than he was in 2008.

The Yankees will need to see if Pettitte wants to return, and if not, they'll definitely need another starter. They may need another one, anyway, depending on the future of Hughes and Chamberlain. But with Sabathia and Burnett returning to top the rotation, this won't be another rebuild, just a smaller addition.

Somehow, the Yankees will find a way to tell us that they have budgetary concerns. Somehow, by winter's end, they'll tell us with pride that they've kept their $200-plus million payroll "under control."

The fact is that they will always spend far more than everyone else, in large part because they generate far more revenue than everyone else. They spend because they want to, but also because they can afford to.

The Phillies know they're not in that same financial league. They know their revenue was pretty much maxed out this year, when they averaged 44,453 fans a night in a ballpark that seats just over 45,000, then made it to Game 6 of the World Series.

They can afford to keep this team together for 2010, because the big contracts have already been signed and figured into the budget. But Phillies people already are asking themselves if they can afford to keep Ryan Howard past 2011 (when he'll make $20 million in the final year of his current contract), and whether they can afford to pay what it will take to keep Lee past 2010 ($15 million a year? $18 million a year?).

The payroll went from $98 million in 2008 to $113 million this year, and if you count the options for Lee and Feliz, they have $107.5 million committed for just 13 players for 2010. And that doesn't even include the arbitration-eligible Shane Victorino ($3.125 million in 2008) and Joe Blanton ($5.475 million in 2008).

But those questions are for the future, more than for this winter. For 2010, the Phillies can keep this group together, and they no doubt will.

They believe they'll be back. The Yankees sure believe they'll be back, too.

The other 28 teams will spend this winter chasing the two champions.

At least the Yankees and Phillies were nice enough to give them a four- or five-week head start.