FanHouse Matt Stairs

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro made it a point not to bring back the exact same lineup in 2009 after winning the World Series in 2008. He succeeded in that goal by replacing the departed Pat Burrell with Raul Ibanez in left field. The strategy worked as the Phillies won their division and made it all the way to the World Series, eventually losing to the New York Yankees.

During this offseason, expect the mantra to be very similar to last winter. The one position in the lineup that likely will roll over is third base. The team declined their $5.5 million option on Pedro Feliz and will try and find an upgrade in the free-agent pool. If they fail to do so, they can always bring Feliz back to the team.

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At some point this October, Tony La Russa or Charlie Manuel is going to want to bring in one of his top right-handed relief pitchers, but he's going to look in the other dugout and see Jim Thome or Jason Giambi holding a bat, and he may think twice.

And then maybe he'll think of Matt Stairs. With one rib-jarring swing last October, a pinch-hit two-run homer that led the Phillies to a victory over the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS, Stairs left an impression that proved to the Dodgers and Rockies how important one at-bat can be.

"Even if you are only winning one or two games, that can be a difference," said Mark Sweeney, a Dodgers coach and one of baseball's all-time most successful pinch-hitters. "Obviously, what Matt Stairs did to us was huge. Even if it doesn't happen, there is that threat, and that definitely plays into a manager's head."

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.

Things move fast in the Internet Age. That's the nature of a 24-hour news cycle or maybe just the short attention span of Americans. Either way, before you know it we're going to be talking about CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira (And Jake Peavy and Manny Ramirez and maybe even Prince Fielder).

So let's take the chance, while we still can, to pay tribute to the 2008 champions. With a cheesesteak in one hand and a Yuengling in the other, here's to you Philadelphia.

- Here's to the Phillies fans, first and foremost. You're not always the easiest folks to understand. You've booed just about everyone including many of your own players. Even among East Coast baseball fans you can seem like a cynical, sour bunch. But your passion and loyalty is undeniable.

In frigid temperatures and pouring rain on Monday night, Citizens Bank Park was packed to the hilt. In more than 100 years of existence, you've been rewarded for your devotion with a title only twice. It hardly seems like enough.

- Here's to Cole Hamels, who at just 24 has established himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball, and just maybe its greatest changeup artist.

Until his magical October run, Hamels wasn't widely recognized by casual fans for his dominance. He wasn't even an All-Star this year. Hope you enjoyed the relative anonymity while it lasted, Cole.

It's always been a tradition that, before the first game of the World Series, each team is introduced to the crowd and television audience watching at home. Not just the starters, either, I mean the entire team. Starters, reserves, pitchers, coaches, trainers, the guy who washes the jockstraps, everybody. Well, you may have noticed that things were a bit different this year.

Before Game 1, only the starters were introduced on television because apparently Fox asked MLB if they could shorten the introductions. Well, this upset quite a few members of the Phillies, including veterans Matt Stairs and Jamie Moyer, who have been waiting a long time for that moment.

Last night was a pretty wonderful night to be Matt Stairs. As Lackey went over earlier, Stairs has always been a productive player in the bigs -- you don't get so many jobs with so many different teams if you suck -- but due to his limitations on defense, he's generally toiled in the shadows.

So you know when Matt sent that moonshot into the right field bleachers on Monday night, it had to be one of the greatest moments of his life. Still, he does choose an odd way to celebrate.

"You've been here for a month and you want to get that one big hit where you really feel like you're part of the team," Stairs said.

"Not that I don't feel like I'm part of the team, but when you get that nice celebration coming in the dugout and you're getting your ass hammered by guys, there's no better feeling than to have that done."

Um...uh....hmmmm.

Yeah, I think I'm just going to have to take your word on that Matt. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you, it's just not my preferred method of celebration. I'm more of a high fiver, or even a fist bumper, but to each his own.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure this means John McCain or Sarah Palin won't be throwing their support behind the Phillies anytime soon.

If you've been reading along here either at FanHouse or any other baseball pundits during this post-season, you've probably read the same thing over and over again about the Phillies: if Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins don't start hitting, they're going to be in trouble. I think it's time to trash that line of thinking. I'm officially amending it to, "When Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs are hitting huge home runs, the Phillies aren't going to lose."

Perhaps that's the most impressive thing about the Phillies in this series. The heart of the Phillies' order hasn't hit terribly well, but Victorino and Stairs got the huge hits tonight. The middle part of the bullpen (that's you, Chad Durbin) broke down tonight, but Brad Lidge pulled together after some recent shaky outings and picked up his first four-out save of the year. It's hard to beat a team that's getting help from so many places. The two unlikely homers tonight helped them to a 3-1 series lead and while that doesn't mean the series is over, it's getting close.

That 3-1 lead for the Phillies means that in order to win the series, they need one win in the next three games. Cole Hamels is starting Game 5 and Games 6 and 7 are in Philadelphia, where the Phillies haven't lost this post-season and haven't lost to the Dodgers all year. Sure, the Phillies could blow this lead. If they do, though, it's going to be a pretty epic collapse. Game 4 wasn't an easy win for the Phillies, but it does put them firmly in the driver's seat for this series.

In short time tonight, we're going to have posts telling you what the Phillies' huge 7-5 win over the Dodgers tonight means for both teams and all kinds of analysis and opinions on how the series is going to play out. That's all well and good, but before we get to it, I think everyone needs to take a second and acknowledge Matt Stairs, a man who launched himself into Phillie lore forever tonight in an incredibly unlikely and dramatic fashion.

Tie game, eighth inning, two outs, runner on first base. With the pitcher due up, the Phillies called on Stairs, who's on the eleventh stop of his career in Philadelphia at the age of 40, to pinch hit. And Stairs launched a Jonathan Broxton pitch deep into right field in Dodger Stadium, giving the Phillies their 7-5 margin of victory and quite possibly breaking the Dodgers' backs in the process.

Stairs is the ultimate journeyman. He shows up at the park every day for whatever team he's playing for, and he swings the bat HARD. I swear that one time in Pittsburgh I saw him swing so hard a button popped off his shirt. It's what he's done in Montreal, Boston, Oakland, Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Texas, Detroit, Toronto, and finally Philadelphia. He's good at it (career 118 OPS+), but being a platoon-DH/pinch-hitter isn't exactly a job that brings a ton of recognition. After sixteen years, Stairs' massive, button-popping swing has run into a huge post-season home run, and it's hard not to be happy for the guy.

He's 40 years old, and hasn't hit a home run in a month. But in the NL East, where the margin between first and second is razor thin, Matt Stairs qualifies as an upgrade. And it's the Philadelphia Phillies that have snagged him for the stretch drive, acquiring him from the Blue Jays for an unidentified minor leaguer.

Stairs is what he is ... a .250 hitter who also happens to be a career .250 hitter in the month of September. He'll most likely play some outfield in place of the disabled Geoff Jenkins, but I'd be willing to bet that most of Stairs' appearances will be coming off the bench to get some big hits for the Phils'.

I wonder if the Phils are done dealing ... as their problems lately have come from the bullpen in the eighth inning. In the last two weeks, they've blown five games where they've had leads in the eighth, with Chad Durbin and Ryan Madson being multiple offenders (they combined to blow a 4-1 lead Thursday night against the Cubs in the eighth.) Wild guess, but could Huston Street be far behind?

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Chicago Cubs (24-16) vs. San Diego Padres (15-26) - 2:20PM Est.

There are thirteen games on the schedule today in baseball, and nine of them are going to be played under the sun, the way the baseball gods intended it to be. So I figure I may as well feature the team that plays more day games than anybody else in baseball, the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs offense has been mashing the ball all season long, and now Alfonso Soriano has finally joined in on the fun, as he's homered in three straight games (leading off the last two). Soriano is hitting .487 on the current 10-game homestand for the Cubs, a homestand that Chicago is off to a 5-1 start on.

Today will also mark the debut of Jim Edmonds in a Cubs uniform, as what most Cubs fans would surely consider a sign of the apocalypse becomes reality today. Why the Cubs would need Edmonds, I don't know, but they got him.

The Yankees and Blue Jays got into a bit of a bean ball war earlier in the week, and Roger Clemens and Joe Torre are the ones who will pay the price: Clemens got nailed for five days while Torre will be forced to miss one.

I'm sure this isn't going to go over that well amongst Yankee fans, but it had to have been expected. Tempers flared after the Blue Jays threw behind Alex Rodriguez in Monday's game, so much so that my FanHouse colleague Red literally predicted some more extra-curricular activities would happen later in the series. Lo and behold, after Rodriguez was plunked on the calf in Tuesday's game, Clemens retaliated by hitting Alex Rios square in the back, earning an immediate ejection for both him and his skipper.

If Clemens was merely retaliating, shouldn't at least one of the Jays been suspended, as well? Maybe in a perfect world, but they managed to just barely stay on the good graces of the umpires, which makes all the difference in the world when commissioner's office starts doling out punishment.

Something to take into consideration is that this is probably the most expensive bean ball of Clemens' career -- not being paid for five days is almost like taking one million dollars out of his bank account. Granted, I'm not sure Clemens even balances his checkbook to within six digits, but still, I'm guessing his accountant will see the missing dough.

Update: three Blue Jays were fined, but not suspended: Josh Towers, Matt Stairs and third-base coach Brian Butterfield.