According to Yahoo! Sports, Werth may need to lose the beard.

“The team policy is, facial hair is OK, but it’s got to be groomed,” Rizzo said Monday night. “It’s got to be nicely … professionally groomed.”

Good thing he won’t have to grow a playoff beard in Washington.

Can’t really blame the guy for cashing in on his only opportunity as a free agent. He never really had a true free agency period, since he was pretty much an unknown before the Phillies gave him a second chance in the majors. We all knew this was coming, especially after his breakout 2009, followed by declining the Phillies extension offer this past summer. Still doesn’t make the sting feel any better.

We knew the Nationals were going to at least attempt to make a big move this offseason, but few probably took them seriously. You’re not making the playoffs in the foreseeable future, especially if Strasburg is done until 2012. So why overbid on a free agent that’s going to make a minimal impact on your current team? Losing Adam Dunn hurt, but replacing him Werth isn’t magically going to equal wins. They gain 1.1 WAR from last year… yippee!

It’s really Ruben’s fault for letting it come to this. Rather than continuing Gillick’s plan (signing under the radar players – Dobbs, Werth, Durbin, club friendly deals – Rollins, Utley), he has constantly bid against himself on free agents and current players. His biggest mistake is always being ready to offer one too many years (Lidge, Moyer, Ibanez, Blanton), which has now spilled over into our ability to keep key pieces on our team (Werth, Lee). We could have had Werth if we really wanted him, but Ruben’s too nearsighted to plan ahead for the future. We’re officially losing the 2nd best OF in all of baseball (15 WAR over his last 3 seasons), because Ruben’s about a proficient at managing salaries as Andy Reid is at managing the clock.

Blame Ruben’s inability to be even a competent general manager, not Werth’s decision to leave.

Happy trails, man. Happy trails.

Seven years, $126 million. Wow.

The Phillies will receive the Nationals’ second-round draft choice and a sandwich pick. They will not receive the first-rounder, since it is protected.

It’s something we all knew was coming, no matter how much some of us might have tried to deny it.

I can’t possibly be mad at Werth for leaving. He gave us four awesome seasons. Then he got an insanely lucrative offer, and this was his one and only shot at a huge payday.

I think the Phillies are going to sorely miss his production next year, but even if not, I’m going to miss having my favorite player on my favorite team.

At least now I can, and will, buy a Werth jersey without breaking the bank. So I got that goin’ for me. Which is nice.

So, Jayson, thanks for the memories. Hitting three homers against the Blue Jays. Stealing all three bases on Russell Martin. All the big postseason hits that helped us win a World Series and two NL pennants. That glorious beard. I hope you’ll get a warm reception each of the many times you’ll return to Philadelphia as an opponent over the rest of the decade…but I sincerely doubt it.

Enjoy your money. And fourth place.

Sincerely,

Still Your Biggest Fan

Not much Phillies stuff to talk about today other than Kendrick turning in another solid four innings in a 4-3 loss to the Orioles, so here’s a picture of Jayson Werth stroking his glorious beard in deep thought.

You could make him a Phillie

As promised, today I’m going to be looking at trade opportunities to cut payroll in 2011.

For the purpose of this analysis, I’m going to assume the Phillies exercise buyouts on Juan Castro and JC Romero giving them 7 mil to play with over 6 roster spots.

When creating an unrealistic “let’s trade X, Y, and Z for all your base”-type discussion, it’s important to play the game with players who actually have value in trade.  This means moving them should provide us some payroll relief while their contracts shouldn’t be such that we can’t get anything in value back.  I will not condone Luis Castillo for Jason Heyward speculation.  If the following appears absolutely impossible then I didn’t do my job.

The 2011 roster has three players that fit the criteria: Cole Hamels (1 year, 9.5m with a final arb year), Shane Victorino (2 years, 17m), and Ryan Howard (1 year, 20m).

With the dearth of starting pitcher options on the immediate horizon, it’s unlikely the Phillies can afford to part with Hamels.  However, if they’re looking for prospects, Hamels is the piece that’s going to bring in oodles of top talent.  An unexpected breakout season from Phillippe Aumont could change things considerably or they could pursue a package that includes a serviceable 5th starter as filler.  It’s unlikely Hamels will be shopped, but I’m not ready to dismiss the idea entirely.  Moving Hamels would open up about 16.5m for 7 spots, although the return for Hamels is likely to include pieces to slot into one or more of those spots.

Trading Howard opens up a lot of payroll, allowing management to comfortably re-sign Werth and try to add the poor man’s Ryan Howard, Carlos Pena.  However, the window to trade Howard has passed.  In 2011, his contract will not hold much surplus value, meaning that the return for a player of his caliber would be quite small.  With free agency looming for a ton of talented 1b in 2012, teams might choose to hang onto their prospects.  Adrian Gonzalez may still be on the trade block and Lance Berkman will either be on the block or a free agent, making Howard plan C for the few high payroll clubs that might be interested in him.  Success trading Howard opens up 27 mil to spend on 7 roster spots, although the return is likely to be a cheap, mediocre player that fills one of those spots.

Victorino on the other hand has the potential to be fully expendable.  A 2010 breakout year for Gillies in AA/AAA could have him ready to man CF.  Even if he’s not quite there, it’s easier to approximate Victorino’s value with a Francisco/Player X platoon than Werth’s.  And Werth has the defensive chops to get by in centerfield while we wait on Gillies.  With Vic gone and internal options covering the position, the Phillies would have 14.5m to fill 6 roster spots.  The return for Vic is likely to be minimal, perhaps a decent, cheap pen arm.

As a final note on the trade front, what about trading all of them?  A fresh pen arm for Victorino (ML minimum, 6 years of control), a decent #3 starter for Howard (say 4m, 3 years of control), and a full net of booty for Hamels (let’s speculate and say Justin Smoak and some live project-type arms) would result in a marginally weaker 2011 roster and an incredibly lethal, cost controlled 2012 unit.  That’s about 40 mil left to spend on 3 roster spots giving the team the ability to sign Werth AND a front line SP like Brandon Webb.  The biggest problem with this plan?  I left the realm of plausible reality for MVP2005 about 75 words ago.  Planning to trade 1 of those guys for a reasonable return is a pragmatic attempt to eek out some room in the budget.  Planning to trade 3 popular players for highly directed bounties is just unwieldy and unlikely.  I doubt Ruben has the cojones it requires to deal those players (although a top prospect like Smoak along with Werth and Webb might dampen the complaints).

Honestly, I’d love to see this scenario play out as it would keep the Phils competitive in 2011 and dominant going forward (a lineup with Gillies, Utley, Werth, Smoak, Brown, Rollins, Polanco, and Ruiz looks ridiculous), but the best way to see that happen is to mod your MVP2005 rosters to the most current available at mvpmods.com and make the trades yourself.  It’s not impossible, a creative GM like Billy Beane or Theo Epstein would probably be itching for the chance to couple an older core of Utley, Werth, and Rollins with a young core including three very good prospects, but it remains to be seen if Ruben has either the desire to go that route or the blessing of management to mess with a good thing.

See what I did there?

Did you guys know that this Jason Worth character grew a beard this off-season? Also his hair is kind of long, too. As a matter of fact, he closely resembles Jeff Bridges from that one movie he was in!

We all know Werf hasn’t been very forthright with information about his choice of coiffure; preferring just to let his mane speak for itself (which it has, at length.) My good pal Dave Brown was ballsy enough to ask Jayson if he could touch it, just to prove that it was real. Spoiler alert: hell no.

But just how far has Beard Mania™ gone? Well, pretty gosh darn far. Far enough that the bigwigs at the venerable Topps Trading Card Company have taken notice and may consider preserving the legacy that is Jayson Werth’s Beard in a very, shall we say, personal manner. Check out how after the jump.

Topps kicks a whole lot of ass right now. Their exclusivity agreement with MLB has raised the hackles of a few members of the baseball card collecting community (Yeah, they’re still out there,) but the fact that Topps has churned out some seriously awesome sets over the past few years and seriously endeared them to me. Sure, the 2010 Series 1 cards might be some of the most beautiful card designs I’ve seen in a decade but their other, lesser known sets like National Chicle, Topps Heritage, and Allen and Ginter throw back to years gone by while expanding on exactly what is a baseball card.

In case you thought I was kidding...

After the trading card market collapsed, card manufacturers turned to insert cards to incite collectors into ripping more and more wax. Inserts have evolved from simple “gold cards” to elaborate gimmicks such as cards printed on silk, cuts of game used merchandise, or the actual printing plates used to make the card. In the 2009 Allen and Ginter set, which is known for featuring not only ballplayers but historical figures, athletes from other sports, and animals,  Topps went one step further and included honest to God DNA on an incredibly limited number of cards. I remember freaking out when I pulled a gold foil Mike Lieberthal card in elementary school. I’m not sure how I would have felt then if I pulled the Napoleon Bonaparte Hair Sample Relic.

I tell you all that so I can tell you this:

I contacted Topps through Twitter to see if they had any plans on featuring our favorite facial hair in their updated set of cards that comes out halfway through the season. Turns out, thanks to your pal Redmund and Topps, you may soon be able to own a part of the most important beard in the history of Southeastern Pennsylvania:

My original tweet, a response to a question about preseason baseball:

Topps’ first  response:

Me again, not being able to let go of a joke until it’s beaten to death:

Finally, Topps:

BONUS NON-BEARD COVERAGE:

In addition to baseball, I have a bit of an obsession with sunglasses. I blame it on the fact that I have some crazy weird degenerative eye disease, but my girlfriend blames it on me being a huge homosexual. Either way, Not long after I tweeted the above pic of Werf commenting about how much I liked his shades when a rep from the company responded to let me know the make and model. Turns out Jayson’s rocking Kaenon Hard Kores in a custom white and red colorway. Unfortunately, and I truly may be the only one who cares about this, Kaenon doesn’t actually sell the white frames. Just a heads up, guys: put these out at retail in the Delaware Valley and you won’t be able to keep them on the shelves. We’re all a bit weird like that.

Oh, and if you want to toss me a pair of Hard Kore Large for introducing your brand to literally dozens of new customers, I’d be totally cool with that. You too, Topps.