Phillies' Rollins deluded on five-year contract

Jimmy Rollins has been the engine of the greatest era of Phillies baseball, the marquee on the best show on grass. But Rollins is delusional if he thinks he's worth a five-year contract from his hometown team at this stage of his athletic life.

At age 33 - which is what Rollins will be when he takes the field next season - major-league shortstops are like 50-year-old office workers: They're in it as year-to-year survivors, inching toward a retirement fund. Derek Jeter is the exception, not the rule. Jeter is a miracle of modern anatomy. And he's the Joe Paterno of the Yankees. There is no way anyone can push him out of the job because of his status.

Rollins may have a couple of good years left, but he doesn't have five. At this age, shortstops in the big leagues become rent-a-players - the Edgar Renterias, Orlando Cabreras, Alex Gonzalezes, and Rafael Furcals of the world.

I watched, with everyone else, Rollins' postseason news conference Tuesday afternoon and, four days after the most disappointing loss in Philadelphia sports history, I was frankly astonished by his 'tude. (I was also a bit put off that he refused to talk after that Friday night game, but I digress.)

Rollins said he has six good years left and gave the impression he wouldn't settle for anything less than a five-year deal. He might go for four years, but that fifth year would be "my option." That doesn't even make sense. No team would ever give a player his choice to play a season at age 37.

Earlier this year, way back at spring training, I sat down to do an interview with Rollins in front of his locker at Bright House Networks Field. I presented him with the information that fans (and for that matter, his own coaches) would like to see him be more selective as a leadoff hitter, giving a little more concern to his on-base percentage. He looked me in the eye and told me that, well, people are just going to have to keep complaining, because he wasn't going to change a thing.

What is the root of this defiance? Does Jimmy Rollins feel he has been underappreciated as a Phillie?

It's possible. In the everchanging world of baseball market value, Rollins has been underpaid over the last couple of years. The following shortstops make more money than Rollins: Troy Tulowitzki ($15.7 million), Miguel Tejada ($12 million), Hanley Ramirez ($11.6 million), and even Furcal ($10 million), Renteria, and Julio Lugo ($9 million each). But over the last couple of years, at least since his MVP season, Rollins' numbers have diminished.

Rollins is in imminent danger of cutting off his nose to spite his face.

I don't think a five-year contract is out there for him. From anybody. Not even the team from his beloved Bay Area, the San Francisco Giants.

So does he then come limping back to the Phillies? That would be embarrassing. And here's the thing: The Phillies have to find some way to change the dynamic of their lineup, to refresh it a bit, to change the offensive stagnancy. The options to do that, because of contracts and hence untradeable players, are few. Not re-signing Rollins is one way the Phils can effect that change.

With a bloated payroll that needs an air bleeding, do the Phillies go with the rent-a-shortstop approach next season until the triple-A kid, Freddy Galvis, is ready for the big leagues in 2013? The following shortstops can be signed as temps, and at a reasonable price: Furcal, Jason Bartlett, Marco Scutaro, and Orlando Cabrera.

Would a lineup that has Furcal as the leadoff hitter with Victorino in the two-hole, or Victorino as the leadoff hitter and Bartlett, Scutaro, or Cabrera somewhere down in the lineup, really be that much of a hardship? At this point, with the Phillies going out in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals, with once again their anemic offense letting them down, I'm not so sure it would.

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was forthright and earnest in his postseason news conference. But he's a little misguided in thinking this Phillies lineup can produce more .300 hitters simply by having a better approach in the batter's box.

Placido Polanco is running on dying batteries, double sports-hernia surgery or not. Chase Utley no longer has a bottom half to his body. The line drives he used to produce to the gaps have now been reduced to seeing-eye singles in the holes. Victorino? Not sure. Hunter Pence is the only legitimate .300 hitter they have.

I don't want this to come off as sour grapes because the Phillies lost. But the five-game first-round playoff series is patently unfair to the No. 1 seed. The Phillies ground out 102 wins in the regular season, a tremendous accomplishment and a true measure of a team's worth. It's just not right that the only advantage they get in the playoffs is one extra home game in a series short enough to almost be sudden death.

Major League Baseball, more than any other pro sport, worships the regular season. That's why it's 162 games long. The league almost had a conniption to add the wild-card round for fear it would diminish the accomplishment of a regular-season record.

An NCAA tournament first-round upset is charming because it's college, where sports is a little more sis-boom-ba. In pro sports, it's just unfair.

Go to seven games, so the better team can catch its breath a little. Or change up the sequence and mandate that if a team wins 100 and the opponent has 10 fewer wins, the team with 10 fewer wins gets only one game at home. Radical, I know. But that's why I'm here.

I saw something in the Eagles game last week that I have never seen in an NFL game, and I've seen a lot of NFL games. How can a quarterback, backed deep in his own territory, convert a third and 5 with a quarterback sneak that gets 10 yards? That's what Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Buffalo Bills did against this Eagles' wide mistake - er - nine. (I haven't seen that play since maybe Shawnee High did it to Washington Township. Maybe.)

And while I'm at it, how does Michael Vick squander a field goal before the half by wasting the final eight seconds of a half looking for a receiver? Vick is enough of a veteran QB to be able to use a mental clock, no? If you can't trust your quarterback to know that he has to leave a second on the clock to get your kicker on the field, then the Eagles really have problems.