Manuel tried that with Jimmy Rollins earlier this season.

Can drop him down in the order temporarily, hoping to take some pressure off him or just shake things up a little.

Check.

Can show confidence by continuing to pencil him in night after night, game after game, no matter how much he struggles.

Been there, done that.

About 2 1/2 hours before last night's game against the Rays at Tropicana Field, Manuel played his last card. He asked Rollins, who is hitless in his last 19 at-bats, to stop by his office. Told him he wasn't going to play last night against the Rays and probably not tonight at Toronto, either.

Told him to relax. Told him he didn't have to set foot on the field if he didn't want to. All but invited him to grab a beach chair and a rum drink with a little umbrella in it, kick back and enjoy the ballgame.

This will no doubt please those who have been clamoring for Rollins to be benched or bumped from the leadoff spot until further notice, but Manuel doesn't manage by opinion poll or with one finger raised to see which way the wind is blowing.

Every indication is that Rollins will be back at the top of the order sooner rather than later. And that once he's there he'll stay in that spot - for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer - for another good long while.

Like it or not, agree or not, that makes sense when a few of Manuel's unshakable beliefs are considered.

That Rollins is the best leadoff hitter the Phillies have.

That Rollins is most comfortable hitting first.

And, perhaps most importantly, that Rollins is simply too good to not snap out of his funk.

This is hardly a unique situation, by the way. Less than a month ago, Red Sox fans were convinced that David Ortiz was toast. Through the first 47 games of the season he was batting .186 and had just one home run. The media openly speculated about moves that general manager Theo Epstein might be able to make to find a designated hitter to replace him.

In his last 17 games, going into last night, Big Papi was hitting .340 with six homers and 15 RBI.

Unless Rollins is being bothered by an undisclosed injury - and there hasn't been so much as a hint that he is - there's absolutely no reason to think that he can't have a turnaround just as dramatic. After all, Ortiz is 3 years older and considerably heftier than the superbly conditioned Rollins.

That's just common sense. And while common sense doesn't always carry the day in baseball, it's logical to assume a player who brought an 8-year career average of .277 into the season will finish closer to that than the .211 he's hitting at the moment. It doesn't always happen that way, but it does more often than not.

Now, it would be overstating the case to say that unless Rollins gets on a J-Roll the Phillies have no chance of defending their world championship this season. Any winning team needs contributions from all over the roster.

At the same time, to use another pet Manuelism, this stat is worth repeating: The Phillies are 28-7 (.800) this year when he scores a run and were 42-15 (.737) last season when he crossed the plate at least once.

"I think he's a leadoff hitter," Manuel said. "I think he's our leadoff hitter. To me, we've got to get Jimmy right. I don't see moving him around in the lineup. I don't understand that. Jimmy is a big part of our offense."

Manuel went on to say that he knows Rollins is as good as he's ever been. That's not true, of course. What he meant was that there's no apparent reason for the troubles Rollins is having. And as long as that's true, he'll continue to believe that a turnaround is as close as his next at-bat.

The manager can only do so much, though. Manuel is pretty deft at managing the psyches of his players but the reality is that he's pretty much used all his bullets at this point.

No matter what happens next, it's pretty plain that Rollins will continue to get every opportunity to right himself. And that, no matter how much clamor or white noise results, he'll do it from the top of the order.

The Phillies need a productive Rollins in the leadoff spot and Manuel will do everything he can to make that happen.

Come to think of it, he already has. *

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