Q&A: Charlie Manuel on the Phillies

With lefthander Cliff Lee rejoining the team, the Phillies manager has more studs in his starting rotation than a Kentucky horse farm.

Manuel, who will head back to his Winter Haven, Fla., home this week briefly before the Feb. 14 start of spring training, took some time in his ballpark office to answer questions about his Four Aces (Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels) and a variety of other subjects, including his personal life.

During a 30-minute question-and-answer session, Manuel talked about his love for his longtime companion Missy Martin, his five children, and his passion for the Philadelphia area.

Question: All the talk is obviously about your Four Aces. Does that put more pressure on you as the manager to win?

Manuel: "No, I like it. Pressure to me is what you put on yourself. I think you know our philosophy: Every day is the moment for us. We don't look back and we don't look forward. That day, we're going to come to the ballpark and we're going to win the game. My slogan is, 'We do it because we want to and not because we have to.' "

Q: You have the Four Aces, but the Boston Red Sox have a lineup of hitting stars. As an offensive guy, were you at all jealous of what they did during the off-season?

Manuel: "They have a big-time offense . . . there is no doubt about it. But if you remember, Detroit two or three years ago, they had Miguel Cabrera, [Placido] Polanco, and [Gary] Sheffield, and all these guys, and one of their coaches told me they would score a thousand runs. Well, they didn't score a thousand runs. You still have to play the game, and you still have to hit the ball. As Chase Utley would say, 'You still have to stay focused for 162 games.' They have a big-time lineup, but I look over there and the Yankees have a big-time lineup, too.

"I know we have changed our ball club and now we're about pitching, but our offense is still capable of doing good. People talk about our offense and what we're going to do. If you stop and think about it, our guys are 30 or 31 years old . . . and people are talking about them getting old. Yeah, we have Raul [Ibanez] in left field who has some age on him, and Polanco is getting a little older, but he can hit. He can put the fat part of the bat on the ball, and he can execute with anybody. Ibanez really came back the second half last year, and he ended up with 83 RBIs, and he was only two behind Jayson Werth. We have a lot of ifs, but what I'm trying to say is if [Jimmy] Rollins and [Chase] Utley and [Shane] Victorino come back and have the kind of years they're supposed to have, our offense will be very good."

Q: Can you describe each of your aces?

Manuel: "You talk about Halladay, to me he is a bigger, stronger [Greg] Maddux with more of an arsenal. And then when I look at Lee . . . he commands the game. He works fast, always knows what he's going to do, and the defense has to always be ready. He doesn't let the hitters step out. He picks it up and fires it. [Roy] Oswalt is more of a power guy, really. When he's getting his breaking ball and change-up over, he's really tough. And then you have [Cole] Hamels, he's more of a finesse guy who can pull the string on you. And now he has a cutter to go with his fastball and his command. We have different style pitchers. And even Joe Blanton, you put him in the five-hole and he becomes a different pitcher."

Q: Can your offense be better without Jayson Werth?

Manuel: "Yes. When you have a weakness or a hole or somebody is not producing, we go and find somebody. In the middle of the season, they find somebody every year. We definitely want to accomplish our goals. But 21/2 years ago, Jayson Werth beat somebody out. Now, we have Domonic Brown, we have Ben Francisco, we have John Mayberry. We have to find the best player between those three, or all three of them might be good. That's not a big deal to me. We're going to find that guy who is going to help us."

Q: Why do you think Ryan Howard's home-run total was down last year?

Manuel: "He has always hit good in September and always finishes strong. He hurt his ankle last year in August and he sat out 15 days on the disabled list. When he came back, his ankle was still hurting him, and he didn't make a big deal out of it, but that is the leg he puts his weight on. It is his push-off leg. He's a balanced, rhythm hitter. That was the lowest he had ever hit in September as far as power goes. Ryan Howard is a 40- to 50-home-run guy, and he has proven that. Those ones he missed last year, he might come back and add them on this year, so the pitchers better look out."

Q: What's the greatest pitching staff you can remember?

Manuel: "I would say the Baltimore Orioles with all those 20-game winners [Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Pat Dobson in 1971]. And then the [early 1970s] Mets in my time had [Tom] Seaver, [Jerry] Koosman, and [Gary] Gentry. And then there is the Braves with [Greg] Maddux, [John] Smoltz, [Tom] Glavine, and [Steve] Avery. That's a big-time staff."

Q: And would you put your starting rotation this season up against any of those?

Manuel: "If you're going to write them down on paper, they belong there. But we have to prove it, and only time will tell. That's the beauty of it. Yeah, we have a chance to have the best staff, but there is that little bit of doubt in there, so we have to wait to see them pitch and how they do."

Q: Is this the most excited you've ever been at the start of a season?

Manuel: "When I start thinking of our pitching staff and what it can be, this definitely is the most excited I've been in a long time. Also, I'm excited about getting started again because we finished the season on kind of a down note. I think our guys were disappointed we couldn't get to the World Series and that's how I left them that night. But now that we've picked up [Cliff] Lee, that's a big up for us. That shows where our organization wants to go and how much we're trying to get back to the World Series and win."

Q: What's your most vivid memory of that October night when you were eliminated by San Francisco?

Manuel: "Just our guys and how you could tell they were hurt. I think that will last through the winter and stay with them. We felt like we were the best team and we didn't accomplish our goal. I heard Lee at his press conference say that if we didn't go to the World Series, we wouldn't meet our expectations. But our expectations the last four or five years have been to go to the World Series."

Q: You said recently you consider yourself a Phillie for life. Do you also consider yourself a Philadelphian and, if so, why?