J-Roll Can Roll Right Out of Town

So do we ask for the trade after we alienate the fan base or

do we poison the season and clubhouse first?

I always wondered what the affinity for Jimmy Rollins was. Through years of being in involved in fantasy baseball, people loved to take Rollins, and always plucked him high in drafts. I could never figure it out, as he had never hit over .300 in a season, and until he hit 25 homers in 2006 (and 30 the next season) he was never really a huge power guy. He could steal bases, but hell, so could Vince Coleman. Last season he won the MVP award, and I could then see why everyone was so taken with this guy. He was (supposedly) of high character, a hard worker, everything you would want in a team leader. He was the face of the Phillies franchise, and then came 2008. I am really not sure what bug crawled up this guy's ass, but the Phillies may want to have a team doctor take a look at it. First he fails to hustle on a pop-up earlier this season and gets taken out of a game. Then he shows up late to an afternoon game against the second place Mets and gets benched for 8 2/3rds innings (which the Phillies lost). The third takes it for me, and proves to me that you should always trust your first instincts. On "Best Damn" last night, he was asked what it was like to be a player in Philadelphia. His answers were not what you would call warm, fuzzy, or comforting (unless as a fan you like to be called a "front runner"). In fact, on Phillies Nation's Myspace page, they have announced that "Jimmy Rollins is a douchebag". Pretty astounding fall for a guy who was the toast of the town less than one year ago, don't you think? Maybe this is Rollins way of telling us he doesn't like Manuel and wants out, or his way of riling Phils fans up to take the attention away from the fact that this team has squandered one opportunity after another to run away with their division, but whatever it is, it should be his ticket out of town. The last thing an MLB team needs is a guy to cause Manny Ramirez-like distractions, and Rollins is heading down that same path. Regardless of how the rest of this season plays out (short of a World Series win) I would expect Mr. Rollins to be on his way out of town this off-season, which by the sounds of it, is exactly what he wants.