*Apter Hours Special*...ESPN's Jayson Stark chimes in on the Phillies

"Jayson Stark has been a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com since 2000. His regular contributions include the newsy Rumblings and Grumblings column and his tilted look inside baseball's numbers and quirks, the Useless Information Department. Stark also makes regular television appearances on "SportsCenter," "The Hot List" and "Baseball Tonight." He is a regular ESPN Radio guest of "Mike & Mike in the Morning" (Wednesdays), "GameNight" (Thursdays) and the "Sports Bash" (Tuesdays), as well as numerous other shows on the network. Before arriving at ESPN, Stark worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer for 21 years. He was twice named Pennsylvania's sportswriter of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association." (ESPN.com) Let me first start off by saying how thankful I am to Jayson for returning my e-mails over the past few months and agreeing to answer some questions for all you Phillies fans and Philly Sports Port readers. Just a background on how I got to meet Jayson. When I interned last year with the Reading Phillies, he appeared at two games to hold a signing for his book about the 2008 World Champion Phillies entitled, "Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies". I got lucky and was assigned to assist Jayson at his table to help sell books, take money, etc. When the lines were shorter, he and I got to talking and I realized that he is one of the most down to earth journalists I have met. Given, I may not have met too many so far, but it is a fair judgment. Sitting with someone who writes about the team I love and just listening to his passion about it is fascinating. Throughout the time I have known him, Jayson has been very responsive with any e-mails I send him about the Phillies or anything sports. He is very good at what he does and I advise all of you who have yet to pick up a copy of "Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies"...to pick one up because it is a great read. I have read it twice already and reading through it gives me goosebumps. We all know that team in '08 was special. They made it back last year...but what does 2010 hold for our Fightins?...Let's see what Jayson Stark has to say about some of the Phillies topics... APTER:  Coming into the season, what/who do you think is the key factor to the Phillies success? STARK: Keeping their pitchers healthy. They have less pitching depth than any contending team in the league. So they can't afford to lose any of their most important pitchers for any length of time. With Kyle Drabek gone, they don't have any advanced impact pitching prospects they can even call up. A big worry. APTER: Rich Dubee named Jamie Moyer as the favorite for the fifth spot in the rotation. Do you think that will stand with Kendrick's spring success? STARK:They owe Jamie $7.75 million. Start with that. And once again, let me mention that they have so little pitching depth, unless Jamie self-destructs, I think they have to give him every opportunity to show them he can still pitch -- or that he can't. You know, if you check the numbers, he really pitched fine from late May on last year. And he's actually doing amazingly well for a 47-year-old guy who had three surgeries last winter. But it doesn't matter, in the long run, what he had to do to get himself back into pitching shape. Ultimately, all that matters is whether he can still keep getting people out. APTER: What do you think is the biggest strength/weakness of the Phillies going into this season? STARK:   Biggest strength: They'll run eight all-stars out there opening day, and every one of them is totally committed to winning and knows exactly what it takes to win. I can't think of another team in the NL that can say that.              Biggest weakness: Stop me if you heard this before, like two answers ago, but the pitching staff is way too thin. Without J.C. Romero, they don't have a single lefthanded reliever I could see Charlie Manuel trusting late in the game. It's hard to know what Brad Lidge will give them. And I don't think Danys Baez is a guy they can lean on for 70 appearances in a key set-up type role. This could be a big, big concern as the marathon rolls along. APTER: How do you think the other teams in the NL East stack up against the Phillies? STARK: The teams to worry about are the Braves and Marlins. The Braves have big upside if Billy Wagner, Tim Hudson and Troy Glaus are as healthy as they've looked this spring, and if Jason Heyward turns into a superstar sooner than later. The Marlins haven't improved on paper over last year at all. But boy, do they have a ton of starting pitching, and a bunch of young players who can mash. Dangerous team. APTER: Is there any other National League team that you believe can take the pennant from the Phillies? STARK: If we played the season on a spreadsheet, the Phillies would win 75 times out of 100. But I think the Cardinals and Rockies are really good. The Dodgers are still a threat. The Cubs have a ton of talent. And once you get into October, weird things can and do happen. So the Phillies may have a great team. But I wouldn't assume they're going back to the World Series just because of how they look on paper. There's a reason no NL team has played in three World Series in a row since 1944. APTER: With a big decision upcoming do you believe that Jayson Werth will be let go after this year so they can resign Ryan Howard? What do you think they should do? STARK: I hate to break it to you, but I don't think they can sign either of them. With more than $130 million committed in 2011 payroll already, there's almost no way they can fit Werth into the budget for next year unless he agrees to a heavily backloaded deal. And Howard is going to be unaffordable, I think. He's going to sit back and see what Albert Pujols gets. Then he's going to ask for more. And let me ask you this: Do you see the Phillies paying him $30 million a year for seven years? I don't. So they have gigantic decisions to ponder after this year. APTER: In order to have success, who needs to have a bigger bounce back year, Cole Hamels or Brad Lidge. STARK: Uh, both. But if I had to pick one, I'd take Lidge, because I think Hamels is almost a given. He's looked unbelievable this spring. Best I've ever seen him in spring training. But in Lidge's case, have I mentioned that pitching depth in general and bullpen depth in particular are a major issue? Well, he's potentially the biggest dominator in the whole bullpen crew. So they need him. To think that they can play over all those blown saves again and still win, you really have to be a die-hard. APTER: What is your prediction for the 2010 Phillies? STARK: The last thing anybody needs is for me to start predicting. If I predict anything about anybody, I guarantee it'll be proven wrong within 15 minutes. But since you asked . . . If healthy, I like this team to go back to the World Series. But I'm not sure they have enough pitching depth to survive the marathon. Have I harped on that enough, or what? APTER: Last one...do you ever think the Phillies fans will get over the loss of Cliff Lee and how crucial was it to "replenish the farm"? STARK: If they win? Sure. People will get over that. But if they don't, they're going to hear about it. I understood the logic of what they did. But I also think when you have a chance to roll a special team and a special rotation like that out there, it's a mistake not to do it. They weren't going to be able to sign the guy beyond this season. I promise you that. So it would have been a huge gamble. But the window to win with this group might not be longer than one more year anyway. So if they don't win because they're a pitcher short, I don't know how you make these fans forget that. We don't forget anything in our town! You know that. ...well there you have it...the scariest one of them all is the fact that the Phils may not be able to sign BOTH Werth and Howard...so the window of opportunity to win is closing quickly. Thanks again to Jayson Stark for taking the time to answer my questions and make sure to pick up a copy of "Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies" and "The Stark Truth". The links on each book are to amazon.com so you can order your copy today! The Phillies take on Baltimore tonight at 7:05...Kyle Kendrick looks to keep up his spring success...Apter Hours to follow.