This post-season's schedule has been excellent. Sometimes baseball does get the message and makes improvements. I think the 8:07 starts __about 30 minutes earlier__ make a decent amount of difference to viewers. And having thosepotential Game Fives on Thurs-Fri was a huge hit. And they got rewarded with three of 'em  No, the Phils arren't the Braves. They have a lot more problems. Rollins (probably) and Ibanez (certainly) will leave. Howard now has a major injury and his stats were already showing some decline from fabulous to merely wonderful. Utley's knee problems appeqar to be chronic so I doubt he'll ever be 100% of the player he was at his best. Polanco has had a terrible post-season career, which he continued. Is Oswalt really an "ace" any more. For the previous seven years his average fastball was, each year, between 92.6 and 94.0. In '11, it was down to 91.4. And he really pitches off that fastball. The Phils bullpen is okay for a contender but worrisome for a team that wants to be great. And what's Manuel's future?  One loss can set a franchise back a knotch. Halladay, Lee and Hamels will keep them >90 wins. But I suspect their very best years are past. Doesn't mean they can't put it together for another WS win. But five more years? No.  I wanted to make a point about clutch hitting in the post-season. Almost NOBODY hits better in October because the pitchers you face are better. If you hit the SAME in October, that's very good. And if your OPS only falls 50 points, that's okay. But there are people who, over many series, have an OPS that's >100 points lower.  Some examples. Ryan Howard (46 games, 10 post-season series): .845 OPS. Career: .928. That's a solid Oct record.  Utley (same 46 games): .902 vs. ,882 career. !!!  Rollins (46 games): .686 vs .761 career.  Victorino (46 games): .784 w 30 RBI vs .783 career. He really steps up in October. Talking to him by the cage before playoff games, he just seems to love it, want to play up to the moment and enjoy it. A rare great attitude.)  Polanco (38 games): .592 (awful) vs. .752.  Ibanez (36 games): .656 OPS vs. .813. Ugly.  Hamels 13 starts 7-4, 3.09 ERA vs 3.39 career era.  Halladay 5 starts, 3-2, 2.37 ERA.  Oswalt (eight series) 5-2, 3.73 ERA. Career ERA 3.12.  Finbally, A-Rod is poor, but doesn't quite stink w a .260 average in post-season as a Yankee. Jeter's post-season OPS is .839 in 7000 games vs .832 in career.  Teixeira, in six series as aYankee, is hitting .170 __18 for 106. Uggggh.
Sports Columnist Tom Boswell answered reader questions about the Redskins, the Nationals, baseball, Stephen Strasburg, the Wizards and more.