Manuel happy with offense as is

DALLAS - In Ruben Amaro Jr.'s perfect world, the Phillies will re-sign Jimmy Rollins and then turn their attention away from the team's offense. And that would be OK with Charlie Manuel.

"I feel very good about it," said the Phillies' manager, who met with the media yesterday at the winter meetings. "At the end of the season, of course I was upset. It took me about a week to get over it. But I look at things, and you bring Jimmy back, and put our team on the field, and I like what I see."

On paper, the Phillies have not done much to improve their starting lineup. Other than Laynce Nix replacing Raul Ibanez as the lefthanded option in leftfield, the batting order will look much as it did last season. That is not a bad thing, at least from the Phillies' point of view. Both Amaro and Manuel point to the offense's performance over the last half of the season, when the Phillies led the National League in runs scored. While both men acknowledged a need for improvement after a 1-0 loss to the Cardinals that ended their season, neither felt wholesale changes were in order.

In his season-ending press conference, Amaro said he wanted his hitters to produce better at-bats, a sentiment that Manuel echoed yesterday. But with an improved bench that will feature Jim Thome, Ty Wigginton and Nix, and John Mayberry Jr. poised to slide into an everyday role, the Phillies feel they have the personnel in place to replicate their regular-season success of 2011 while advancing farther in the postseason.

"We won 102 games last year," Manuel said. "From the second half of the season on, we were either No. 1 or No. 2 in offense. Once we added Hunter Pence last year, that's when Mayberry really started coming on. We think that he has a chance to be an everyday player, and we'll find out. But at the same time, if you look at who we have, why shouldn't I be excited about it?"

The answer to that question will hinge on a number of factors. First and foremost is Mayberry, who has never played in an everyday role. The 28-year-old leftfielder spent six mostly lackluster seasons in the minors before establishing himself as a valuable rotational player last season, hitting .273 with a .341 on-base percentage, .513 slugging percentage, 15 home runs and eight steals in 296 plate appearances. Both Manuel and Amaro have expressed confidence that he is a different player from the one who hit .267 with a .740 OPS at Triple A in 2010.