Big Leagues

It is going to be a difficult and defining offseason for Ruben Amaro Jr. For the first time during his tenure as Phillies general manager, Amaro will not have the benefit of the doubt or a division title as he goes about the business of putting together the 2013 Phillies. The Phillies are going to finish first in the big leagues in attendance for the second straight season, but that trend will not continue without a rapid rise back to the top of the National League East. That is no easy task when you consider the youth and talent of the two teams - Washington and Atlanta - currently in front of them.

If you can hit the ball really far, it will not take long for Charlie Manuel to notice. If you can hit the ball really far and with great frequency, Manuel will do more than notice. If you can do all of this while the Phillies flounder, Manuel will start thinking big things. Such is the case with Darin Ruf, the 26-year-old slugging first baseman at double-A Reading. Manuel has watched recent video of Ruf's assault on the Eastern League. The Phillies manager is interested. "He's had an extraordinary year," Manuel said Tuesday.

When your team is either well on its way to a division title or at least still fighting for a playoff spot, the September call-ups from the minor leagues have a far different meaning. In that scenario, you call up the players who give you the best chance to win on a nightly basis even if they're not considered top prospects. A year ago, for example, outfielder Brandon Moss was among the September call-ups for the Phillies because he had the ability to provide left-handed power off the bench.

AND NOW THE least surprising turn of events in the Phillies' season: Charlie Manuel digs the long ball. A former longtime, big-league hitting coach and a power hitter in Japan, Manuel can't help but be intrigued with Double A slugger Darin Ruf, who tied Ryan Howard's Reading franchise record with his 37th homer on Tuesday night against the Binghamton Mets. Of Ruf's 37 blasts, he has hit 19 of them in 28 games in August. With Reading's regular season set to end on Monday, Manuel said he'll bring up Ruf's name when the Phillies make decisions on September call-ups this week.

WITH THE deadline for making trades through waivers coming up a week from Friday, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. continues to do his due diligence in talking with his counterparts on other teams. But when asked earlier this week how many general managers he had spoken to on that particular day, Amaro said, "Zero. " Instead, he and the Phils brass were hunkered down in organizational meetings. In addition to the upcoming waiver deadline is the beginning of September, when rosters expand from 25 to up to as many as 40 players.

PHILLIPPE AUMONT came to the Phillies organization 2 1/2 years ago as a near-ready prospect, part of a trio of such players arriving from Seattle. They came over on the day Roy Halladay became a Phillie and Cliff Lee became an ex-Phillie, as a result of what the organization called a need to replenish a farm system that had suffered from trades. Aumont, who came from the Mariners with fellow righthander J.C. Ramirez and outfielder Tyson Gillies, was the first to arrive in Philadelphia.

Ryne Sandberg is ready to return to the big leagues. "Oh, I'm ready," the Hall of Fame second baseman said last week as he sat in the dugout at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown. "In my mind, I'm ready for a major-league opportunity. " Good luck trying to find somebody who does not agree. Sandberg has spent six seasons as a minor-league manager, including the last two with the Phillies' triple-A Lehigh Valley affiliate, and the time has come for him to take the next step. You won't hear Sandberg say that.

SEATTLE - Jeff Datz, the Seattle Mariners third-base coach and a graduate of Clearview High in Gloucester County and Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) is completing his 11th season as a major-league coach, and he says he never takes a day for granted. Nor will Datz forget the person who opened the gate to the big leagues. "I will forever be grateful to Charlie Manuel," Datz said about the Phillies manager in an interview last month at Safeco Field. "He gave me the opportunity to coach in the big leagues.

Manager Charlie Manuel talked about Vance Worley as if he hadn't expected much more than the righthander gave him Sunday during the Phillies' 8-7, 11-inning victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. "He battled," Manuel said. "He stays in there and he usually gives us a chance to win the game. He usually takes you five or six innings. If you're going to be a fourth or fifth starter . . . in the major leagues, that ain't all bad. He definitely guts it out at times. " It could be argued that Worley has been gutting it out for some time.