Jayson Werth

Position: Rightfield Height/weight: 6-5/218 pounds Age: 31. Birthdate: May 20, 1979 Hometown: Springfield, Ill. Years in ML: 8 How obtained: Acquired as a free agent in December 2006. Statistically speaking: Werth is hitting .270 away from Citizens Bank Park this year, which isn't bad but certainly less than his stellar .320 average at home. In 37 postseason games, Werth is a .283 hitter with 11 home runs and 21 RBI. He's done most of that damage in the NLDS with the Dodgers and Phillies, hitting .291 with five home runs.

Position: Rightfield Height, weight: 6-5, 212 Age: 30. Birthdate: May 20, 1979 Hometown: Springfield, Ill. Years pro: 7 How acquired: Signed as a free agent by the Phillies on Dec. 18, 2006, after missing entire '06 season because of wrist surgery. This year: Werth set career highs in games (159), at-bats (571), runs (98), hits (153), doubles (26), home runs (36) and RBI (99). Career: When he was drafted in the first round (22nd overall) of the 1997 draft by Baltimore, the 6-5 Werth was a catcher.

WASHINGTON - Washington Nationals right fielder Jayson Werth broke his left wrist Sunday night trying to make a sliding catch against the Phillies. "It's a clean break," Washington manager Davey Johnson said after the Nationals' 9-3 loss. "He's going to be out for a while. " Johnson said Werth will see a specialist to evaluate the injury. Werth was injured in the sixth inning. The right fielder's glove got caught underneath him, and he bent his wrist backward trying to grab Placido Polanco's sinking liner.

WHAT'S THE confusion about Jayson Werth leaving the Phillies? Put Mayberry in left, Brown in right, make Ibanez the pinch hitter and platoon Howard against right-handers only. Don't give me that stuff about Mayberry and Brown being rookies - everybody was a rookie once, and until they play every day in the majors, they'll never develop. It's a no-brainer. Joe H. Imlay Bordentown, N.J.

Bernadette Dougherty may be a monster Phillies fan, but she's a mom first. Glued to the television watching last night's Phillies-Rockies clash, Dougherty, 43, of Feasterville had to skip out at the beginning of the sixth inning to pick up her children. It was in that inning Jayson Werth belted the first Daily News Home Run Playoff Payoff homer of the year making Dougherty $1,000 richer. "I was watching the game and had to pick my kids up from CCD and of course the second I leave I miss hearing my name called.

ORLANDO - Ruben Amaro Jr. left the general managers' meetings Thursday without making any significant news. The off-season process is young, so there's no reason to sound any sirens or file a grievance with the complaints department. "We had some productive discussions with some agents on free agents and with other clubs" about trades, the Phillies' general manager said. Though Amaro never spoke specifically about negotiations with Jayson Werth's agent Scott Boras, he did send another signal that the Phillies are ready to move on without their free-agent rightfielder, even talking about him in the past tense at times.

The Phillies have hit, pitched, and played their usual pristine defense to build their longest winning streak since 1991. And in those rare moments when executing all the facets of the game wasn't quite enough, a stroke of fortune here and there made its way into the equation. Case in point: With one out and a runner on first in the top of the ninth inning last night at Citizens Bank Park, Chicago's Aramis Ramirez hit a sizzling grounder destined for a base hit. It brushed off the leg of Brad Lidge just enough to slow it a bit, and Jimmy Rollins turned it into an inning-ending double play.

Watching the Phillies through the first three weeks of the season was a challenging exercise. The parts put together by general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. did not work in unison much of the time. A couple of four-run leads disappeared during the first homestand and the offense disappeared shortly after that, scoring a Marlin-esque 13 runs in a recent seven-game stretch. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves sprinted out of the starting gate and placed the Phillies more than a week's worth of games behind them with school still in session for another two months.

The recollection of playing on Phillies teams that galvanized Philadelphia still gives Ryan Madson chills. Nostalgia is a powerful elixir. Listening to former Phillies reminisce about nights at Citizens Bank Park offers a glimpse into what the kingdom was not long ago - and how it seemed to change so quickly. "What fueled us was the fact that in 2007 we kind of got to the playoffs and didn't go anywhere," Madson said from the Los Angeles Angels' spring training clubhouse in Tempe, Ariz.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Earlier this week, Michael Young and Mike Napoli found each other behind the batting cage here and wrapped their arms around each other. Hugs and handshakes between players in different uniforms is hardly news in baseball, especially when they are ex-teammates, but this one lasted longer than most, like a reunion of brothers. "When you play with somebody and you have success and it's with guys you consider great teammates, those things never die," Michael Young was saying in front of his locker at Bright House Field early Wednesday morning.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It used to be the Phillies and Mets - sparring via sound bites across the state - that fueled the National League East preseason trash talk every spring. Then the Washington Nationals rose from the basement of the division and Jayson Werth, a longtime veteran of the division, took over Jimmy Rollins' old role as the NL East's primary provoker. Werth made waves when he called his Washington team the "most complete team" he has played on, and again this week when he said the Phillies, not the Braves, were the Nationals' chief competition within the division.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It was the seventh inning of a Grapefruit League game, which meant the household names had been excused from the dugout to shower and change and check out of work early. In the Phillies' clubhouse, Jimmy Rollins sat near his locker chatting with Delmon Young, both of them keeping an eye on a television hanging on the wall of the clubhouse. With one out in the inning, Domonic Brown connected with a fastball and caused the conversation to stop. "Whoa," Young and Rollins howled in unison as the 25-year-old outfielder's bomb cleared the batter's eye in centerfield.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - We interrupt the considerable amount of optimism wafting out of Bright House Field with a reminder that the Phillies still have several glaring issues that involve far more than a veteran's ability to stay healthy for the majority of the season. At the top of that list is an issue that was impossible to avoid on Monday afternoon. Against Tigers lefthander Drew Smyly, Charlie Manuel ran out a lineup with seven righthanded hitters, including all four of the players who entered spring training with a legitimate chance at creating some semblance of balance in the Opening Day lineup.

VIERA, Fla. - If Jimmy Rollins' comments at the end of the 2012 regular season were intended to be a hook that lured the Washington Nationals into a war of words, the National League East champions were not biting Wednesday. Told about Rollins' claim that the Nats would have finished second if the Phillies had been healthy, general manager Mike Rizzo declined comment after Washington's workout at the team's spring-training facility. Earlier in the day, Jayson Werth was asked if he found the remarks by his former teammate disrespectful.

Fourth in a series that looks at NL East teams. ONE OUT AWAY from playing in their first championship series in franchise history - since moving to Washington, that is - the Nationals were on the receiving end of a punch to the gut from the defending world champion St. Louis Cardinals. Just as Phillies fans cringe when they hear the names Cody Ross, Brian Wilson and Chris Carpenter, Nats fans don't want to remember Daniel Descalso, Pete Kozma or Carlos Beltran. After taking a six-run lead in the final game of the NL Division Series, the Nationals suffered an embarrassing loss on their home field to put an otherwise memorable 2012 season to rest.

Third in a series that looks at the NL East teams.   ALTHOUGH there isn't any official documentation on such matters, this winter may have been the first in more than a half-decade when the Phillies lost out on a free agent to a division rival. In the winter of 2005-06, the Phils saw their own closer, Billy Wagner, leave for the New York Mets. Three years earlier, in a winter when they began a decade of free spending, the Phillies signed the biggest free agent on the market, Jim Thome, but saw Tom Glavine decide to leave the Atlanta Braves for the Mets, not the Phillies.

IN THE first decade of their existence, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished in last place nine times and routinely had high picks in each June's amateur draft. This winter, two former Rays' No. 1 overall picks hit the free-agent market. Both have had off-the-field issues that nearly killed their respective careers. Josh Hamilton signed a $125 million contract last month with the Los Angeles Angels. Delmon Young signed a $750,000 contract on Tuesday with the Phillies. "I've done some things where there is a reason for it," said the 27-year-old Young, who is suddenly the odds-on favorite to win the Phils' starting rightfield job. "If I went out there and was an All-Star 6 years in a row and was healthy and a model citizen, that wouldn't have happened.