Philly Metro is reporting that Pat Gillick has offered a package of players to the Baltimore Orioles for the highly sought after pitcher, Erik Bedard.

The Phillies managed to squeeze into the playoffs at the end of September despite the poor overall starting staff. But with that in mind, general manager Pat Gillick has turned his attention to a front-line starter at the MLB Winter Meetings this week.

The latest rumor in their hunt for a good, young arm had the Phillies kicking the tires on Baltimore’s Erik Bedard, the 28-year-old lefty who was third in the AL last season in strikeouts.

Manager, Charlie Manuel had this to say regarding Erik Bedard…

“We need a starter. We need at least one starter, and to me that’s the key to us winning,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said earlier in the day. “As everybody in baseball I think knows, we got three probably great superstar players, and you know we’ve got to find ways to get a little bit stronger and improve some of the weaknesses we have on our team.

“Once we do that, not only can we win our division, but we can definitely go deep in the playoffs and get to the World Series.”

The heat is on…

Most of the rumors that had the Mets linked to Erik Bedard have grounded to a halt. Of course they are supposedly still in the mix for Johan Santana, but "unless they include Jose Reyes, there is no chance of the Mets getting Santana", according to a high level Twins executive. 

If the Phillies were to land Erik Bedard for their rotation, only a couple of weeks after acquiring Brad Lidge, the Mets will certainly have their work cut out for them in 2008. Jimmy Rollins has already begun to sound his rally cries yesterday as he stated, "Last season we proved that we were the team to beat in the NL East. This season we are going all the way, and nobody is stopping us."

One more thing…

Does Sweeny Murti from WFAN have any idea what the difference is between speculation and a legitimate rumor? He has reported more erroneous information during his reports from Nashville to WFAN, than anyone else in the industry. In the last 48 hours he has reported that the Mets were on the verge of signing Erik Bedard, making a deal for Dontrelle Willis and Ivan Rodriguez, and a couple of since debunked, Johan Santana rumors. What a terrible job.

What makes matters worse is that all of his unsubstantiated and outrageous rumors are posted on Mets Blogs everywhere and assumed to be true. We’ll continue to do our best to provide you with information that is up to date, and will retract any information that we cannot verify within 12 hours. We believe speculation is fun, but speculation should be posted AS speculation, and NOT AS rumors or buzz.