Feb. 20 -- DAY 7: J-ROLL SPEAKS

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Back from my first-ever arbitration-hearing stakeout, and very happy to say I survived. Ryan Howard looked to be in decent shape, too, although it was difficult to decode his body language and tone of voice. As I've mentioned, Howard often uses his disarming sense of humor to mask disappointment or anger. If he's miffed about anything that may have been said in that conference room, he probably won't show it.

So, who wins the hearing? I still give a slight -- very slight -- edge to the Phillies, but we'll find out for sure tomorrow.

While we wait, I wanted to pass along some comments from Jimmy Rollins, who spoke to the media for a half-hour today. You'll be able to read plenty about Rollins' reaction to Carlos Beltran's comments in tomorrow's 50-center, but here are a few amusing outtakes that didn't make the paper.

(On current players who have good style): "Big Papi [David Ortiz] has great style. Manny Ramirez probably has the best style. He's in his own category. I like C.C. [Sabathia], but that's kind of a homeboy-thing, turning his hat to the side. Dontrelle [Willis]? He's a freak of nature. Not a lot of people can do what he does. But I definitely like the flair Manny has. He's just crazy. [Jose] Reyes? Reyes has style too. He definitely has a lot of style."

(How about Chase Utley?): "Utley doesn't have any style, but he's working on it. I'm trying to help him in his marketability, make him the face of Tastykake."

(On his earrings?): "My jeweler said you don't want to spend a lot of money on earrings, so anybody trying to get something for their wife or something, don't spend a lot on the earrings because they're just an accessory. You might as well get cubic zirconias."