PHILADELPHIA — Last winter, after slugging 47 home runs and knocking in 136 runs, Ryan Howard requested a $10 million salary.

The Phillies countered with an offer of $7 million.

Howard won in arbitration.

Tuesday, after slugging 48 homers with 146 RBI in the 2008 season, Howard asked the Phillies for $18 million for the 2009 season.

The Phillies offered $14 million.

Percentagewise, they're getting closer.

You think Howard's crazy to ask for this? Like a fox, he is. It's always shocking when a new financial threshold is approached, but it's as certain as an Eagles championship-game collapse. Remember how you felt when Roger Clemens asked for $22 million in 2005? The minute Mark Teixeira scribbled his name to that eight-year, $180 million contract the Yankees gave him, Ryan Howard's value went up.

The Phillies knew this then.

Judging by their $14 million offer Tuesday, they could not have been surprised by Howard's latest number, either.

Weep not for them or, for the time being anyway, yourselves. Ticket prices already have been raised and announced for 2009. Compare it to the numbers asked for in other Northeastern cities — Mets, Yankees, Red Sox — and those numbers aren't bad. You want to compare them to the numbers asked for Orioles and Nationals games, go right ahead.

But make sure you expect the same product next season.

You want to compete with the big boys, be one of the big boys? Be willing to pony up. All the old arguments are gone now. You can't call the Phillies cheap anymore. Just consider the Pat Burrell situation. They paid a 36-year-old guy, Raul Ibanez, $10 million a season for the next three seasons. Burrell signed with Tampa Bay for $8 million a season, and for only two years.

"You try to make intelligent decisions about making your team as good as it can be and as versatile as it can be," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was saying at a Phillies luncheon Tuesday. "You try to keep your mind open and try to figure out what is best for the club. If having Ibanez rather than Pat Burrell is better for the club, then that's the decision we've made."

Amaro went on to point out that Burrell had become a limited fielder, forcing the team to lose his bat late in games. But there's no denying the sea change here, that this is an organization that, rather than squirreling away the gold coins that came their way from a world championship, is willing to pay to get another one.

"Will that come to fruition?" Amaro asked rhetorically. "I don't know. But we felt overall that we're going to be better with Ibanez on the club. The economics and a lot of things play into that, but that's how we assessed it."

Last week, the Phillies gave Cole Hamels $20.5 million for the next three seasons. Tuesday, they announced they had avoided aribitration with Joe Blanton and Shane Victorino, paying them a combined $8.6 million for next season. They also announced a new deal for Ryan Madson.

Howard isn't any of those guys. His case is unique. Whether he was kept down on the farm artificially while they moved Jim Thome or taught him how to hit a breaking ball — your choice, they've both been used over the years — Howard is 29 years old and still living year to year. He is actually older than Albert Pujols, the Cardinals slugger who turned 29 last week and with whom he has competed with for two of the last three Most Valuable Player awards. Pujols, who had offseason arm surgery, is in the second-to-last season of a seven-year deal worth $100 million. The Cardinals can extend it to 2011 for $16 million.

Howard has no such long-term assurances. It has been written that he is looking for one huge long-term deal, in excess of $200 million, for six or seven years. It has also been said that he would get such a deal north of these parts, probably in an American League uniform.

So the shock here is not what he asked for, but what the Phillies offered. They might not be ready for a long-term engagement or marriage yet. But it's a pretty nice dowry offer, don't you think?