It’s official: The Phillies have their first loss of the season. This one comes at the hands of one of their own teammates. Ryan Howard won his arbitration hearing today, earing a cool $10 million in salary. Arbitration hearings can often lead to an unhappy player simply because the team, in order to win the hearing, must point out the faults in their own player, which can sometimes cause bad feelings. Word is the Phillies focused on his limited time in the big leagues. Howard will not be a free agent until 2011, but the hearing could very well have hurt the Phillies chances of ironing out a long-term deal with the slugger. But, just a thought, would the Phillies keep Howard after 2011? Would they get rid of him before then? Let’s face it: Howard belongs in the AL, and soon enough somebody’s going to offer the right pieces to the Phillies for the defensively lacking 1st basemen. I wouldn’t be surprised if Howard gets traded by the deadline during the 2009 or 2010 season.