Philadelphia Phillies Notes: Chase Utley Eyes Return, Brad Lidge Healing

Last night’s extra-innings loss to the Milwaukee Brewers exemplified everything that is wrong with the Philadelphia Phillies in recent weeks. The offense—which came out of the gates to start the season like its collective pants were on fire—has slumped into oblivion, having scored no more than four runs in a single game since April 9 in Atlanta.

Another of the Phils’ greatest weaknesses reared its ugly head last night, as the bullpen blew another game wide open for the opposition late in the ball game—this game, of course, well into extra innings.

After Joe Blanton threw seven strong innings, Ryan Madson, who had been perfect all season, finally surrendered a run to allow the Brewers to tie the game. In fact, the only reliever spared from last night’s game was Danys Baez, as Charlie Manuel chose instead to go with Kyle Kendrick in the 12th inning.

Even in limited action, Kendrick has found a way to blow games. In just a single inning, he walked three batters and committed a costly error, allowing three runs to score and effectively burying a scuffling Phils offense. As I said, last night’s game effectively exploited all of the Phillies‘ weaknesses—the bullpen and an offense entering an early season slump.

The offense is in need of a boost, and a couple of guys setting their eyes on returning from injury could be just the boost that this club needs. The first of which is a guy who’s managed to hog the headlines for the past couple of months, despite not having stepped foot on the field during a game.

As Chase Utley begins to test his knee, we wonder just how much time he’ll miss. According to a few sources, it may not be long before Led Zepplin’s “Kashmir” is blasting through the speakers at Citizens’ Bank Park.

Utley, who had been sidelined by patellar tendinitis—among other things—began doing some light fielding as the Phillies broke spring camp, and has been steadily progressing ever since. Not only has he continued to field and swing the bat, but recently, Utley’s been running around the bases and testing his lateral movement—both big steps towards his return.

One of the most reliable sources for injury related news weighed in on Utley’s situation recently, when Will Carroll of Sports Illustrated, who does an excellent job keeping fantasy baseball owners updated on the latest injuries around the league, wrote what he has observed about Utley’s condition and what other observers have reported to him:

“They’re pushing him to either side, back and forth, left and right. [It’s] not so much about range as the back and forth,” I was told by one observer. The best news is that Utley’s knee showed no real signs of trouble after adding activities. I expect this to continue forward now that the medical staff has gotten ahead of the issue. Now it will come down to maintenance and making sure that there’s no surprises. Often there’s some setbacks when players go 100 percent, since it’s difficult to simulate the full-go or the unconscious uses on the body. Right now, that May 15 ERD is looking like it might be too negative.

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So according to Carroll, an earlier proposed May 15 return date for Utley is looking a little negative. Personally, I’m not optimistic that Utley can return before that date, only because he hasn’t even adjusted himself to live pitching yet.

Word from around the league is that Utley will continue to test his knee at 100 percent, and when he feels comfortable moving forward (as in no discomfort the day after rigorous drills), he’ll begin a rehab assignment.

Recently, I asked Ryan Lawerence, who covers the Phillies for the Delco Times, whether or not he thought that, after observing Utley several times, an early May return date was a possibility. He wasn’t so sure.

@ryanlawrence21 If you had to guess at Utley return date, early May too soon?

@Greg_Pinto eh, it’s tough to guess bc he tells us (and by extension, you) nothing. Maybe mid-May.

Even in that scenario, Lawerence’s mid-May estimation seems to line up perfectly with the estimated May 15 return date that several injury specialists at SI.com have proposed. If that is indeed the case, it is excellent news for the Phils’, whose lineup can use a serious boost.

In other news, Domonic Brown is recovering nicely from his broken hand. He played in an extended spring training game yesterday, playing five innings and collecting two hits in three at-bats.

He, too, could provide a nice boost to the Phils lineup, especially if Raul Ibanez and Ben Francisco continue to struggle collectively. We know that Charlie Manuel loves hitting and wants to see a bit more power in his lineup, which Brown could, theoretically, provide.

Correcting the bullpen may not be such a simple task.

While Jose Contreras has filled in admirably in the absence of Brad Lidge, and despite last night’s outing, Ryan Madson has been stellar in his eighth inning role, the Phils bullpen is going to struggle. Lidge’s injury means that the bullpen has to shuffle its roles, and that isn’t a good thing for the Phillies, who have a serious lack of a capable arms to pitch in the seventh inning.

That situation worsened a bit on Monday night, when JC Romero left the game early, citing a calf injury. He went down like a ton of bricks and had trouble getting back up, so the disabled list seemed like a possible destination last night, and Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reiterated those thoughts this morning when he spoke to an unhappy Romero.

“Probably, probably some time,” Romero said, asked if he expected to be placed on the DL. “I don’t know how long, but hopefully 15 days or so.”

Obviously, Romero hitting the DL would only weaken the Phillies bullpen even further. That leaves Antonio Bastardo as the lone left-handed option for Charlie Manuel, and there is not guarantee that the club calls on lefty Mike Zagurski in his absence. He has struggled with control in the past and the Phils could use stability more than anything right now.

If I had to guess, I would assume Mike Stutes gets the call, despite being right-handed. The coaching staff was infatuated with him in Spring Training, and the club could use a fresh arm.

As for Lidge, he is probably the furthest away from returning, though he did get some good news earlier in the week. He met with team doctors who told him that his injury his healed. Now, he’ll need to begin rebuilding arm strength—the toughest, lengthiest part of his rehab. He’ll begin throwing in about two weeks and hopes to return before the all-star break. 

When Lidge returns, there is no guarantee that the Phils will relieve Contreras of the closer’s role. That said, however, Lidge would provide a more reliable seventh inning option than what the team currently has.

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Philadelphia Phillies: So Far, Ben Francisco Replacing Jayson Werth with Ease

Last night may have been a little different for the Philadelphia Phillies, and for a certain slugger playing right field for the Washington Nationals. After all, it was the first time in four years that said slugger was sitting in the dugout opposite of the Phils’, and for last night’s Phils’ starter, Joe Blanton, it was the first time that he was facing his former right fielder after donning a Phillies uniform.

Of course, that slugger was none other than Jayson Werth.

The former Phillies’ right fielder laughed first in this series, going 2-for-3 against his former club, slugging a home run and a double, scoring a couple of runs and drawing a walk against former mate Blanton and the Phils’ relievers that followed. The staggering question remaing, however, is who has the last laugh?

Werth was the center of a bit of controversy in the city of Philadelphia this winter, when he turned down an offer to remain with the Phillies and instead took the seven year, $126 million offer to play right field for the Washington Nationals. That is, until top prospect Bryce Harper forces him to left field. But hey, who can blame him? If I were in his shoes, and boy do I wish I was, I would have looked at the deal the Phillies offered, which guaranteed him $48 million over three years with an option for a fourth year, bringing the total value of the deal to $60 million, and laughed at it in comparison to the deal the Nationals were offering.

As Phillies’ beat writer Todd Zolecki pointed out on his blog the other day, it is crazy for fans to think that he was being greedy for taking the better deal. A lot of people around the city of Philadelphia who are hard working, blue collar fans of the Phillies questioned Werth’s loyalty by taking the bigger deal over playing for the Phillies, and it’s an understandable viewpoint. However at the same time, the difference between the two deals was $78 million—an amount of money that I find it hard to believe any of Werth’s critics would pass up, given the opportunity.

That said, Werth signed with the division rival Nationals, and the Phils’ decided to spend their money elsewhere, nabbing free agent lefty Cliff Lee. In doing so, they made an interesting choice. Though many wouldn’t admit to it at the time, the Phils’ were ready to hand over their starting right field job to one of (or both of) Ben Francisco and Domonic Brown. Brown’s spring injury made the decision easy, but was Francisco ready?

In the beginning of the offseason, I took a look at some of the reasons that Francisco could share the same success that Werth did early in his Phillies career. A lot of readers who commented on that article expressed the same concern—Francisco simply doesn’t have the same level of talent that Werth does.

While that may be the case, I wasn’t ready to rule the possibility of Francsico having a breakout season out then, and after a hot start to the 2011 season, I’m certainly not ready to rule that possibility out now. In fact, Francisco’s been swinging such a hot bat that Charlie Manuel hasn’t found a place to take him out of the lineup. He’s played in all 10 of the team’s games to this point in the season.

That forced me, out of curiosity, to take a look at Werth’s numbers at this early stage of the season. Through 10 games, I was curious as to whether or not Francisco has shown a glimpse of his potential with the Phillies, and whether or not he truly could “replace” Werth in right field. The results were interesting, to say the least.

	G	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	R	SB	E	Salary
Ben Francisco	10	.308	.386	.513	2	7	7	1	2	$1.175M
Jayson Werth	10	.237	.370	.500	2	2	6	1	1	$10M

 

The table above shows an interesting trend—Francisco is out-hitting Werth in just about every facet of the game. Of course, a lot of that has to do Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman’s decision to hit Werth second in his order, which is now an obsolete fact, as Werth moves down to replace the injured Ryan Zimmerman.

Even still, the question has to be asked—are the Phillies better off with Ben Francisco in right field? Looking at last season’s numbers, the answer would be a resounding no. However, if the Phils’ would have taken a chance on Werth in free agency, he would have been paid around $16 million this season. While the fans may (or may not) miss him now, they’d certainly be very outspoken about his lack of production for a hypothetical $16 million a season.

The Nationals, who decided to back-load most of Werth’s deal into the final years of his contract (a questionable decision in and of itself, but a topic for another debate), will be paying their star right fielder $10 million this season. The Phillies, through ten games this season, have gotten better production out of their own right fielder—a former everyday outfielder-turned bench player-turned every day outfielder—just over one-tenth of the salary that Werth is being paid this year.

Even further, according to FanGraphs statistical analysis, Francisco has already been worth the Phils’ money. Through just ten games, he has accumulated 0.4 Wins Above Replacement, the same amount Werth has accumulated for the Nationals. In terms of dollars, FanGraphs estimates that Francisco’s 0.4 WAR is the equivalent of $1.6 million in salary—$425,000 more than what the Phils’ will pay Francisco for the entire 2011 season.

In the long run, 10 games is a very, very small sample size, and over the course of even the first month, both players’ season could change drastically. However, if these first few weeks are a preview of things to come, letting Werth walk was more than the right decision.

Ben Francisco is playing better than Jayson Werth, at just a fraction of the cost.

*All statistical data compiled was received courtesy of FanGraphs.com.

 

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Philadelphia Phillies: All-Time Defensive Team, Position by Position

For a team that has mashed the cover off of the baseball in recent memory, you would think at first glance that the Philadelphia Phillies‘ organization hasn’t been built around solid defensive players, but around offensive juggernauts.

Not so fast. That isn’t even close to being the case.

While the Phillies have had their good times, and very, very bad times in their history, they have always held one philosophy as golden—defense rules the day. Though that philosophy may not have been as clear as the “pitching and defense wins championships” motto that current general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. uses, the citizens of Philadelphia have always respected a team that plays a gritty, hard style of baseball, and those players just so happened to be of an elite defensive caliber.

Though I’ve done a few slide shows like this before, most notably the Greatest Phillies’ in Team History, this one is going to be a bit different. I’ve taken a look at what made a player great during his tenure with the Phils’, but never held the one thing that turns a great player into a fan favorite in Philadelphia—defense—in such a high regard.

With that in mind, we have to turn on the blinders a bit here. Sometimes, when a great player is mentioned, people tend to believe that his defense was stellar, but that isn’t always the truth. I’ll be looking at a number of criteria, including consistent, above average defensive play, to determine who comes out on time.

So here we go! Here are the best defensive players in Phillies’ history, position by position.

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Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves Series Preview: NL East’s Top Dogs Meet

Two series in the books, and it’s safe to say the Philadelphia Phillies are rolling. After sweeping the Houston Astros with relative ease in the first series of the season, the New York Mets came into town and put up a fight.

After forcing Cole Hamels out of the game early in the first game of the series, the Mets were run down by one of the league’s hottest offenses and of course, Roy Halladay.

Despite winning five of their first six games, there has been a lot of chatter about the Phils’ from the mouths of Major League scouts. After sweeping the Astros, scouts argued that it wasn’t the Phillies who looked good, but the Astros who looked terrible. They argued that the Mets would be a tougher task, and they were.

But the Phils were up to the challenge. After watching Hamels leave having surrendered six runs on Tuesday night, the Phils found themselves with their first lost of the season—against a division rival, nonetheless.

They needed to take the next two games, and through four innings, Joe Blanton looked like an ace in his own right. Though things quickly fell apart for him, the offense was fully supportive, banging out 10 runs in support of their fifth starter.

In the final game of the series, it was all Phillies. After escaping a bases-loaded jam early in the game, you kind of got the sense that the Mets, who have struggled against the Phils’ ace, weren’t going to get much off of Halladay.

In fact, they didn’t score a single run in the series finale, and the Phillies won handily, scoring 11 runs in a rout of the Mets.

Now, after a homestand that saw them win five of their first six games this season, the Phillies hit the road for the first time to face their toughest challenge yet—the Atlanta Braves.

Will the Braves be in a position to get their phenom closer Craig Kimbrel into any of these three games, or will the Phils’ hot offense and trio of aces prevail?

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MLB Predictions 2011: Ranking All 30 Teams’ Chances To Win the World Series

The time for questions is over. Throughout the offseason, that’s all we did. Can this team do this? Will that team be able to do that? With each team having completed its opening series, we can get a pretty good idea of what the season will hold for each major league team. Of course, there will always be questions. Can the Philadelphia Phillies continue putting runs on the board, sans Chase Utley and Jayson Werth? Will the Boston Red Sox pitching staff rebound?

In time, those questions will be answered. However, we’re an impatient people. We can’t wait that long. For that reason alone, let’s look forward. In this slideshow, I’ll be ranking every team in baseball’s chances of capturing a World Series title this season. Will an obvious favorite, like the Phillies or Red Sox, come out on top, or will a dark horse surprise the baseball community?

Let’s set some parameters here.

These rankings aren’t going to be the same as the Power Rankings that I released a few weeks ago. In those rankings, I took a look at every team on paper and determined its positioning among its peers. These rankings will be a bit different.

Winning a World Series isn’t a simple task. There are a lot of roadblocks and challenges throughout the regular season. For example, the road to October is stacked heavily against the Red Sox, who’ll need to take care of the New York Yankees, resurgent Baltimore Orioles and pesky teams like the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays if they even want to make it to the postseason. On the other hand, the Phillies play in a considerably weaker division. Their road may be a bit more simplistic.

In short, a team’s chances of winning a World Series have no direct relationship with how good it is. There are a lot of factors teams must deal with before even making it to the postseason, and that in the long run, could determine their October fates.

So without further ado, let’s begin. Each slide will feature a percentage of the team’s chances of making the playoffs, followed by a brief description of its spot in the ranking.

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Philadelphia Phillies vs. New York Mets Series Preview: The Rivalry Returns?

If you ask me, the Philadelphia Phillies got off to a pretty good start this weekend at home. Three games. Three wins.

That good start went way beyond simply getting three wins, however, as the team answered several imposing questions that people around the game held against them heading into the season. As Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt toed the hill, people questioned whether or not they would be able to live up to the hype. They responded by walking just one hitter, striking out 23 more and allowing just six earned runs in 19 innings pitched.

Starting the season without Jayson Werth and Chase Utley in the lineup was going to be a problem for the Phils’. The offense looks weak and won’t provide any run support. Those critics were silenced by the likes of Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Ben Francisco, who are all off to hot starts, as well as some timely hitting from the bottom of the order and bench.

Three games into the season, the Phillies look like they have something to prove this season, and by all means, they do. The way they played this weekend, it’s hard to believe that they can only get better this season, as I was reminded by a fellow fan this weekend. “We just swept the [Houston] Astros with Wilson Valdez starting at second base, Jose Contreras closing games and some Minor League guy [Michael Martinez, who was starting for Shane Victorino]. It’s only going to get better when Chase [Utley] and Brad [Lidge] come back.”

Indeed, the Phillies had an encouraging series, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Philadelphia. There are 159 games left to play, and as last season proved, anything can happen. Let’s take this thing one game (or series, in this case) at a time. After all, the New York Mets are coming to town.

The Mets’ struggles off the field were well documented this winter, but the lineup they’ll field poses more of a challenge than the one the Astros boasted this weekend. With the Mets struggles last season, the rivalry with the Phillies sort of died out, but a healthy Mets team and a Phils’ team high off of a sweep to start the season would like nothing more than to renew a once bitter rivalry.

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Philadelphia Phillies vs. Houston Astros Series Preview: Children of Wade Return

Finally, after several months of waiting in the cold, dreary city of Philadelphia, waiting for some signs of life and the hope that spring was just around the corner, it’s here. Sure, it may be raining outside, and the temperature is hovering just around freezing, making the conditions more suitable for a football game than a baseball game, but that doesn’t matter.

It’s here.

Sure, there were plenty of games on tap yesterday. The New York Yankees swiftly defeated the Detroit Tigers, and the division rival Atlanta Braves took care of the Washington Nationals, but to me at least, it just didn’t feel like Opening Day. 

It wouldn’t until the reigning National League Cy Young winner Roy Halladay was standing on the mound in Philadelphia, ready to throw the first pitch of the 2011 regular season for the Phillies, and now, that day is here.

In fact, this Opening Day is interesting in a couple of ways for the Phillies. Not only are we going to see all of our favorite Phils’, but we’ll be seeing a couple of familiar faces wearing Houston Astros’ uniforms as well.

Astros’ general manager Ed Wade has made some well documented trades with the Phillies, and more often than not, he’s earned the reputation of bringing some of “his” players, or players that he drafted and groomed in the Minor League system, over to Houston.

The guy opposing Halladay actually made a couple of his own Opening Day starts in a Phillies’ uniform. That man is, of course, Brett Myers.

He’ll be just one of a few Astros’ that have also donned a Phils’ uniform that we’ll see this weekend. Houston’s starting center fielder Michael Bourn was once a top prospect in the Phillies’ system, and on Sunday, despite battling an injury, former Phils’ starter JA Happ is scheduled to face the long time face of the Houston Astros, Roy Oswalt.

So with the Phillies’ regular season just about underway, let’s see if we can crack the outcome of a couple of the games this weekend. Here’s how things could shake out:

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With Brad Lidge Set to Open Season on DL, Opportunity Arises for Ryan Madson

Tell me you haven’t heard this one before: Philadelphia Phillies‘ closer Brad Lidge is likely to spend Opening Day and the 14 days thereafter on the Disabled List.

After several offseasons filled with surgeries and rehabilitation for Lidge, he and the Phillies‘ fan base were overly optimistic of a full, healthy season from the once perfect closer.

Though he had the tell tale signs of an arm injury—most notably the lack of velocity on his fastball—Lidge told the media several times over that he was healthy. As it turns out, he’s not.

The injury came as a bit of a surprise Friday morning, as Lidge had just returned to the mound this week after being sidelined with some tendinitis. No one anticipated the news that he had been dealing with some shoulder soreness—something that he had successfully kept hidden away from the spotlight.

For that reason alone, when Lidge and general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. addressed the media this morning, neither were happy to be delivering the news.

Each of the men told the media that Lidge was experiencing some discomfort in the back of his shoulder—a danger zone for pitchers—but although an MRI had not been scheduled as of yet, the soreness was expected to be just that—soreness.

The Phils’ closer doesn’t expect to have any structural damage in his shoulder.

Though the injury was kept quiet by Lidge, he did his best to reassure the club that he wasn’t being purposefully deceptive about it:

“I’m a little concerned because I haven’t had shoulder problems in the past. There was always a little pain in the back (of the shoulder), which we thought was biceps tendinitis. I haven’t had shoulder issues before. At least not for a long time.”

Still, Lidge conceded that shoulder soreness is something he has dealt with in the past, and for a guy who’s dealt with a myriad of injuries in his career, that could be a bit of a concern.

However, as long as there isn’t any structural damage in Lidge’s shoulder, which seems to be the case as of now, both Lidge and Amaro don’t expect the closer to miss an extended period of time.

So, when will Lidge return to the Phillies’ bullpen?

“We don’t think it’s going to be a long-term issue, but it could be,” said Amaro in his usual short, vague snippet. If Lidge opens the season on the disabled list, the team could activate him on April 9 at the earliest.

“This is all part of the game,” said the GM. “Nobody wants injuries, but we’ll deal with them.”

So, how exactly will the Phils’ deal with Lidge’s injury? The obvious first question is who takes the mound in the ninth inning. Over the last couple of seasons, when Lidge has missed games, the closer was without a doubt Ryan Madson. Amaro wasn’t so keen on simply handing him the gig on Friday morning.

When asked who was going to be the closer in the short term, Amaro’s response was another simple, vague answer: “Whoever we think is going to be better.”

Obviously, the chances of Madson not being the closer are incredibly slim, but Jose Contreras has pitched well for the Phillies in every role they’ve assigned him. If the team isn’t keen on changing everyone’s role, Contreras could be the guy.

Of course, Contreras will get his share of consideration for the job because of Madson’s failure in that role in the past. However, the set-up man is sure that he’s ready to become a closer, especially in his walk-year with the Phillies.

According to Madson, a conversation with his agent, Scott Boras, after he kicked a steel chair and broke his toe last season helped him adjust to a late inning role.

“He said, ‘Tell me what your mentality was when you were closing.’ I was like, I thought I was going to be perfect,” said Madson.

“I really thought I was going to be perfect and not blow one save. Well it doesn’t work that way. You’re putting too much emphasis on every pitch. Then when you blow a save, it carries on and little things happen.”

We all know that closing out ball games is as much mental as it is physical, and Madson certainly has the skill to be a closer. If that conversation with Boras really made a difference, which has yet to be seen, the Phillies may not be looking at their set-up man any longer, but their closer of the future.

As Madson prepares to open the season as the Phils’ closer, we’re left wondering just what Brad Lidge has left in the tank.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Philadelphia Phillies: Why Carrying 11 Pitchers Makes Sense for Battered Team

When Cliff Lee decided to re-join the Philadelphia Phillies in mid-December, the first thought racing through the mind of every Phils fan rotated around a star-studded rotation that would help the team get the revenge they declared they would seek following a bitter ending to the National League Championship Series.

As the initial shock wore off, some of us baseball scribes posed a more interesting question: How many pitchers are too many for the Phillies?

The addition of Lee shored up a mediocre bullpen in an interesting way. He would now join Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels to form a front four that averaged at least seven innings a start in 2010. Even the fifth starter, Joe Blanton, averaged more than six innings a start last season.

In large part thanks to Halladay, the Phillies led the league in complete games with 14, and the bullpen threw a National League-low 421 innings—without Lee.

An incredibly durable rotation helped what was once a mediocre bullpen become much more reliable late in games. Of course, a lot of that had to do with health and performance. Former starter Jose Contreras settled into his seventh inning role nicely, while over the final months of the seasons, setup man Ryan Madson and closer Brad Lidge were nearly untouchable.

For that reason alone, heading into the 2011 season, the Phils have to feel pretty good about the state of their bullpen, because they certainly feel good about the strength of their starting pitching. The bullpen’s only loss was middle-innings guy Chad Durbin, while JC Romero looks to rebound from an injury-plagued 2010 season.

It really isn’t a difficult observation to make—the starting rotation, barring injury, is going to log a ton of innings in front of a bullpen that has the potential to be very strong at the back end. With a core of relievers virtually guaranteed roster spots, the need for the “last man out of the bullpen,” or the 12th pitcher on the roster, is growing incredibly slim.

Excluding the five guys that will compose the starting rotation, we know that six more pitchers are virtual locks for the bullpen. Lidge, Madson, Contreras and Romero will all be heading north for Opening Day. Another pair of relievers, Danys Baez and Kyle Kendrick, are near locks to make the club thanks to the guaranteed dollars on their contracts and spring performances that can’t be used as an excuse to leave them behind.

Looking over that group of six, though, you have more than just a few good single-inning relievers. You also have more than one guy that is capable of logging several innings per outing. Kendrick will most likely break camp as the team’s long man thanks to the depth of the starting rotation. Though he may not have been very effective as a starter last season, he did log 180 innings for the Phils.

The same case can be argued for several other relievers on the roster. Outside of Lidge and Romero, who will be used primarily against left-handed hitters, Contreras, Madson and Baez could all throw more than one inning for the Phillies—though keeping those guys to one inning a\piece may be the better option.

In short, the need for yet another reliever is obsolete behind a starting rotation that will probably be sapping innings from the six guys that are almost guaranteed to make the roster. The question now becomes, “What do the Phils do with that last spot on the 25-man roster?”

Obviously, it should go to another utility player, giving the Phillies more options both in the field and on the bench.

While I’m the ultimate optimist in regards to the health of Chase Utley‘s knee (which by the way, he tested out with pivot drills on the second base bag today) and will argue that claims that he won’t play this season are flat-out ludicrous (I know, I know, I can’t help myself), he will, at the very least, open the season on the 15-day disabled list.

That virtually guarantees a replacement second baseman a job, which in this case, we’ll award to Wilson Valdez.

With that out of the way, we know eight guys will be playing every day for the Phillies: Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Howard, Valdez, Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco, Raul Ibanez and Ben Francisco. Love it or hate it, that’s the lineup.

The bench is shaping up as well with just under two weeks of spring training left to play. Lefties Brian Schneider and Ross Gload will make the team without question, and with Francisco having played his way into the right field job, John Mayberry Jr. has played his way on to the bench (and has garnered some serious consideration for the starting job from this baseball scribe.)

So where does that leave the bench? Schneider, as he did last season, will serve as Ruiz’s understudy. Backup catcher—check.

While Charlie Manuel has gone on the record stating that Gload can win some playing time in right field, I’m not buying. He’s too valuable a late-inning pinch hitter to start on a regular basis. He’ll play some backup first base, as well as right field. Primary left-handed pinch hitter—check.

Mayberry has been impressive this spring. I can’t see him not making the roster, and he upped his versatility by playing some first base as well as the corner outfield positions. Fourth outfielder/first baseman—check.

Not carrying that 12th pitcher gives the Phillies some options to fill out their bench, where the competition has been very heated this spring. While some fans may cringe at his name, I’m under the impression that Luis Castillo is a virtual lock to make this team, and the Phils could use him.

While a lot of people believe that Valdez is the better choice at second base to replace Utley, I like to go against the grain. As I argued in this piece earlier in the week, giving Valdez an everyday job takes away from his overall value.

Let’s face the music—the Phillies are an older team. While I’m not going to give you the “they are old and decrepit” speech, they are the type of team that can and will have to avoid injuries by giving their starters adequate rest.

In that instance, a player with Valdez’s versatility is key. Having played just about every position on the diamond this spring, the Phils will find Valdez plenty of playing time, regardless of whether he’s the starting second baseman or not.

In the long run, he makes a much better utility player than Castillo, who, believe it or not, could still benefit a lineup. He’s a switch hitter, which would give Manuel options in the lineup even in a down year, proved that he can still get on base to a good extent. Basically, this scenario guarantees both Valdez and Castillo spots on the bench.

That leaves one spot on the 25-man roster for a few guys that have played exceptionally well this spring: Delwyn Young, Josh Barfield, Pete Orr and Michael Martinez.

In my personal opinion, Barfield and Orr aren’t likely to make the team, and you won’t catch me crying over that decision. Both of these guys have played well this spring, but they’ve done little outside of it to show that they can be viable options for a major league club. With both guys having minor league options, it makes much more sense to stash them at Triple-A in the event of an injury.

There are benefits to having a guy like Young on your bench. Offensively, he could provide a spark off of the bench. Last season, he was among the league leaders in pinch hits—right in front of Gload—and as a switch hitter, gives Manuel some versatility later in the game.

If the team is comfortable with Valdez playing center field in the event Victorino needs time off, Young could make the team.

Personally, I’d like to see Martinez earn that final spot, though. The Phillies have done very well in the Rule 5 Draft in recent years. Well all know the story of Victorino, but even guys like David Herndon have played well in the roles the Phils drafted them to fill.

Martinez is an interesting blend of talent. He plays every position in the middle of the field, including center field, and provides an actual defensive option should the Phils need to rest both Castillo and Valdez. He’s shown some power and average this spring, and is probably worth keeping around, if for nothing more than keeping him away from the Washington Nationals.

In this scenario, the Phillies essentially have a player for each role they’ll need to fill off of the bench. Along with those listed above, Castillo gives the Phils’ an option at second base, Young gives the Phils a threat from both sides of the plate off of the bench and Martinez can play multiple positions with upside.

For a team that has suffered multiple injuries at multiple positions, having that sixth man on the bench is a luxury that many teams can’t afford.

At the very least, it beats holding on to a pitcher the team will never use.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

MLB Trade Rumors: What Movable Prospects Have Maximized Their Value This Spring?

Generally, when some of a team’s best prospects are having a good spring, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t whether or not they’ve improved their trade value—but that’s one of the greatest things about baseball.

After you get past watching your favorite team don their spring uniforms for the first time and you have a general idea of what the team will look like when it takes the field on Opening Day, some of the spring’s most impressive players will have found new homes with minor league affiliates, the most notable of which are the team’s promising young talents.

Despite tearing the cover off of the ball or throwing scoreless inning after scoreless inning, the team isn’t ready to promote your favorite prospect. Their performances haven’t gone unnoticed, however.

Scouts have been following your team all spring long, watching some of the most promising young arms and slick defenders, lights-out relievers and thunderous bats in case your team comes calling later on in the season when a prospect just won’t cut it. In order to add that timely veteran, you’ll have to part with some promising young talent.

So with that in mind, which prospects’ hot spring starts will make them hotter commodities on the trade market in the near future?

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