Chase Utley talked to the media in Clearwarter, Florida today. He’s confident he will play this year and he doesn’t believe he will require surgery to solve his knee problems.
“I was in Phoenix meeting with a physical therapist by the name of Brett Fischer for about four or five days, just to get some better ideas on how I can continue to move forward,” Utley said. “I have a better idea now on how my body is supposed to move compared to how it’s moving at this time, and I think we have something pretty good for the future.
“I will take this process fairly slow, because I think it’s important to get everything around my knees working correctly. And I think it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Basically Utley feels he can solve the problems with his left knee by doing the same things to it that he did a year ago to the right knee.
“My right knee last year was the knee that bothered me,” he said. “And my left knee felt pretty good. This year, it’s the complete opposite. My right knee feels very good, which is in my mind, a positive. But now my left knee is a little upset. So we made some changes last year to my right knee. It worked because it feels strong. It feels good. Now I have to make similar changes to my left knee. Again, it’ll take a little time to see how it goes.”
My biggest question I guess is why wait till now to start with the knee’s. Why not start this procedure before now?
This is 2 years in a row now that he’s putoff of posible surgeries that maybe can correct or help his knees out.. He waits to the last minute and says that he can play and will try his best. What a joke, the Phils should have demanded that by December of t2011 that he see’s a specialist and if they suggest Surgery, then go ahead and get it done.. I believe Utley just doesn’t want to go under the knife under any circumstances and will try his best to play his best even though we all know that he is not healthy or good enough to play at an everyday MLB Caliber with this chronic knee issues.. He will play 60-80 games and won’t be very effective in the field and have little power if any at the plate..
Last year I can understand the Phils getting caught with their shorts down, since Utley had battled back from injuries before, but not this off-season , there was no excuse not to act and have a Plan B in place based on Utleys health and they should have had this figured out back in December and not here at the start of the 2012 Season.. This 2012 team seems vert dysfunctionalbe at this point and Charlie Manuel doesn’t seem happy or on the same page as GM Amaro, lots of bad vibes going into this 2012 Season in my opinion
I don’t blame Utley…Aramis Ramirez available at reasonable price, then you have Galviz at 2nd base, Aramis with power @ 3rd, with Polanco available to play both, & Utley’s if healthy.
Old news Frankie.. Amaro blew this off-season by sitting tight and adding nothing but old bench, role players.. What the Hell is Thome going to add to this Club batting 3-5 times a week… There was 3B Ramirez and a some real LF’s to pursue like Cuddyer and others that he sat on his hands about.. Now we fans are left with a very weak everyday line-up..
Said it a billion times. For what Amaro wasted on Resigning Rollins, Papelbon, Nix, Wiggington, Thome & Qualls ($29.2M), we could of & should of had Ramirez, Cuddyer, Bell, & still signed Wiggington, Qualls & Nix ($29.7M). PISS POOR JOB!