According to Phillies prospect Jiwan James’ Twitter account, the team’s veteran second baseman Chase Utley packed up his belongings last night in Clearwater, Florida and has headed north to Philadelphia.
Utley went two for five in what looks like his final game with the Phillies Clearwater Single-A ballclub. He’s has played four days in a row and seems to have avoided any setbacks.
Utley is expected to rejoin the team tomorrow and play in the game against the Cincinnati Reds.
Tags: Chase Utley Phillies
Great news to hear of Utley’s return.Wish him well for the Phils really need him.
If he can play to his normal production #’s, the Phils are fine and in great shape moving forward.. If he is not and can’t turn on the ball, or doesn’t have the range to make plays in the field, or is shaky around the 2nd base bag, then they are in trouble.. Knowing Utley as the Professional Player as he is, he will play all out and go hard while he’s in there..the key will be his knee, will it be able strong enough allow him to do the things he’s always done and not to have a set-back.. We should all know very soon.. Good Luck Chase..
Great news. Hope there are no setbacks and that Shane gets back soon so we can finally get a guage of how good this team can be.
OH BOY! Here comes the Messiah! Give me a break. They need a hell of alot more than Utley. This team is ancient, way overpaid & lacking in good young talent. Can’t make trades because of luxury tax. Who the hell is going to take Blanton, Ibanez & Baez’s contracts.
DD come on. The team is 11 games over .500. Get your head out of your butts haters. Who cares about the money? How are they all overpaid? Give us a break and go watch the mets.
Thanks Goat for saying what I wanted to say. DD, the young talent got Halladay, Oswalt and Lee. Would you rather have Happ, Drabek and Carrasco? They still have one of the best YOUNG lefties in the game. Worley looks great and so do Stutes and Bastardo. Not to mention the top prospect in baseball.
If you don’t think that Utley is going to boost this offense that hasn’t had any production from 2nd base, then you are crazy.
My head is far from in my butt! I don’t look through Phils colored glasses, or wave pom poms. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Phitens. Worked at Vet from 87- 2002. I’m a realist, this teams offence is horrific, with or without Utley.
How do you consider Stutes, Worley & Dom Brown great. Worley looks promising, Stutes pitched a handful of games & is hurt already, & D B can’t hit pro hitting. The Phils organization notoriously always have overvalued their minor leagues. Hope i’m proven wrong, but I think i’m not. The same people that come on here, are the ones that think we can trade our slop for other teams good players. Come on people, get heads out of yor bung holes.
How are they overpaid? Look at that high powered offence out there again 2day. Ibanez 11.5, Blanton 8.5 two years left, Rollins 8.5 hasn’t been good since MVP year, Howard is not worth 25, Lidge, Baez, Romero are fricken jokes. Need I even need to mention the dumpster pick ups of Martinez, Orr, Sardhina, Herndon. NEED I CONTINUE!?
2 Realities of this “Phillie LIte” team after 45 Games this season
#1) They have the #12 Ranked Overalll Offense in the NL (this is out of 16 Teams).. When you consider how fast and strong the PHils opened up the season the first 10 games, this really gives you an Idea how anemic this Phillie LIte Offense has become over the last 30 days/games or so)
#2) The Phils are 11-13 versus teams with Winning Records (.500 or Better)
So they are not getting it done beating the Godo Teams which does not bode well for playoff time..
This lack of Offense is not a slump or a mini-trend.. It’s what this team is which is not very good offensively.. (minus Polanco)
Rollins doesn’t make contact enough consistently (and hasn’t for 3 years now) Ibanez needs to retire, Francisco/Mayberry are not everyday players and are reserve players at best. Howard has no one to protect him at #5 in the Line-up so he will see junk pitches all season (as I predicted he would)
SInce he’s impatient, he will continue to expand the strike zone and lose his discipline and confidence making him ineffective for the most part except for a few long-balls once in a while..Pitcher will not Pitch to him and why should they, who else is going to make you pay from this line-up..
Amen, Paulman. These other stepford fans need to realise this too. I love Phils. I’m a 4 for 4 guy. Between this & the lockout, its killing me.