Results tagged ‘ Utley ’
Current State of the Phillies– Spring Training is Going Along Swimmingly
Yesterday was the Phillies‘ first full-squad workout, and all players were there and accounted for. Most players showed up early, such as Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins, who usually arrives last minute.
Victorino spoke to the media a few days ago, and said some pretty Victorino-like things: “This team has one thing in mind, and that’s to win.” also, “We have a lot of things to go out there and work on, but that’s why we’re here, and we have to take it one day at a time.” Calm, cool, and collective. Mahalo, brah!
The very humble Chase Utley also spoke to the media: “For me, I try not to look too far ahead, but it’s no secret that we have a very strong pitching staff and experienced team, and we know how to win, so, we’re all working hard this off-season and continue to get better, so, we’ll just go from there.”
Jimmy Rollins made a prediction when he stated: “We’ll win 100 games, I really plan on going after, who is it, Seattle won 116 or something recently.” and he also feels very confident that he will remain on the team after the 2011 season, when his contract is up; “Obviously that’s up to me. I help them make a decision, so if I do good, it makes it easy on them. if I don’t do good, which I don’t plan on happening, it will be a very tough decision.” Jimmy should have one hell of a season, seeing that he arrived early to spring training, he ran 5 miles for 2 days of the week, and also did yoga on those 2 days.
Other than the players taking batting practice and the pitchers throwing bullpen sessions, there really isn’t much news. Spring training is going very well after 6 days, so I leave you with the fact that this is the last weekend without a baseball game for a long, long time.
I am now blogging for the Cape May County Herald, and I will not be posting articles on here as often as I usually do, so check out CBPhresh here.
Ranting and Worrying
My rant of the evening: Infielders and the bench.
I have more questions than I have answers. The number one thing that I worry about is injuries. “What if” is always a question that I face while thinking about the bench. What if Polly gets sent to the disabled list and Wilson Valdez follows? We do not have Greg Dobbs anymore, but we do have Tagg Bozied who played for the Reading Phillies in 2010, who is capable of fielding first base and third base. If there just so happens to be an idle Rollins and Valdez combination, we have on the farm: Brian Bocock. We saw him last year in a few late season games around the time the Phillies clinched the N.L. East. In the minors, Bocock started in 119 games at shortstop posting a .977 fielding percentage. I’m not worried about offense from the back-up men, because there are 7 other guys who will contribute to the offense party, 8 guys if Roy Halladay is starting that game.
I understand that the odds of Bozied or Bocock suffering an injury at the same time as Valdez and Polanco is highly unlikely, but let us take a walk down memory lane for a second. Think back to 2010 when Carlos Ruiz, Brian Schneider, and Paul Hoover were all injured, we had to put in Dane Sardinha, and if he were to have suffered an injury at the time, there were talks of Jayson Werth starting in the catchers position.
High Expectations Part 2
Infield regulars:
Ryan Howard, 1B-
Ryan Howard this year should easily be able to turn the power on, and never let it get turned off. After RyHo’s ankle injury last season, he only hit 8 homerun’s, and if you have not realized, he’s supposed to be the homerun king of the team. Some may argue that Ryan Howard just doesn’t have “it” anymore, but he’s a star, he truly is. The postseason was not his place in ’09 or ’10, but those weren’t our years anyway. This year will be our year. It’s not very often that Ryan commits an error at first, he’s only committed 78 in his 7 years as a Phil’, which isn’t awful if you think about it. Defense=solid. Offense=solid, as long as he stays injury free.
Chase Utley, 2B-
Chase was overly idle last season (don’t stretch a single into a double anymore, please) and that is the only flaw I could find. Defense was great, and offense was pretty much there. I’m going to be saying this a lot in this article, but as long as he stays away from the disabled list, he should be incredible as always. Order your ticket’s now for Utley’s corner (over here, insert filtered image of section) because that should be the prime spot for a ball hit by Mr. Utley.
Wilson Valdez’s Fate
It’s been a while since I’ve really talked about any players. I’ve talked about this guy alot, because he’s my favorite unsung hero; Wilson Valdez a.k.a Castaway. He has had his moments of fame from time to time, but I have a feeling that 2011 isn’t going to be a big year for him.
The only reason why Wilson Valdez played in 111 games in 2010, is because of the incredible amount of injuries between Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, and Jimmy Rollins.
Here’s what I’m thinking, if Jimmy Rollins has an injury-free season, and proves himself to be re-signable after the 2011 season, then Wilson Valdez isn’t going to see many opportunites. There’s always the fear that Placido or Chase are going to be sent to the DL again, which is the only way that Wilson will be the man to go to, to fill in the place of that injured player.
But, what if all three regulars have above average seasons without injury? Then what? Poor Wilson is left to fill in their spots only if Skipper Charlie Manuel gives them an off day.
There is a topic that many are avoiding: the 2011-2012 off-season. I’m dreading to see what will happen to free agents such as Cole Hamels and Jimmy Rollins. I can honestly see Jimmy Rollins being traded for $$, and Wilson Valdez replacing him in 2012. Which would leave room on the budget for Cole Hamels. That’s my theory, for now anyway, it’s up to their performances in 2011.
I hate to say it, because it kills me, but I really wish Wilson Valdez could play right field at CBP (keep it phresh, yo) because that would make the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies the (here comes a Jimmy quote) team to beat.
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