Philadelphia Phillies

The title of the session was "View From the Top." It was not lost on any of the four panelists - Ruben Amaro Jr., Peter Luukko, Howie Roseman, and Adam Aron - that their franchises have been enjoying the view from less-lofty vantage points lately.

Depending on what an MRI examination Thursday in Philadelphia shows, the Phillies could be without Chase Utley for the foreseeable future. Utley and team officials are preparing for that possibility.

Philadelphia Phillies (22-24) at Miami Marlins (13-33) Cliff Lee (4-2, 2.83 ERA) v. Kevin Slowey (1-4, 3.44 ERA) TIME: 7:10, Marlins Park TV: MyPHL 17 Weather: 79, chance of showers, expect the roof up Media: Twitter and Facebook The Fightin’ Phils enter tonight’s game with a shot to win yet another series. The Phils are 2-0-3 in their last five series and have posted a record of 10-8 in that time period. A win tonight and they will have been undefeated in their last six series with an 11-8 record. That record translates into a .579 winning percentage and over 93 wins across a whole season. Interesting. Despite how inconsistent the play of the Phils has felt, the Phils quietly entered tonight’s just one game behind the Nationals (pending a result in their game against the Giants) and six behind the Braves, who disposed of Vance Worley earlier today. Cliff Lee takes the ball tonight, looking for his fourth quality start in a row and is opposed by the pride of Conroe, TX, righty Kevin Slowey. Expect a big game out of Lee, who has held current Marlins to a .209/.248/.313 triple-slash line in 123 PA against. Marlin Catcher Miguel Oliva has two career homers off of Lee but is not in the line-up tonight for the Fish. Chase Utley is out again tonight while Ryan Howard will start in back-to-back games after receiving a cortisone shot in his knee. Lineup: Rollins SS, Revere CF, M. Young 3B, Howard 1B, D. Young RF, Brown LF, Galvis 2B, Kratz C, Lee P GAMEDAY BEER: Coors Light The Fightins need Cliff Lee to be the Cliff Lee they know and love tonight in order to pick up a W. Like Lee, you always know what you are going to get when you have a Coors Light. Here is to Lee’s reliability and a solid start toinght against the Marlins! - IR

(AP) According to the beats down in Miami with the Phillies, it appears likely Chase Utley will find himself on the disabled list soon. From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Chase Utley swung for the first time in batting practice Tuesday and it did not feel right. He took a second hack, then another, and one more. That is when he went to Charlie Manuel and told him his right side hurt. “It definitely scared me a little bit,” Utley said Wednesday. More bad news for the Phillies, who have been crushed by the injury bug. Add Utley to the bloated list including Roy Halladay, Carlos Ruiz, John Lannan, and Mike Adams. Adams could return by Wednesday, Rich Dubee told the Inky. He’s scheduled to pitch in a rehab game in Clearwater on Monday.

Two pitchers from two of the most memorable Phillies teams in the last 20 years will be honored during Alumni Weekend in August at Citizens Bank Park. Brad Lidge, one of the many heroes on the 2008 World Champion Phillies, will ceremoniously retire as a Phillie before the 7:05 p.m. game against San Francisco on Thursday, Aug.1. Lidge recorded the final out of the World Series when he struck out Tampa Bay’s Eric Hinske in Game 5. “I had my greatest moment at Citizens Bank Park and I would like to officially retire as a member of the Phillies organization,” the 36-year-old Lidge said in a press release. Lidge, who will throw out the first pitch that night, will remain in town for the rest of the Alumni weekend festivities. Previous alumni who have also chosen to retire as a Phillie include Doug Glanville (2005), Mike Lieberthal (2008) and Pat Burrell (2012). The induction in the Phillies Wall of Fame on Friday night is one that many writers wondered if it would ever come. Curt Schilling will be added to the Wall of Fame. Schilling pitched nine of his 20 big league seasons with the Phillies – his longest tenure with one team. He was the first Phillies right-hander to strike out 300 in a season and the first Phillies pitcher to win an NLCS MVP Award and toss a postseason shutout. Schilling has been a controversial figure in baseball, both during his career and since his retirement. But that doesn't take away from the role he played in Philadelphia, particularly during the 1993 season when he helped lead the Phillies to the World Series, their first appearance there since 1983. Before Sunday's game, former manager Jim Fregosi and the 1993 National League Champions will be saluted (Game time could potentially be moved to 8:05 p.m. for an ESPN Sunday Night national telecast). Many players from that team, which went from last place in 1992 to the World Series the next year, will be introduced on the field before the game. The ’93 club is the first Phillies team to lead the division on the first of the month in May, June, July, August and September.

Is anyone really surprised with all these injuries facing the Phillies? If you are, you shouldn't be. When the season opened, the average age of the Phillies starting eight (which included Dom Brown, 25, and Delmon Young, 27), is 29.6. That's two years older than the Washington Nationals’ eight starters (27.5) and three years older than the Atlanta Bravers’ (26.5). Injuries will creep up more often and with more severity as athletes age. Heck, I'm not a professional athlete and I don't get nearly the treatment they get from trainers, chiropractors, etc., and at 33 I definitely don't feel the same way as I did five or six years ago. My right Achilles gets tighter than it ever has when I run. My knees ache no matter how far or how long I run. Don't even get me started with my shins. So I can only imagine how those guys feel. But again, no one, particularly those at the helm, should be surprised when one of the "older" guys goes on the DL or reports a new injury. The latest? Chase Utley. He is reportedly having an MRI on Thursday and according to writersin Florida, the team is already talking about who might replace him. Sure sounds like they're thinking the DL is a possibility. After the 2011 season, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. talked about the importance of having younger, everyday position players. While that has happened in some instances (Ben Revere, Brown), older players (Michael Young, 36, Ryan Howard, 33, Utley, Jimmy Rollins, 34, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, who turns 35 in August, etc.) make up the core of this team. "I think we do have to try to get young if we can," Amaro said after the Philliest lost in the NLDS in 2011. "It’s not easy to do. We did get a little bit younger with our staff. At some point we’re going to have to get younger with our everyday position players. We’ll work to try to do that. It’s a young game and it’s played by young players." Not in Philadelphia. And the result seems to be injury after injury. Halladay, 36, recently had shoulder surgery and may not pitch again for months. Howard is having trouble with the meniscus in his knee and isn't sure he can play every day from here on out. Carlos Ruiz, 34, is on the DL and will be out 3-4 weeks with a strained right hamstring. Mike Adams, who turns 35 in July, is on the DL, although the reports are that he could be back next week. Utley, 34, could wind up there, too.    

Las Vegas police are investigating a woman's allegations that former baseball player Jose Canseco Jr. sexually assaulted her.

This is an overview of the Phillies farm system -- the tables below show the starters at each position and each level, and the pitchers with the most innings so far this year. It's meant as a high-level companion to Cormican's weekly and monthly prospect roundups. Also shown are some basic stats, and these are the links to each team's pages on baseball-reference.com for more details: Lehigh ValleyReadingClearwaterLakewood POSITION PLAYERS Highlights: Lehigh Valley- Darin Ruf has been up and down so far, and most recently, down.- Jermaine Mitchell is continuing to hit well and draw walks.- Cesar Hernandez is trying to show there is an alternative to re-signing Chase Utley. - Tommy Joseph is still out with a concussion, and hasn't done much with the bat, but he is still the 9th youngest player in all of AAA.- And not that this should come as a surprise, but Michael Martinez is really never going to hit. At all. Reading- The only other time Tyler Henson has hit like this was in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League last year (.842 OPS)- Three years after stumbling in Clearwater at age 24 (.679 OPS), Jim Murphy has finally gotten to Reading at 27, and is one of the bright spots at the plate for the Fightins.- Cameron Rupp is seeing less playing time now that Sebastian Valle has been demoted, but still a solid season so far. Clearwater- Maikel Franco has put together a .299/.351/.542 line to date, and is the 10th best hitter in the FSL, despite being one of the few 20-year olds in the league (of the 95 players with 100+ PAs, only 8 are in their age 20 season).In addition, three 22-year-old outfielders have been tearing it up:- Aaron Altherr, who wasn't on Sickels' top 20, but was ranked by Marc Hulet and Matt WInkelman, is riding a .444 BABIP, but also has very solid .226 power.- Cameron Perkins has an almost identical OPS (.926), but with a more sustainable BABIP (.379).- Kelly Dugan has cooled off some, but still having a solid year. Lakewood- As Cormican has reported, Roman Quinn is heating up after a slow start, hitting .308/.426/.462 in his last ten games.- Carlos Tocci has struggled, but as the youngest player anywhere above the rookie leagues, he's got plenty of time. PITCHERS About this list: if a pitcher has both starts and relief appearances, he's categorized based on whichever he has more of. Starters and relievers are then ranked by innings pitched this year at that level (which is why J.C. Ramirez, for example, is no both the LV and Reading lists). Lehigh Valley- Jake Diekman has struck out 20 and walked 21 in 19.1 innings. Wow. Reading- Jesse Biddle is the only Phils starter at any level with an FIP under 3.00, although Yoel Mecias is close.- Maurico Robles has struck out 33 (and walked 11) in 23.1 innings. Clearwater- Lefty Ethan Stewart has walked 33 in 28.1 innings.

When word broke last night that Chase Utley was a last-minute scratch due to “discomfort in his rib cage”, the Twitterati Thunderdome and blogosphere went wild with speculation. And for good reason. Seeing as Chase is notoriously secretive about his personal well-being, and the Phillies have a track record of not telling anyone anything amounting to truth about their players, I thought it would be useful if we took some time to lay out the various conspiracy theories and reckless speculation surrounding the nature of Chase’s latest hiccup. First: Is it even an issue with his side? I mean, it’s entirely possible that his creaky (although seemingly rejuvenated for 2013, which just so happens to be a contract year) knees have suffered a relapse. And would he tell us if they did? Probably not. The fact is that day upon day of bone on bone (lol) contact isn’t good for lower body health. So it’s entirely possible that the “side/rib” thing is just a smokescreen. A myth, even. It could all just be a ploy to distract you from the real Keyser Soze, as it were. My point is, what if the true villain is a pre-existing injury that he/they/”The Establishment” is not telling us about? Maybe his hip fell out while he was putting on his sliding pants before the game. You don’t know that that didn’t happen. Second: “The Howard Effect” So Ryan Howard got a cortisone shot and his knee feels better? Didn’t one of those possibly contribute to his achilles injury? Outside of G. Cobb, did the so called objective media truly investigate this? Is anyone asking if we’re making the same mistake twice? Hmmm. Given that backdrop, now suddenly they’re telling us Chase’s “ribcage” is sore? HMMMMMMMMMMMM. How do we know our crack training staff hadn’t slipped a needle to Mr. Utley? Care to answer that, Ruben? Or are you still trying to convince yourself that Michael Young is still 27 years old and that Delmon Young isn’t a gluttonous hebrew-hater? Third: Contract Year This is a contract year for Chase. Don’t be surprised if the Phils are torn between trying to showcase Utley for a contender AND artificially stifling his numbers so they don’t have to give him a big payday. It seems natural that if you can’t be sure your star player will be healthy to play out his contract (See also: The Howard Effect), the logical thing to do is slip the training staff a few Hamiltons and tell them that Utley “has a strained rib cage.” I’ve seen it happen before. Fourth topic: History Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me in the Springs of 2011 and 2012, SHAME ON ME. Also: Mike Adams can’t feel any parts of his body. Also: Carlos Ruiz. Also: Roy Halladay’s shoulder. Also: Vance Worley’s arm. Seriously, Vance was so crippled by the end of his stint here that we had to trade him- a promising stud young pitcher- for a slap hitter that can’t get the ball out of the infield! Frankly, you guys have lost all trust. Fifth: Potential Likely Media Global Elite Conspiracy This is related to all of the topics thus far, but it’s become painfully clear to anyone paying attention as intensely as I have that there just seems something off about the media coverage in this town. I won’t mention any names, but I have reason to believe that some of the media members surrounding the Phillies are nothing more than corporate lapdogs doing their Master Amaro’s bidding. So would it surprise anyone if Utley is actually currently undergoing a life-saving heart transplant? No, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Utley is actually currently undergoing a life-saving heart transplant. In Miami. Think on that, ladies and gentlemen. Prediction: Chase Utley will be back in the lineup sooner than everyone is expecting. But how will we know it’s actually the real Chase Utley? WE WON’T. And don’t think for one minute I’m going to sit here and be okay with that. Sixth: Oh, great. Now Chase Utley is “Having an MRI” Yeah, right. Sure he is. Or at least that’s what the global elite wants you

MIAMI — Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. told CSNPhilly's Jim Salisbury on Wednesday that Chase Utley, who was a late scratch Tuesday, will undergo a MRI either today or tomorrow. Depending on the results of the MRI, the Phillies will decide if a stint on the disabled list is necessary. Utley was replaced by Freddy Galvis on the lineup card about an hour before Wednesday's 7-2 win with what the Phillies called "discomfort in his right side," or pain in his rib cage. Utley has been the most productive Phillie at the plate this season. He has seven home runs and 25 RBIs to go along with a .272 average and an .814 OPS. After two injury-riddled seasons in 2011 and 2012, Utley had been surprisingly healthy to this point.