“I scare myself
and I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself
it can get frightenin’”

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.

Depending on what an MRI examination Thursday in Philadelphia shows, the Phillies could be without their second baseman and top offensive ...

New Green book looks to be a diamond Dallas page turner.

It is a good, lively book and it mirrors Green’s good, lively 6 decades in the game. He rips only three people, Bobby Valentine, Art Mahaffey and Gene Mauch.

“Valentine is a phony and that’s what I call him in the book,” Green grumbles, choosing to skip details of the possible backstabbing while Dallas managed the Mets.

He reveals that in the minors Mahaffey cared only about his numbers. “He didn’t root for other guys to win, because ...

Get ready for WORLD WAR Z.

The Phillies have officially announced the signing of Carlos Zambrano to a minor league deal. He will report to extended Spring Training in Clearwater, Fla. Zambrano is represented by Praver/Shapiro, as shown in MLBTR’s Agency Database.

The 31-year-old Zambrano had previously agreed to a contract with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League but never signed the contract as he continued to look for employment with a Major League team.

After spending parts of ...

Sufferin’ seeds of terror, I was hoping for…

“I’ve been thinking the last couple of days. I just felt like I should address the fans.

“I know there is a lot of mixed opinions on pitching, not pitching, all that kind of stuff. I know there are people who are disappointed about how I pitched the last two years. I know there are a lot of people who are very supportive. So, one, I just wanted to thank them for their support. And my heart goes out to all of the people who spend all of their ...

Will the rotator cuff tear be repaired, or will the joint just be cleaned out, referred to as a debridement? The thickness and location of the tear will likely be the determining factors. If the labrum shows degenerative wearing at the edges, it may only require a bit of smoothing out. If a labral tear is evident once they are in the joint, Halladay will require a more robust surgery.  [...]  It is likely that Halladay is looking at a minimum six-month recovery if more than a simple debridement ...

All the signs were there. Roy Halladay, a former Cy Young Award winner whose success has been predicated on his control, threw more than a handful of pitches Sunday that were miles out of the strike zone. When he did throw it over the plate, it was blasted into the outfield or over the fence by hitters who normally wouldn’t stand a chance.

The sines of his arm angles kept dropping

So it wasn’t the 7.96 ERA over his last three seasons that made Mitch Williams retire. It was the fun factor! #tommyrot

This team I did pick to win the AL West because I thought the additions of Josh Hamilton and Jason Vargas would help them because they are both low-key players who would fit in to the Angels clubhouse — which I have since found out from a player who has since left was not a very cohesive clubhouse. And it shows on the field.

Harold Reynolds pointed out one specific play ...

Neck Twitch Of The Death Nerve Strikes Again!

Mitch Williams appeared on 94.1 WIP this morning and ripped into Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee, saying the Phillies need a new man for the job.

He said Roy Halladay‘s problems were a simple mechanical fix that Dubee simply could not find. He mentioned an encounter he had with Dubee in Spring Training, when Dubee yelled at him for trying to talk to his pitchers, although he claimed that did not make his criticism this morning personal. ...

“The Fire Rube train is now boarding.”

I glanced at the screen as the game went to commercial and noticed that the Phillies had one hit. One ####### hit. Against Trevor Bauer, who I never heard of until yesterday.

You know who else noticed that the Phillies offense had one ####### hit through five? The pitcher, Cliff Lee: [Matt Gelb on Sulia]

  “They pretty much pounded us both games, there’s no way around it,” Lee said. “They crushed us both games. It was never really close, ...

Ruben’s team…forced to close due age/health infractions.

Ruben Amaro, Jr. may be one of the more polarizing general managers in baseball today. In an age when most acknowledge more information is better, and better information is worth more than ever before, Amaro has publicly admitted his front office doesn’t employ an analytics department. This effectively foregoes about 50 percent of all available types of information. How someone in charge of a hundred million dollar business could do that ...

Phillies outfielder Delmon Young opened the year on the DL following offseason ankle surgery, but he moved closer to joining the team on Sunday by playing in his first official minor league rehab game. He went 1-for-4 with a sacrifice fly and a strikeout for the team’s High Class-A affiliate in Clearwater.

Defensively, the 27-year-old Young had seven balls hit to him in right field and he misplayed two of them, including turning a would-be single into a triple. Following the game, GM Ruben ...

Ruben: Handbook of the Elementary.

GM Ruben Amaro is shocked — shocked! — that his team isn’t drawing walks.

Via Kevin Tresolini:

  “I think it’s ridiculous that we’ve had no walks in three days,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “I cannot believe it. More importantly, it’s about not just walks, but producing, and we haven’t done that. We haven’t gotten hits, period. We haven’t gotten hits with runners in scoring position, we haven’t gotten hits to lead off ...

On Tuesday night against Atlanta, Royals second baseman Chris Getz did this for the first time since 2009, for the first time in 954 at-bats ...

That would be third home run of his career, which to date spans 1,350 plate appearances.

Getz’s rare clout calls to mind current notable homerless streaks—a list from which Getz has, of course, just removed himself. Here’s the rundown from FoxSports Kansas City’s Joel Goldberg:

Ben Revere it is! Revere, it should be noted, has no ...

Unless you’re on some really heavy duty shiit.

The Phillies must also operate on faith alone when it comes to their lineup, which was no match for young Mets righthander Matt Harvey’s mid-to-high-90s fastball. They managed four hits, one of them for extra bases, and struck out 10 times in 30 at-bats. The biggest piece, naturally, is Ryan Howard, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a sacrifice fly and is now 4-for-27 with 10 strikeouts and no extra-base hits. But they also need more out ...

Chino chimes in…“Fantasy owners, it’s a different story.”

Ryan Howard had a rough afternoon before singling in the ninth inning Sunday at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies’ first baseman had struck out three times in his first four at-bats. Even with the single, he is hitting .167 (4-for-24) with three RBIs, two walks and eight strikeouts in six games. He is still looking for his first extra-base hit.

“I think a lot of guys come out sometimes, you play two or three games, and if you don’t hit ...

For the better part of three innings, Hudson was in cruise control.  He was getting ahead (10/11 first pitch strikes) and putting Phillies hitters away (11 hitters faced through three).  But the Phillies gradually raised his pitch total from 13 in each of the first two innings to 19 in the third, 21 in the fourth and 24 in the fifth before he was yanked in favor of Luis Avilan.

The non-Utley highlight of the night for the Phillies was a gritty 11-pitch at-bat from Ben Revere that included ...

Creepin’ Costen Shockleys my head hurts! BTW…I’ve just changed my punk band’s name to Anti-Proefrock.

Baseball is awash with more knowledge than ever before. The Phillies generated success with willful ignorance of that information. Fewer and fewer teams value their scouts’ evaluations as much as the Phillies do. That is where the Phillies seek their competitive advantage.

“We think we have one of the best, if not the best, group of scouts in the game,” said Proefrock, an assistant general ...

Coca-Cola Park will be the first sports venue in the world to feature a brand new revolutionary “Urinal Gaming System”, allowing fans to interact with the world’s only truly hands-free urinal game controller, when the Lehigh Valley IronPigs open their 2013 season this April. The p-controlled video game systems will be featured within all men’s restrooms at Coca-Cola Park and are exclusively presented by Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Have to admit the “hands-free urinal game controller” sounds ...

Halladay, who left his last start after one inning with a stomach virus, needed 82 pitches to get 11 outs, retiring only seven of the 18 batters he faced. He gave up seven hits, walked two, and hit a batter. Another Toronto hitter reached base on a throwing error by Halladay.

This is not looking good at all

Erik Kratz: “I’m not a doctor. But I can see sick. I’ve seen sick and that was sick.”

Q: Did you talk to him after that inning?

Kratz: “He was hurting pretty good. He was hurting pretty good after the inning. So there wasn’t any – I’m not a doctor. But I can see sick. I’ve seen sick and that was sick.”

Q: Today aside, how has he looked to you this spring? Everyone is questioning after last year, that last start. What’s your confidence level that he’s going to be the guy ...

And You Don’t Mess with the Johan! (well…maybe now you can)

Hollywood was never in the cards for Philadelphia Phillies prospect Kelly Dugan.

The son of famous movie producer Dennis Dugan, who brought to the screen the Adam Sandler comedies Big Daddy, Happy Gilmour, and many more, didn’t want to live in the shadow of his father.

So he’s pursuing another form of entertainment — professional baseball, where the Philadelphia prospect learned to understand quickly that hitting a 99 mph fastball ...

No Halladay heart syndrome at least.

In spring training, it is possible for a pitcher to finish with an ugly line that does not match the performance as it appeared to the naked eye. That was not the case with Roy Halladay’s outing against the Tigers, which looked every bit unpretty as the seven runs he allowed in 2 2/3 innings. Afterward, you could see the concern on Charlie Manuel’s face.

“Yeah, it concerns me,” the manager said. “But at the same time, I been in the game long enough to ...

I think I once booked Torched By Dominicans at KNUP’s…but they backed out.

The Dominican team tuned up for its World Baseball Classic opener Thursday in Puerto Rico by teeing off on Cole Hamels, a three-time all-star and former World Series MVP who has no desire to add WBC MVP to his resumé.

“It’s fun to watch,” Hamels said after being torched for 12 hits and eight runs in 22/3 innings. “I know to participate in something for your country is always an honor. But I just know I’m glad . . . ...

Phillies History Live! (for now)

For the last five preseasons, the prognosticators picked the Fightin’s either to win the World Series or go deep into the playoffs. Not this year.

All the baseball annuals predict that the Phillies will finish third in the National League’s Eastern Division behind the favored Washington Nationals and the second-place Atlanta Braves. Not even a wild-card playoff berth in sight. Nor do the experts pull any punches.

One scout writes that “the aging core of ...

Eric: Before we get into the Phils system I want to get your thoughts on the front office and the general decision making that’s gone on since Pat Gillick stepped down. I realize there’s a lot that GMs do that outsiders can’t see or begin to appreciate, but this is becoming worrisome. What are your thoughts?

Keith: In general, I think the front office’s decisions have been below average – some good, but more that ended up hurting the team somehow. I still can’t quite fathom their ...