Phillies Offseason Thread

[PhillyPhreak54]

Jayson Stark, the venerable ESPN.com scribe and former Inquirer beat writer, has an interesting piece on the web site right now. It's always interesting to get the national perspective on things, and Stark's perspective sounds a lot like the local perspective.

But the thing that really jumped out at me was this passage, where Stark talks to Jimmy Rollins about Ryan Howard's battle with an infection near his surgically-repaired Achilles.

"I don't know what to think, honestly," Rollins tells Stark. "If you ask me, with this infection, I don't know if he's going to play this year, because after all the work that he's done, now he's got to hit the reset button."

Now, as Jayson points out, Rollins is not a doctor. But he is an athlete, as well as a friend of Howard's, and the fact that even he hasn't ruled out Howard missing the season should tell you something.

It should be noted that Howard did a light work-out today. And he sounded optimstic during a chat with reporters, which you can read about here.

"I mean, the leg is naturally going to atrophy if it's in a boot all this time and you're not getting the full use out of it," Rollins continued. "So he's built up strength, but it's not like he was 100 percent [before]. Now he needs to take a step back, and he's probably back down to the 25 to 40 percent range. . ."

"And it's a tough injury," Rollins goes on. "It's not like he's 150 pounds. He's a big man. And that's a very important part of his game, being able to be on his legs. He doesn't use his legs for speed like me. He uses his legs for power. So if he doesn't have any [strength in his] legs, all that power just goes away.

"Oh, he's definitely out for two months. I can pretty much guarantee you that," Rollins says. "And probably nothing before the All-Star break, unless it's like Albert Pujols' fracture [which magically healed itself in two weeks last summer]."

[ice grillin you]

once he had this set back....it was out till the all star break minimum...i dont think anyone would be surprised if it was the year

[ice grillin you]

lol...marty woolever on WIP just murdered moneyball

[PhillyPhreak54]

Details?

[ice grillin you]

Details?

said that the concept sells movies tickets but doesnt really win that many baseball games

pointed out how the a's were carried by the three stud pitchers...but even if you look at the offense is was all about chavez and tejada...two highly prized young players that the a's acquired not by moneyball but by good old fashioned scouting in tejadas case...he caught the attention of scouts when he was 16....and chavez was a top 10 overall pick in the draft...yet the book wants to spend 200 pages on scott hatterberg

[Don Ho]

once he had this set back....it was out till the all star break minimum...i dont think anyone would be surprised if it was the year

Dead on igy.  99% of us thought All Star break at the least.  Torn Achilles, never a good ending.  Reality check time, no choke.

[Geowhizzer]

The fact that Utley has not played a single inning yet adds to the discomfort about this season.  According to Zolecki yesterday, Utley hasn't even taken infield during batting practice.

I know they're supposed to "take it slow," but even Polanco's played some games coming off a sports hernia surgery.  Even Thome and his destroyed back has taken reps at first.

[ice grillin you]

the last time i saw so many broken down thoroughbreds was on the set of luck

[PhillyPhreak54]

the last time i saw so many broken down thoroughbreds was on the set of luck

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[ice grillin you]

you loved it

[Sgt PSN]

The producer of Luck said the same thing about the Phillies.

[SunMo]

Dontrelle released

[SD]

Dontrelle released

Good riddance...he's cooked

[Geowhizzer]

Inky:Halladay says his arm isn't hurting

Toronto Globe and Mail: Halladay rips reports he's hurt.

Yahoo's version

Current spring training record:  7.2 IP, 9 ER, .361 average against, 10 Ks

Probably just lazy media speculation, but just seeing the reports makes the stomach a bit queasy.

[ice grillin you]

time is catching up with almost everyone on the team except heidi....doesnt mean halladay is gonna suck this year but its only natural for him to start regressing at his age