Utley, Howard, Rollins among early arrivals
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Utley, Howard, Rollins among early arrivals
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Shortly after 11 a.m., Ryan Howard emerged from a side door at Bright House Field and stared at empty dirt.
"Where'd everybody go?" he asked.
Howard missed Tuesday's informal infield drills by about 10 minutes. Had he received the memo, he could have been standing on the same infield at the same time as Chase Utley.
In recent springs, that has not happened often.
Howard missed all of last spring following Achilles surgery and complications thereafter. Utley has not played in a Grapefruit League game since 2010 because of his chronically injured knees. But both infielders appear healthy at the start of camp this spring.
Utley spryly moved during groundball drills Tuesday. He may have been more active than at any point last spring. The Phillies monitored him closer than ever this winter. The second baseman, on the advice of his doctors and trainers, made the decision to stay busy on his knees. The downtime in recent winters apparently made it more difficult to ramp up in preparation for the season.
Howard looked in better shape than last spring, which was to be expected. After Achilles surgery in October 2011, he was restrained to a couch for two months and conditioning was a challenge.
Shortly after Howard disappeared, Jimmy Rollins completed some work on the same field. The three infielders are here well in advance of Friday's mandatory report date for position players.
The real tests, of course, are beyond taking grounders on a half field in February.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
I am so ready for some baseball! Good to hear the core arrived early. For some odd reason, I feel this will be a really good year.— Just_Recently_Banned- This is great news!
— Copper34 - Man, how great would it be for these three to put on a strong showing this year?
Looking forward to baseball, in any event.— cloudkitt - Can't believe this time of the year still gets me as excited as it did when I was a kid.— Edward Creed
- i have been eerily thinking the same thing as just recently banned and i'd still like to see a legit bat brought in like alfonso soriano who could be had without hurting the core,......unless you put dom brown in that group called the core— SyddBarrett
- No thanks to Alfonso Soriano. I'd rather see a younger player fail (Brown or Ruf) than another old tiring veteran plugged into this lineup— cbanger
- I'd like to think that too Just_Recently_Banned but the local press is already talking as if the Phillies missed key deals in the off season. I guess it's easier to write negative articles and be proven wrong.
— aNutter1inDgutter - The Phillies were 44-31 with both Howard and Utley in the lineup at maybe 80%. They are both 100% healthy right now. It is absolutely absurd to believe that the Phils are a bad team or have no chance to make the playoffs. They won 102 games two years ago with virtually the same core. They will win a minimum of 88-92 games which should be enough for a playoff spot.— matty177
- Wow, 9 comments so far, and not a single negative remark about the Phils or Reuben Amaro. I too, am pumped for this season, and have a good feeling that this team will exceed expectations. Despite all of the negativity surrounding this team, it really is a good group of guys for the most part, and I am really looking forward to seeing it come together this season.— CosmoK
- Good to hear. Let's hope they were all hanging out w/ Doc already. Great weather here.— ExiledinFla
- All the way this year guys. Let's have a last hoorah!— ricciaje
- Good feelin good feelin good again! Positive news , positive posts and the baseball gods smile! Da Phils— mikeyboy
- I'll keep the positive comments going... Agree with everyone so far!!! LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!!!!— elfman
The Bad Knees Bears.- with everyone healthy, we definitely got a shot.
