MUST BE DREAMING: TEMPLE IS 9-2?
ATLANTA - While a weekend return remains questionable, Phillies leftfielder Raul Ibanez should take a big step toward getting himself back to the active roster tonight when he is tentatively scheduled to make his first minor league start since landing on the disabled list June 18 with a strained groin.
Ibanez worked out at Double A Reading yesterday, participating in batting and fielding practice as a final test before beginning a slate of rehab appearances.
Assuming his body feels prepared this morning, the All-Star-to-be will be in the lineup tonight when the R-Phils host the Altoona Curve.
The Phillies would like Ibanez to get somewhere around 12 at-bats in the minors before they clear him to return to big-league action. It is unlikely he will be ready by Friday, when he is eligible to come off the disabled list. But neither manager Charlie Manuel nor assistant general manager Benny Looper, who is traveling with the team during this series, would rule out a return by the end of the Phillies' home series against the Mets this weekend.
"Whether he'll be ready for this weekend, [we'll] just take it day by day," Looper said. "He needs some at-bats before he is ready."
The Phillies entered last night hitting .237 with 12 home runs and 46 runs in the 10 games they played without Ibanez, who was hitting .312 with 22 home runs and 59 RBI when he went on the DL.
As various talent evaluators throughout the organization have huddled in recent days to discuss the void in the rotation that emerged when lefthander Antonio Bastardo suffered a shoulder injury last week, they have kept a careful eye both on the short term and the future.
Although the Phillies are looking for the player who will give them the best chance to win on Friday against the Mets, when the yet-to-be-named pitcher will take the mound, they also are looking for somebody who might stabilize the rotation until trade talks heat up.
"I wouldn't consider it a spot start," Benny Looper said. "It's a performance business, and if he performs, he's got a chance to stay in there for a while."
While the Phillies are fairly sure of the identity of the starter, they don't plan to make an announcement until today or tomorrow. The candidates are top prospect Carlos Carrasco, righthander Andrew Carpenter and former Orioles starter Rodrigo Lopez, all of whom have pitched well recently at Triple A Lehigh Valley. While the organization has said publicly that former starter Kyle Kendrick is under consideration, the righthander started last night at Lehigh Valley, ruling him out of a start 2 days from now.
Carpenter, a 24-year-old righthander who recorded a win in his major league debut against the Nationals on May 16, and Carrasco, a 22-year-old righthander who entered the spring as the organization's top pitching prospect, are familiar to Phillies fans. But there is a chance the team taps Lopez, who won 60 games for the Orioles from 2002-06 before undergoing elbow surgery in 2007. The 33-year-old righthander has allowed just two earned runs in 21 innings in his last three starts and is 5-4 with a 3.91 ERA overall.
Looper watched Lopez' most recent outing, when he allowed one run on seven hits in seven innings on Sunday.
"He doesn't have the fastball he used to - it's average now where it used to be above average," Looper said, "but he had good command of it, particularly to the glove side of the plate. The slider he mixed in, the changeup . . . he did a nice job."
Looper confirmed that Bastardo almost certainly will be sidelined until after the All-Star break with what the team has diagnosed as a posterior shoulder strain. Bastardo will not even begin throwing for at least a couple of weeks, let alone pitching in competitive games.
"It will take some time after that to know when he'll be back," Looper said.
Lefthander Scott Eyre (calf) is scheduled to make his first rehab appearance tonight for Double A Reading after a scheduled appearance for the Gulf Coast League Phillies was rained out yesterday . . . Shortstop Jimmy Rollins was in the lineup for the first time since June 24, ending a four-game benching . . . The Phillies have acquired minor league pitcher Brian Mazone from the Dodgers. Mazone, who pitched for Triple A Lehigh Valley last season, is expected to rejoin the IronPigs. *
Photos: 2009 Phillies 
