Phillies Notebook: Utley to miss Grapefruit opener with 'routine soreness'

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Chase Utley will not be in the lineup today when the Phillies travel to Tampa to face the Yankees in both teams' Grapefruit League opener. Neither will Placido Polanco, Shane Victorino or Carlos Ruiz.

But Utley's absence is notable because he has been suffering from what manager Charlie Manuel described as "routine" soreness in his legs and knees.

On Thursday, when Utley watched the Phillies' exhibition game against Florida State from the dugout, Manuel downplayed concern about his second baseman, who missed extended periods of time with a torn thumb ligament in 2010 and a broken wrist in 2007, and played most of 2008 while hampered by a sore hip that required offseason surgery.

Utley did not make himself available to speak to the media after the Phillies' workout yesterday.

The 32-year-old second baseman has seen his slugging percentage and OPS drop in each of the last three seasons, from .566/.976 in 2007 to .535/.915 in '08, to .508/.905 in '09, to .445/.832 last season. He hit .275 with a .387 on-base percentage, 16 home runs and 65 RBI in 2010, playing in a career-low 115 games after undergoing thumb surgery in early July.

Lefthander Cole Hamels is scheduled to start against righthander Bartolo Colon today. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who missed the exhibition against FSU while attending the Motown Tribute at the White House, is leading off. Following him are designated hitter Ross Gload, leftfielder Raul Ibanez, first baseman Ryan Howard, centerfielder Ben Francisco, rightfielder Domonic Brown, third baseman Jeff Larish, catcher Brian Schneider and second baseman Wilson Valdez.

As Brad Lidge threw a bullpen session yesterday, minor league pitching coach Carlos Arroyo stood next to him with a stopwatch, timing his move to the plate out of the stretch. The reason? With his knees feeling as good as they have in years, Lidge is moving faster to the plate. The Phillies want to make sure he isn't moving too fast.

It will be interesting to see if the change has any effect on would-be base stealers.

Over the last five seasons, base stealers are 36-for-38 against Lidge. They were a perfect 7-for-7 last season and were 11-for-12 in 2009 and 8-for-9 in 2008.

In his first three full seasons in the majors, base stealers were just 12-for-25 against Lidge. Since then, he has had three knee surgeries.

Scheduled to follow Cole Hamels in the Yankees game are righthander Vance Worley, lefty Ryan Feierabend, righty Brian Schlitter and lefthander Mike Zagurski . . . The lineup for a B-game here against the Blue Jays is CF Michael Martinez, 3B Harold Garcia, LF Brandon Moss, DH Tagg Bozied, 1B Matthew Rizzotti, RF Matt Miller, C Erik Kratz, SS Freddy Galvis, 2B Cesar Hernandez. Pitching in the game are RHP Brian Bass, LHP Dan Meyer, RHP Danys Baez, RHP Jose Contreras and RHP David Herndon.