Inside the Phillies: Will Four Aces be enough to trump all the Phillies' uncertainties?

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A charter flight is scheduled to lift off from Tampa International Airport early Monday evening with four aces on board.

The preferred final destination remains a second World Series title in four seasons for a team that was favored to accomplish that goal when it arrived here six weeks ago.

Despite mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures during their stay along the Gulf of Mexico, the Phillies did not have to wait for their return to Philadelphia to get a cold dose of reality.

Looking for answers as to who would play right field and bat fifth in place of Jayson Werth when they arrived, manager Charlie Manuel and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. still do not have a definitive alternative.

Worse, they have a much longer list of questions: Who will bat third in place of Chase Utley? Who will play second base? When will Utley return? Who will close in place of Brad Lidge? How will that impact the rest of the bullpen? When will Domonic Brown be ready to play in the big leagues?

All of those answers will not come in the next five days, but some of them must. All the answers, of course, will come in the next six months.

Here's a look at some educated guesses as to what the lineup could look like and how the bullpen will be affected by Lidge's absence at the start of the season.

Former Phillies ace Brett Myers will be in that role for the Houston Astros on opening day at Citizens Bank Park, so Manuel will give us his first glimpse of what lineup he thinks will work best against a righthanded pitcher.

A year ago, the opening-day lineup at Washington looked like this: Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco, Utley, Ryan Howard, Werth, Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino, Carlos Ruiz, and Roy Halladay.

That was considered a serious upgrade from the year before because Polanco had replaced Pedro Feliz at third base. We can say with certainty that Friday's lineup will not be considered an upgrade, but actually guessing what it will look like is as difficult as filling out one of those NCAA brackets.

The guess here is that Rollins remains in the leadoff spot at least to start the season. Another guess: Luis Castillo's tryout will extend into the start of the season, and he'll bat second. Pretty sure Ibanez will hit third, and positive Howard will bat fourth. The rest of the guesses, in order: Polanco, Victorino, Ben Francisco, and Ruiz. We're sure Halladay will again hit ninth.

Two lefthanders - Wandy Rodriguez and J.A. Happ - will follow Myers, so the lineup will look different in those games. Look for Wilson Valdez to get a start at second base and bat eighth in at least one of those games and perhaps both. The rest of the lineup could look like this: Rollins, Victorino, Polanco, Howard, Francisco, Ibanez, Ruiz, and Valdez. We're sure Cliff Lee will bat ninth in the second game and Roy Oswalt will bat ninth in the series finale.

For the first time in a half-decade, the Phillies do not go into the season with the best lineup in the National League East and that is definitely making Manuel uncomfortable.

He should be just as uncomfortable about his bullpen.

Thanks to a sales pitch by his agent, Scott Boras, Ryan Madson said he's ready to be a closer if the Phillies need him in that role. Boras could sell a bicycle to an octopus, but Madson still has to prove he can do something he has never done consistently before.

Still, he has the best stuff and will be given the first chance to close with Jose Contreras becoming the setup guy.

"We got two guys there," Manuel said. "We had three, and now we got two."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the rest of the guys in the bullpen, but his concern is justified.

Shortly after the 2010 season ended, Amaro said upgrading the bullpen was one of his primary goals, and the thinking was that he'd also go after an outfielder like Jeff Francoeur or Matt Diaz to help offset the anticipated loss of Werth.

The bullpen upgrade never happened and now when you ask Manuel who will fill the sixth or seventh innings in the absence of Lidge, the manager does not have a great answer.

"J.C. Romero, the last couple years he has pitched against lefthanded hitters, and that helps us get through the seventh and maybe even parts of the eighth," Manuel said.

That's the same J.C. Romero the Phillies were not going to bring back until they signed Lee to a five-year, $120 million contract and had to go a little cheaper than first anticipated in the bullpen department.

If Amaro knew everything was going to transpire the way it did this spring, he would have done everything exactly the same way he did during the offseason.

Aces trump everything.

Now, we're about to find out if that's enough to win it all.