Sam Donnellon: Polanco is a priority for Phillies

CLEARWATER, Fla. - You yearn for a simpler time. When conversations about Ryan Howard centered around strikeouts, not swollen sutures. When no one wondered where Chase Utley was because he was always, always there. When spring was about getting in your work and counting down these final days, when uncertainty meant the number of pitches Roy Halladay would be limited to on Opening Day, not the meat of the batting order.

Maybe this is just what naturally happens with an aging, um, veteran team. But with just over a week remaining until the games begin to count, there are more interdependent story lines to this year's Phillies team than the most convoluted episode of HBO's "Luck."

And all of them lean on hope more than reason.

No one knows when Howard will be back, whether Utley will be back or whether Jim Thome's back will hold up. Where does Hunter Pence hit? Depends on who around him can hit. Is John Mayberry the righthanded, power-hitting godsend that last year suggested, or will he be this year's version of Ben Francisco?

"Say we bat Hunter at third," manager Charlie Manuel said after the Phillies mustered two hits in Monday's 6-0 loss to Boston. "We're still searching for that 'four' or 'five' guy. Say we hit him fourth, we're still searching for that three- or five-hole. We hit him fifth, we need the three- and four-hole."

We are 9 days from the first game in Pittsburgh and all this is bouncing around in Charlie's head. As for the first two spots, well, there they were on the field together again Monday. Imagine for a moment that Jimmy Rollins took more money and went to Milwaukee. That Placido Polanco, at 36, still felt the effects of offseason surgery to repair the sports hernia that sapped him so badly that fans were calling for Wilson Valdez to replace him during the postseason.

Imagine what the Phillies' infield would look like then. On second thought, don't. You've fretted enough this spring already.

"When you have surgery, you don't know how you're going to come out of it," Polanco said. "But I feel better than I did 2 years ago. This is something I've had for a while. And now everything feels good."

He knocked on his dome and smiled. It's a story that's been sort of swamped over this spring, Polanco's health, but it is arguably as important as lining up the hitters around Pence. When Polanco batted .398 through the month of April last year, the Phillies' offense did not look lethargic, stagnant or impatient. They won 18 games and lost eight, and they scored nearly as many runs per game as they did after acquiring Pence from the Astros in July.

Polanco is hitting .455 this spring after an 0-fer Monday against Boston's Jon Lester, but it's a sampling of only eight games. Some of that is due to a cautious approach as he plays himself back into baseball shape. Some of it is due to the jammed ring finger he suffered diving back to first base a little over a week ago.

When it happened, Polanco feared the worst. So did the general manager, the manager, and a good chunk of Philadelphia. In a simpler time, the Phillies' offense could probably handle a hit like that. Not now. Not this year.

"A regular player is a very special player in the big leagues," Manuel said. "I'm not talking about a superstar player. I'm talking about a regular player, an everyday player."

Polanco has been both. His first half last year was good enough to get him on the All-Star team, but he couldn't stay healthy long enough to go. After that he was just a regular player, an everyday player.

They got by with that, too. But this year? They need Polanco to turn back the clock. He needs it, too, if he wants another contract somewhere.

"Thirty-six is just a number," he said, and you waited for him to knock on his noggin again.

He didn't. He stared right at you instead. Thirty-six isn't just a number, though.

It's at the crux of his motivation.

"Yeah, it drives me," he said. "Especially on a team where everybody plays hard and you have a chance to win and get to the playoffs again. You don't need any more motivation than that."