While the offense of the Philadelphia Phillies has picked it up a bit as of late (thanks, Chooch), it’s still hardly a well-oiled machine. It’s not the one-run debacle that it was earlier this season, but they could use help.

And according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com, that help could be on the way in June.

He says that there is “a growing feeling” that Ryan Howard (Achilles) and Chase Utley (knee) could re-join the team in June. Howard is considered the first to come back and his return is more certain. Utley just began fielding ground balls and he hasn’t had a chance to see how his knee will react to the increased activity.

Neither player has a timetable for his return.

The Phillies are in the basement of the NL East, but are currently riding a six-game winning streak. Who knows what Howard and Utley will even be when they come back, but it could at least help get other guys to their proper spots in the lineup.

Did you miss the battle between Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and home plate umpire Bob Davidson this week? It was pretty great. Manuel got upset that Davidson got in Brian Schneider’s way as he tried to grab strike three in the dirt. Schneider couldn’t get the ball and the dude was safe at first after striking out.

Davidson screamed into the dugout, “you think I wanted to block his ass?”

Not sure exactly what Charlie said back, but he got tossed and didn’t care for it. The video is here:

After the expletive-laden battle was over, MLB decided that both guys should have a seat for a game. You see players and managers get suspended all the time, but umpires? And better yet, they said Davidson’s suspension was for “repeated violations.” Wow, how about that?

From the press release:

Umpire Bob Davidson has received a one-game suspension for his repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner’s standards for situation handling, Major League Baseball announced today.

Davidson’s suspension is to be served tonight, when his crew will work the Minnesota Twins-Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park. A Minor League call-up umpire will fill Davidson’s spot in tonight’s game.

This guy must be one hell of an umpire to not just get fired. If he’s constantly screwing up, couldn’t they just find someone else to judge whether the little white ball went over the plate or not?

The 2012 season has not been too good to the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ve been in last place most of the season and just got their first three-game winning streak of the season on Tuesday. Not good for a team with a huge payroll and World Series aspirations.

Now, the team gets some more good news. One of their reliable starting pitchers (the only part of this team that has been solid this year), Vance Worley, has been placed on the 15-day DL with elbow inflammation.

Anyone see Tommy John in the future?

Not saying that will happen, but elbow trouble isn’t good. GM Ruben Amaro says that they will know more about the inflammation some time on Wednesday. Can’t wait to hear that report.

The designation is retroactive to May 12, but that doesn’t mean he’ll come off of the DL as scheduled.

Phillies fans: Hold your breath. This team can’t afford to take on more water.

Ken Rosenthal’s report makes it clear that no trade is immediate, nor is one likely. But, he says that the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies have discussed possible trades including Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino.

It sounds ridiculous, but not when you consider that the Phillies are in last place in the NL East and continue to find ways to lose games and fall farther behind.

Both are in the last year’s of their contracts and if the Phillies don’t think they can resign them, they are likely trade bait. The Phils don’t want to bail on the season before Chase Utley and Ryan Howard come back, but at some point, they’ll have to face reality.

“My job is to keep all lines of communication open, for the good of the club today and tomorrow,” GM Ruben Amaro said. “I can’t shut any doors down. You try to be creative. And there are a lot of creative GMs out there who have different goals.”

I would think Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee would make more sense to move, considering the team needs to get younger and replenish the farm system. We’ll see what happens, right now this is probably a tire-kicking on behalf of the Jays.

On Sunday night, Philadelphia Phillies stud Cole Hamels mowed down the Washington Nationals both literally and figuratively. He gave up just one run through eight innings, and also made sure he plunked Bryce Harper in the first inning.

That wasn’t seemingly a big deal, except that he admitted after the game that he did it on purpose.

“I was trying to hit him,” Hamels said. “I’m not going to deny it. That’s just — you know what, it’s something that I grew up watching, that’s what happened, so I’m just trying to continue the old baseball — I think some people kind of get away from it. I remember when I was a rookie the strike zone was really, really small and you didn’t say anything just because that’s the way baseball is. Sometimes the league is protecting certain players and making it not that old-school, prestigious way of baseball.”

What I still don’t get is why. Because Harper is good? Because he’s young? Because he’s getting a lot of hype? Are any of those reasons to intentionally pop someone?

Well, you can put Nationals GM Mike Rizzo down as not having cared for it.

“Players take care of themselves,” Rizzo said. “I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball.

“Cole Hamels says he’s old school? He’s the polar opposite of old school. He’s fake tough. He thinks he’s going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year-old rookie who’s eight games into the big leagues? He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.”

Rizzo said that Hamels should be suspended.

“With all the bounty [stuff] going on in professional football, the commissioner better act with a purpose on this thing,” Rizzo said. “Players have a way of monitoring themselves. We’re not here to hit people and hurt people.

“He thinks he’s sending a message to us of being a tough guy. He’s sending the polar opposite message. He says he’s being honest; well, I’m being honest. It was a gutless chicken [bleep] [bleeping] act. That was a fake-tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school.”

There was certainly a brand-new intensity in the Nationals-Phillies rivalry this weekend, but Rizzo says that intentional beanings are a different story.

“This goes beyond rivalry and all that stuff,” Rizzo said. “This points to, you take the youngest guy in baseball. He’s never done a thing. And then Hamels patted himself on the back. Harper’s old school. Hitting him on the back, that ain’t old school. That’s [bleeping] chicken [bleep].”

The Washington Nationals have been pretty damn excited lately and they’ve had good reason to be. They are off to an 18-10 start and own first place in the NL East.

However, they’re taking on a bit of water. 3B Ryan Zimmerman is already hurt, as is Michael Morse, who was supposed to the be the cleanup hitter. Well, now you can add another injury to that list.

Outfielder Jayson Werth dove for a ball Sunday night and tore up his left wrist. And, according to Amanda Comack of the Washington Times, it’s busted.

“Broken left wrist for Jayson Werth. He’ll be out “a while.” Will see specialist tomorrow, consulting w/Mayo Clinic surgeon,” she tweets.

“It’s a clean break,” manager Davey Johnson said. “He’s going to be out for a while.”

Supposedly at least six weeks. That’s a blow to a young team trying to make headway in the division for the first time in…ever.

“All of a sudden we seem to be getting a little more healthy and then boom, another one of our main guys goes down,” Johnson said. “We’ve dealt with it before we’ll deal with it again. We’re not alone. It seems like it’s rampant right now. It’s a tough blow.”

Guess we can kill any idea of Bryce Harper getting sent back down.

Still, for Werth, this is a big issue. He busted his same left wrist back in 2005 with the Dodgers and it was a career-threatening injury. Hopefully, this won’t be similar.

The Philadelphia Phillies might have one of the worst lineups in all of baseball. Check that, they do have one of the worst lineups in all of baseball. I don’t even have the stats in front of me, but I’ve learned enough through empirical data.

Many fans in Philly can’t wait for the return of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, both of whom are out with nasty injuries. “Once we get Utley and Howard back, we’ll be great again!” Not true at all, but whatever. Utley has what appears to be degenerative conditions in both knees (although he says the one that was hurt last year is fine now) and Howard tore his Achilles tendon, so who the hell even knows what the Phils will get out of them when they are cleared to play.

But, if you’re one of the many Philly fans who thinks that they just need to get these guys healthy to get back on the World Series track, then I have some sort of good news. According to Jim Salisbury, Utley took early batting practice today in Arizona.

“Utley took early BP. Manuel said his legs look stronger. No timetable. Utley to chat w reporters later,” Salisbury tweets.

Well, I guess it’s better than him not taking batting practice, but it hardly signals his return. And let’s be clear again: you have no idea what he is going to be when he comes back. He could just be an average hitter who isn’t as good on defense as Freddy Galvis.

The Philadelphia Phillies just keep rolling. It’s not enough that they struggle to even score one run against poor pitchers, but now they keep getting good news. First, we found out that Cliff Lee had to go on the 15-day DL with a side strain. Now? The one guy they have who can hit the baseball has a sore shoulder and will miss Monday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to Jim Salisbury.

“Pence out of lineup w sore L shoulder, Manuel says. He banged into wall in SF a week ago,” he tweets.

Awesome.

We don’t know the severity of the injury right now, but if Pence needs a DL stint, the Phillies should just immediately become sellers and have a fire sale. This season is going to be a complete waste as it is, let alone losing a guy of Pence’s caliber.

John Mayberry, Jr. will take Pence’s place in right field, and stink up the joint when he steps in the batter’s box.

The Philadelphia Phillies are off to a rough start. They are hovering around .500 while the rest of the division (minus the Marlins of course) is thriving. Not only that, their offense is absolutely butt awful.

So, they’ll need that starting pitching, huh? Of course they will! Well, they better hope some other people step up, because Cliff Lee isn’t going to be able to help for the next 15 days. That’s right, he was placed on the DL with an oblique strain.

Hooray?

The good thing is that it’s not tough to replace a guy with a 1.96 ERA who is borderline unhittable at times. Not when you have Kyle Kendrick it isn’t. The journeyman bullpen/spot starter should be a right-handed Cliff Lee if all goes according to plan.

In all honesty, I’m not sure I see the Phillies making the playoffs this year.

There has been a ton of speculation about Philadelphia Phillies 2B Chase Utley. He’s got chronic knee conditions (not a specific injury, mind you) and he hasn’t done much of anything all spring training in terms of doing baseball stuff.

So what’s wrong? How bad are his knees? Will he play in 2012? Is he going to have surgery? Will he just hang ‘em up?

Well, Chase spoke to the media on Sunday, and according to Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com, Utley says he’ll play this season and won’t have surgery.

“Utley: No surgery. No retirement. Won’t be ready for opener. Visited new specialist. Working on strengthening areas around knees. #Phillies,” Rosenthal tweets.

We’ll see what happens with him this year, as this was a condition that kept him out of a significant portion of last season. It remains to be seen what he’ll even be when/if he does return.

Phillies fans better hope to fall in love with Freddie Galvis quickly.

Dontrelle Willis used to be a hell of a pitcher. And while those days are long gone, he did pitch surprisingly well for the Cincinnati Reds last season, holding lefties to a .127 batting average.

He was good enough to persuade the Philadelphia Phillies to sign him to a minor-league contract this offseason. Too bad that didn’t last long. Willis has been dealing with a dead arm issue and the Phillies didn’t appreciate it. They released him today, saving $150,000.

Willis was horrific in his three outings with the Phils. His 16.87 ERA apparently didn’t impress the brass and so now he’s free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.

We’d think that he still has enough left in the tank for someone to roll the dice on him.

The Philadelphia Phillies ran away with the NL East last year. Their pitching was filthy and their hitting was, well, good enough. But, while many are picking them to win the division again this year, they are taking on water at an alarming rate.

Ryan Howard tore his Achilles tendon while making the final out of the NLDS last season. Awesome. That was a great ending to a great 1-0 loss where the Phillies couldn’t solve Chris Carpenter and had to exit the playoffs early. And today, Jimmy Rollins came out and said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Howard doesn’t play at all this year. Hoo! Rah!

Chase Utley hasn’t played yet this spring, and Charlie Manuel said that he’s not so sure that he make it for Opening Day. Even better!

Thank god they don’t have to worry about Roy Halladay. That guy is a horse who never gets hurt and is an automatic 20-game win candidate every year. He’s so automa….wait, what?

Yep, while it’s not yet time to sound all of the alarms, Halladay’s velocity is down. He topped out at 89 mph Wednesday while getting knocked around for five runs in 2 2/3 innings. It wouldn’t be a huge deal, but he’s 34-years old and has thrown the most innings of anyone in MLB in the last six years. Horse or not, that’s going to take its toll on anyone.

“I’m going to use the entire spring training to get ready,” Halladay said. “I feel like we’re getting closer. Mechanically, things are better. It’s just the consistency of executing pitches. It’s ultimately what I need to improve on the most.”

Phillies fans need to hope and pray that this is just something temporary. He usually comes out like gangbusters in the spring. But, the biggest problem is that the Phils need Halladay to cover up deficiencies elsewhere. Like, Chase’s declining production, Howard’s inability to contribute until who-knows-when, Rollins being 33-years old, no real power in the lineup, etc.

Keep an eye on this one, the Phillies could be overpaid and old really quick.

Last season in spring training, it was an injured hand that sidelined Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Domonic Brown. It set him back a bit and Brown does not need any of that. He used to be one of the top prospects in all of baseball (agreed to by just about everyone), but since has struggled at the MLB level.

Well, here’s another setback.

While diving for a fly ball (that he probably misjudged), Brown busted his thumb. It’s not expected to be a huge deal, but he doesn’t need any more injuries.

“Everything’s fine,” Brown said. “I’m just playing it safe.”

Brown is only expected to miss a few days.

File this under “things I didn’t see happening this February.” On the final out of the Philadelphia Phillies season, Ryan Howard grounded out and popped his Achilles tendon as he headed towards first base. Not only had the Phillies lost – falling way short of expectations – but they now had their superstar piled in a heap on the first-base line.

Achilles tendon issues are nothing to mess with and they take a long time to recover from. Initially, people were speculating that Howard could return sometime in June or July. Yeah, not only did 2011 end poorly, but 2012 was automatically off to bad start.

Well, good news for Phillies fans, while he’s not ready to return yet, he did take batting practice on Wednesday. The 32-year old is happy with his recovery so far, but doesn’t want to put a “time limit” on it.

Photo Caption: Such a sweet swing.

He started swinging a bat a couple of weeks ago, but this is the first action he’s seen against pitchers. He could get some rare action in spring training, but realistically he’s looking at a May return.

The sports world is stunned today as they have learned that Pat Burrell plans to retire. The 35-year old has had foot problems that will just make it too painful to continue.

He told the AP back in November that it’s too problematic to keep playing, even though he wasn’t sure of his decision at the time.

“I have not decided yet, but I don’t think I can play anymore [due to a chronic foot injury]. It hurts me to say that,” he said.

He will retire with the fourth most home runs in Philadelphia Phillies history with 251. He’s behind Del Ennis, Ryan Howard and Mike Schmidt.

The first-overall pick in the 1998 draft, Burrell will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2016.

You can never have enough depth. For the Philadelphia Phillies, that depth is needed in the outfield. Shane Victorino is back in centerfield, but they are trusting John Mayberry to play a full season in left and maybe hoping that Dom Brown emerges in right after competing with some of the average joe’s they signed in the offseason.

So, why not roll the dice on a low-risk, decent-upside deal with a guy who was once a damn good player?

According to Jim Salisbury of CSN, that’s what the Phillies have done. He says they’ve signed Juan Pierre to a minor-league deal.

“Confirmed. Pierre agrees to minor lg deal. “@Ken_Rosenthal: Pierre minor-lge deal with #Phillies – @JSalisburyCSN reports serious talks,” Salisbury tweets.

If Pierre even has a decent spring, expect him to stay up with the club.

It’s a good thing that we added a question mark to our last item regarding the Philadelphia Phillies and SS Jimmy Rollins agreeing to a deal, because it never took place. It seemed like it was about to happen for a while, but it just hasn’t gone down.

Now, Scott Miller of CBS Sports is saying that not only has a deal not happened, but that it’s not close to happening.

“Phillies, Jimmy Rollins continue “dialog” but the sense is that a deal is not close,” he tweets.

Rollins’ agent is still talking to the Phillies, but he says there is another unidentified team that he’s talking to as well. Many have speculated that it’s the Detroit Tigers lurking in the mist. Whatever that means.

We’ll see what happens, but clearly Jimmy is coming back down to Earth in terms of what he thought he was going to get on the open market. Teams are filling their shortstop voids and he’s still at the prom with no one to dance with. Whatever that means.

The Philadelphia Phillies had to be seriously considering a back-up option in case they couldn’t sign SS Jimmy Rollins, who had said that he had no interest in giving the club a hometown discount. But what would that option be? Freddie Galvis just isn’t ready to take over the shortstop position for a team with championship aspirations.

But, maybe they don’t have to worry about that now. According to MLB analyst Jim Duquette, the Phils and Rollins have agreed to terms on a new contract.

“Source- #Phillies and Jimmy Rollins have agreed to terms. Announcement expected later today,” Duquette tweets.

Right now, it seems that Duquette is the only one reporting it, but that’s all we have to go on right now. And you know how we are about fact checking around here.

Our guess is that it would be around a four-year deal with a club option for a fifth. We are completely guessing, but that would seem like a fair deal for both sides.

We mentioned earlier today that the Philadelphia Phillies were reportedly moving on from Ryan Madson and focusing their attention on Boson Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. Well, that does indeed seem to be the case.

Because Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com is reporting that the Philies have reached an agreement with Papelbon and he’ll become a Phillie pending a physical.

Salisbury didn’t say what the terms of the contract were, but it’s believed that it will be a four-year deal. Probably in the $40 million range that was being tossed around regarding Madson.

Safe to say that Madson is now the ex-Philadelphia Phillies closer.

UPDATE: It’s a four-year deal approaching $50 million

It was widely believed earlier this week that the Philadelphia Phillies were poised to sign a contract with Ryan Madson for four years and about $44 million. However, some reports say a deal was never in place and that Ruben Amaro backed out of the deal.

Now, according to Jayson Stark on Twitter, the Phillies may be turning their attention to Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon as they move away from Madson.

“Sources say #Phillies showing “serious” interest in Papelbon as Madson deal disintegrates. More to come at ESPN.com,” tweets Stark.

Papelbon had 31 saves last year with a 2.94 ERA, which is decent, but he doesn’t seem to be the same shutdown guy that he used to be. Madson, meanwhile, was pretty filthy all year with 32 saves and a 2.37 ERA. However, you could always look at it like he only did it for one year. Previous efforts to have him close games did not go so well.

We’ll see what happens, but right now it’s looking less and less likely that Madson will be in a Phillies uniform next year. Luckily for him, there aren’t many good closers in MLB right now so he should find a home with a nice pay check.

The Philadelphia Phillies still have “99 Problems but a Pitch Ain’t One,” but they will have less pitching in 2012. At least, as of right now they will, but the 2011 season isn’t even over yet, so that doesn’t mean much.

The team has declined the options on two pitchers who at various points in their careers were dominant. They declined Roy Oswalt’s $16 million buyout, as well as Brad Lidge’s $12.5 million buyout.

Both moves were expected. $12.5 million is too much for an oft-injured closer who actually is a set up guy, but not really. The 34-year old will get a $1.5 million payment as settlement and then test free agency. He missed most of the season but did post a 1.40 ERA through 19 1/3 innings. Considering the dearth of closers in MLB, I have to believe that someone will give him a shot at their closer role.

As for Oswalt, he’ll get a $2 million buyout. The reality is that he has back problems that just won’t seem to go away, and Vance Worley was the better pitcher over the course of the season. Oh, and Worley costs next to nothing.

Despite Oswalt’s injury issues, however, he still posted a 3.69 ERA. He wasn’t his usual dominating self, but he was still better than a ton of other pitchers in baseball. The Phillies are interested in keeping him, but at a much lower salary.

Philadelphia Phillies ace (one of them) Cole Hamels is coming off of his best season as a professional. He had a 2.79 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP to go with a 14-9 record. We don’t really care about W/L record for pitchers so you can throw that out. His other numbers are close to filthy.

But, apparently he did some of his pitching with a lot of discomfort and we’re not exactly sure how he did it. According to Todd Zolecki, Hamels underwent hernia and elbow surgeries on Friday.

Photo Caption: “Ha haaaa….strike two. One more and it’s butterscotch snack pack time in the dugout. If Vance touches my baseball cards I’m gonna flip the heck out.”

“Hamels had 2 surgeries today (hernia & left elbow). Had loose bodies removed from elbow and should be begin throwing in 3-to-4 weeks,” Zolecki tweets.

We don’t know the extent of the hernia, but it was obviously bad enough that they had to cut him open. Not sure how someone pitches with soreness in that area, but we give Cole a ton of credit.

This post is very funny if you go back and read it in the thin, high-pitched Cole voice.

“Hey Roy, I just had surgery on my…Roy. Roy. Cliff, I just had…Cliff.”

It’s easy to blame Cliff Lee for the Philadelphia Phillies meltdown in the ALDS because he was given a four-run lead that, if held, would have lead to a sweep. But, it’s not too difficult to blame the bats when Doc Halladay holds the St. Louis Cardinals to one run in Game 5 and they couldn’t get one lousy run.

Maybe it had to do with Ryan Howard doing nothing. Maybe it had to do with two of their batters playing with sports hernias. Placido Polanco underwent a double sports hernia surgery recently (whatever that is) and their all-important No. 3 hitter did as well. Yep, Hunter Pence was apparently playing with a sports hernia.

“Hey everyone, been hanging around Philly. My surgery went well today and I’m feeling good,” he tweeted.

While he wasn’t bad in the playoffs, he didn’t seem like his usual self. And maybe this will help explain why.

With the Philadelphia Phillies tied with the St. Louis Cardinals at 2-2 and facing Game 5 tonight, you’d think there needs to be some sort of explanation. Sure, the Cardinals have a nice team, but nothing compared to this Phillies team that is stacked to bejesus and back with pitching.

The easy scapegoat has been Ryan Howard, the team’s $100+ million man who has been awful since Game 1. In Game 1, he popped a three-run homer for the ages and drove two more in later. It looked like he would put the team on his back and carry them to the NLCS. That, ummm, hasn’t happened. He’s been terrible since then. So this has to be his fault, right?

Well, he should shoulder some blame, but no one wants to blame this pitching staff? This “best staff ever” group of pitchers that haven’t done their jobs?

In Game 1, Roy Halladay gave up a three-run homer in the first inning to get the team down 3-0. Sure, after that he settled into being Roy and carved up the St. Louis offense. The Phils were able to dig out of it and rout the Cardinals for what turned out to be an easy Game 1 win.

The second game? The team gave Cliff Lee – the mighty can-do-no-wrong Cliff Lee – a four-run lead. FOUR runs. That should be game-set-match, correct? It wasn’t. Cliff blew the lead and the Phils lost.

The only guy that did his job so far was Cole Hamels. He didn’t have his best stuff in Game 3, but still pitched six shutout innings and the Phillies hung on for the win. Roy Oswalt in Game 4? Pitched extremely well except for really one inning, when he got knocked around. Bad. He gave up five runs in five innings. They could get Randy Wolf to do that. That’s not was dream team pitchers are supposed to do.

The problem is that all these scenarios were played out before the season even started. “Boy, just give Cliff Lee a lead and than it’s lights out.” But no, that hasn’t happened and no one wants to call them out. It’s easier to blame Howard.

Make no mistake about it, if the Cardinals take down Game 5 and go on to the NLCS, this starting pitching staff is to blame. This is not what the team was expecting out of them.

In Tuesday’s Game 3 win, The Philadelphia Phillies replaced Raul Ibanez with John Mayberry, Jr. The St. Louis Cardinals had lefthander Jaime Garcia throwing yesterday, so they decided to use Mayberry’s right-handed bat.

But, with righty Edwin Jackson throwing on Wednesday for the Cardinals, the Phillies have but Ibanez back in the lineup.

In the other dugout, there is a chance that the Cardinals could get a boost to their offense. Tony Larussa has posted two different lineups today, one that has Matt Holliday in it, and one without him.

Holliday has a bum finger on his right hand and has started a game in the playoffs this year. However, he’s been available to pinch hit so he ain’t hurt all that bad. We’ll know more after today’s batting practice.

Philadelphia Phillies fans are scrambling to think of a way for their team to lost to the St. Louis Cardinal in this opening NLDS series. Does Cliff or Doc take a dump on the mound? Do the bats go silent? What could possibly happen for the Phils to lose this series?

Well, this isn’t about something that could be a detriment to the Phils, despite the lede I just wrote. It’s actually more bad news for the Cardinals.

Matt Holliday, one of the best hitters in all of baseball during the past decade, is not in the starting lineup tonight for Game 1 (finger). Of course, he still could pinch hit tonight and could be ready for Game 2, but it’s another positive sign for the Phillies.

Lance Berkman is sliding from right field to left field and Allen Craig will be starting in right.

Roy Halladay takes the mound against Kyle Lohse at 5:07 PM at Citizens Bank Park.

If any news could take the wind out of the sails of Phillies fans, it’s this. They won’t care that they’ve played like total crap this past week despite locking up the NL East and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs if their boy Hunter Pence is banged up.

And he is.

According to Jim Salisbury on Twitter, Pence is suffering from patellar tendinitis.

Photo Caption: “Let’s pop tendons!”

“Phils announce that Pence has patellar tendinitis. Precautionary MRI tomorrow,” Salisbury tweets.

The Phillies don’t seem overly concerned, but this is a big deal if he has to miss any playoff time. Regardless of what that MRI says, one would think that he’ll rest down the stretch.

There was a decent amount of debate in August and September as to who the Philadelphia Phillies should go with as their No. 4 starter in the playoffs. Conventional wisdom says that obviously you have to go with Roy Oswalt.

But, the Phillies have 23-year old righty Vance Worley, who pitched his ass off this year. He has an 11-2 record with a 2.85 ERA and this wasn’t a guy many thought would make the team, let alone dominate.

So, now it seems that the Phillies will move him to the bullpen after his Wednesday start. He’s the guy that’s getting ticketed for post-season bullpen duty with Oswalt seemingly healthy now. He’s finally got that fastball jumping around 93 mph and that was his big problem as he came off the DL.

The Phils want to get him in the pen now so he can get used to coming in with the different warmup regimen. Hopefully, he doesn’t pull a JA Happ. In 2009, Happ was brilliant as a starter but absolutely horrific out of the bullpen in the playoffs.

Last night, during the final game of a sweep of the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies 2B Chase Utley got a little bump on the noggin. A pitch came in towards his face and he turned his head in the other direction. It clanked him right on the helmet.

Utley didn’t seem fazed. It looked like he actually asked the umpire what exactly happened before he took first base.

But, because of that, they are saying that Utley has a “mild concussion.” We don’t know how serious it is, but he seemed to be okay last night.

Perhaps to provide some infield depth, the Phillies have now activated Jimmy Rollins off of the disabled list. He tweaked his groin a couple weeks ago so they sat him down for a bit.

He’s not expected to contribute right away, but it’s a good sign that he’ll be active for a tough four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Remember the ageless Jamie Moyer? The one who retired not too long ago after pitching well into his late 40′s? Yeah, um, he didn’t retire.

In fact, after undergoing Tommy John surgery in December 2010, he’s beginning a rehab assignment for the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater, FL. Seriously. He’s 48-years old and hoping to be ready by spring training next year. Seriously.

He’s technically a free agent as he doesn’t have a contract with the Phils, but I guess they are helping him out.

“We’re providing him our space in Clearwater and our expertise,” GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said.

He would surely need to sign on with another team as there is no room in the Phils rotation for him.