Lots of Phils news before series finale vs. Brewers

Plenty of Phillies tidbits on Thursday before the team finishes its three-game series against the Brewers.

Let’s get right into it:

Hamels update
Ruben Amaro Jr. told reporters that Cole Hamels (biceps tendinitis) could need just two more rehab starts before making his 2014 debut. The lefty is scheduled to make minor-league rehab appearances on Saturday and April 17, with an April 22 return date as a possibility.

Galvis, Adams update
Amaro also said Freddy Galvis (MRSA) could be activated from the disabled list on Friday, while Mike Adams (shoulder surgery) could return to the Phils’ bullpen on Monday.

Adams has been throwing well in his minor-league rehab appearances, and on Wednesday, Ryne Sandberg said the reliever is “on a fast track” to returning.

Pettibone to start Saturday
The Phillies announced that Jonathan Pettibone will start Saturday against the Marlins. Up to this point, the schedule allowed the Phils to ride a four-man rotation while Hamels worked his way back from the disabled list.

In 18 starts as a rookie last season, the 23-year-old Pettibone went 5-4 with a 4.04 ERA, 66 strikeouts and 38 walks before being shut down because of shoulder soreness.

Ruf, Martin update
Darin Ruf is working his way back from an oblique strain he suffered in spring training. Amaro told reporters that he’s hopeful Ruf will begin doing baseball activities early next week.

Also, according to Amaro, Ethan Martin (shoulder strain) will throw his first bullpen session of his rehab on Friday. Amaro said the organization has decided that Martin will move forward strictly as a reliever.

Tonight's lineups
Oh, and there’s a game tonight (see story). Cliff Lee (2-0, 6.00) opposes Milwaukee right-hander Marco Estrada (0-0, 1.59). Chase Utley returns from the flu. Carlos Ruiz moves in the order … again.

Here are the lineups:

Phillies

1. Ben Revere, CF
2. Jimmy Rollins, SS
3. Chase Utley, 2B
4. Ryan Howard, 1B
5. Marlon Byrd, RF
6. Domonic Brown, LF
7. Carlos Ruiz, C
8. Cody Asche, 3B
9. Cliff Lee, P

Brewers

1. Carlos Gomez, CF
2. Jean Segura, SS
3. Ryan Braun, RF
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B
5. Jonathan Lucroy, C
6. Khris Davis, LF
7. Mark Reynolds, 1B
8. Rickie Weeks, 2B
9. Marco Estrada, P

Comments

[mainerob]

No comment.

[Willard Preacher]

"No comment."

Yeah, my mom always told me the same thing about not having anything nice to say...

[MG]

So Howard still has issues from his knee injury last July 5th that is hampering him physically and causing him to 'have some restrictions?'

WTF. It is amazing how incompetently the training/medical staff have managed the Phils' players the last 3 years.

Only glad that Utley sought care and advice out of the organization and has been able to overcome it.

http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/sandberg-knee-injury-still-hindering-howards-d

[Ruben Amaro, Jr.]

We're gonna twirl Ryan's leg to see if that will help.

[Cyclic]

"Amaro said the organization has decided that Martin will move forward strictly as a reliever."

Yay!

[MG]

O/U on Adams IP before he heads to the DL again after his 1st appear later this month with the big league club.

I have it at 19.5 and I will take the 'over' but just slightly.

[Reality]

MG: Sandberg said it as speculation. Howard said something else. I know you immediately buy into the medical staff issue but please leave your silly bias at the door and address the situation as a whole instead of in part.

[bay_area_phan]

"The unfortunate fact is that it wouldn't be worth it for us to trade Howard unless we got a player or prospect who was useful."

I'm not sure there has ever been a comment written on Beerleaguer with which I more strenuously disagree. Not that it will ever happen, but trading Howard for nothing more than salary relief would be the best trade RAJ ever made. You could probably get about 6 good relievers with one year of Ryan Howard's salary. Not to mention that you could immediately replace Howard with a 1st baseman who is probably better.

[Iceman]

It sounds to me, in that article that MG linked, that Sandberg is just totally BSing around the fact that his Achilles injury is probably still bothering him and never will stop bothering him. That's not exactly something he can come out and say.

It's not a coincidence that Howard has looked like an AARP member out there ever since the last out of 2011. I'm not sure I buy it's lingering effects from a knee injury almost 12 months ago. He's looked awful ever since the surgery.

[MG]

Your right Phlipper. The medical staff has handkerchief things well and definitely going to believe Howard is healthy vs his manager staying he is playing hurt.

[Reality]

I am not sure what hankies have to do with it.

And besides I never said the medical staff has handled anything well. Stop making garbage up moron.

[bay_area_phan]

"The medical staff has handkerchief things well and definitely going to believe Howard is healthy vs his manager staying he is playing hurt."

If the Beerleaguer Hall of Fame ever opens a wing devoted solely to MG's malapropisms, "handkerchief" for "handle" is definitely going in there.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

This site should have an minimum posting age so the dialogue isn't punctuated with posts that sound like something you'd hear on a sixth grade playground.

[Conway Twitty]

Ruf to resume baseball activities=being able to grab his crotch while spitting sunflower seeds 6 feet.

[Cyclic]

Full tilt so far.

[bay_area_phan]

Early signs are that we might be in for a vintage Cliff Lee performance tonight. I hope I didn't just jinx it.

[GBrettfan]

I came on to express happiness at Cliff Lee's 1-2-3 strike-'em-out inning, but now I can't stop laughing at "handkerchief".

[Cyclic]

Dinger!

[bay_area_phan]

He crushed that ball.

[GBrettfan]

Byrdman!

[If the Schu fits]

Byrd is the word.

[If the Schu fits]

Looks like Byrd was the final word.

[Cyclic]

Well of course he's a good hitter if he's tied for the RBI lead among catchers, TMac.

Imbecile.

[GBrettfan]

More awesome defense!

[If the Schu fits]

Byrd isn't the final word.

[Willard Preacher]

Yeah, that ain't a triple, Tmac...

[Cyclic]

Ugh. Defense.

[bay_area_phan]

They should subtract the bases given up from the bases gained, and reduce Byrd's homerun to a single.

[Cyclic]

Ace.

[GBrettfan]

sigh

LA: "Seems like balls that they hit, the outfielders have to run for days to get to them."

I agree.

[Willard Preacher]

Aaaaaaand there goes the lead. Well, that was fun while it lasted.

[bay_area_phan]

Why the hell was Rollins playing at that depth in the 4th inning? I know this offense sucks, but it doesn't suck badly enough to justify that decision.

[Hope SE]

BAP-
Don't have TV. Was infield in?

[Conway Twitty]

This looks like another 3 hankerchief game.

[bay_area_phan]

Hope: It was. If Rollins had been at normal depth, it was an out. And the irony is that it was a hard-hit ball, so the runner might not have even scored.

[If the Schu fits]

Mets leading the Braves early.

Phillies could be alone in last place by game's end.

[Whatever]

sandberg is quite clearly awful at this whole replay thing. jimmy was safe, it was pretty obvious live and the replay confirmed and yet no challenge.

[If the Schu fits]

nice play Dom!

[MG]

Lee has had his best stuff of the year so far and even showed a few nice curves tonight. Just wracking up too many aka though and he'll be gone after the 6th.

[Hope SE]

BAP, thanks.

[Cyclic]

OUT MOTHER F&^$&#

I hate Gomez so much for some reason.

[Whatever]

right gomez was out - but notice that roenicke did the correct thing by going out to talk to the ump anyway, allow his guys to look at the video and give him a thumbs up or down. basically every close play needs to have the manager out on the field if this is how they're going to work the replay system. how long is it going to take sandberg to figure that out?

[Conway Twitty]

Maybe if Jimmy had protested, the manager would have had a clue.

[Curt]

The old school Phil's have made an organizational decision to trust the umps and blow off this fancy replay technology.

[bay_area_phan]

I like Jamie Moyer as a color guy, but this discussion of the father-son duos he played against has gone on about 15 minutes too long. T-Mac's the one with the broadcasting experience. It's on him for letting it drone on.

[GBrettfan]

The Brewers can not leave town fast enough to suit me.

[Cyclic]

This series is the worst.

Everything the Brewers hit, extra bases.

Everything the Phillies don't hit.

[bay_area_phan]

This is one of those games where Lee looks fantastic about 95% of the time, but ends up with a not-so-great line score because of a few bad pitches bunched too close together. Of course, the Phillies' offense is doing him no favors whatsoever.

[GBrettfan]

* I wondered why Ryno didn't challenge that CS call, too.

* Dom did make a nice throw to get the runner at 2B a while ago.

* Cliff is already at 99 pitches. Yay, bullpen soon!

* This made me laugh:

Matt Gelb ‏@magelb 36m

Brewers still riding Hank karma. Phillies will scour surrounding neighborhood for Veterans Stadium feral cats.

(I love Hank the dog & his story, by the way.)

[bay_area_phan]

Cesar and Asche sure do have some terrible looking ABs.

[Meyer]

Howard is due to bang one hard. It's time.

[Meyer]

Chicken8hit. Nice to see Howard take the walk.

[bay_area_phan]

It didn't result in any runs, but I find myself relieved that Howard walked.

[Meyer]

Byrd flying down the line. Here we go Dom.

[Curt]

I for one am perfectly happy to see Howard work a walk in an RBI situation.

[bay_area_phan]

The Phillies' most trusted reliever: Jeff Manship.

[GBrettfan]

I was happy with Howard's walk, too, but I wish we could score more than one run at a time. Still losing and the BP's in the game for 3 innings.

[bay_area_phan]

There's something about seeing our bullpen in the game which suddenly turns all of our defensive players into quivering piles of jelly.

[GBrettfan]

And commence blowout.

[bay_area_phan]

Manship was just waiting to pitch in an important situation before unveiling the full range of his suckitude.

[Curt]

On the upside, Manship didn't walk anyone.

[Handkerchief]

What's become of my Phils?

[MG]

Good to see the crappy pen dash any hopes of a comeback. Baer needs a larger sample size because he knows what the Phils have in the pen.

[clout]

Well, at least the bullpen won't be contributing to any losses this season, right?

[GBrettfan]

Maybe if the Phillies knew how to handle their handkerchiefs...or handkerchief their handles. Maybe that's the key to winning.

This is getting old.

[bay_area_phan]

Funny that I was also thinking of Baer while watching this implosion. The problem with Baer's "reversion to norms" theory is that 2+ years of data tell us this IS the norm.

[GBrettfan]

I was hopeful for improvement in the 'pen in 2013 because I thought the relievers had gone through growing pains in 2112. And because I thought Adams would be back and healthy and contributing something good.

Flash forward a year and it's the same as before.

[bay_area_phan]

Not that it much matters, since the alternatives suck too, but Sandberg continues to completely misuse Diekman. With his 98 MPH fastball, Dikeman has seduced Sandberg into thinking that he can be something more than a LOOGY. But that goofy wind-up only works against LH hitters. A RH hitter can see exactly where the ball is coming from.

[Curt]

Over/under on runs scored by the Phil's tomorrow: .5

[GBrettfan]

Corey Seidman ‏@CoreySeidman 53s

The Phillies' combination of average offense, average starting pitching, poor defense and terrible relief doesn't seem to be working

Hm, go figure....

[Account Deleted]

GBrettfan - Game #9. I feel your pain. How "old" will it be the first week of August when they get a bunch of AAA filler for Lee, and basically abandon team development when Ryan Howard is abandoned to the 60-day DL with no shot at ever dumping his salary at even $0.01/$1.00?

I really wish this pathetic (uber?) limited partnership had taken their medicine after the 2012 train wreck. Rollins, Utley, Ruiz and (maybe?) Lee could have all brought prospects. Hamels could have been the anchor for the ground-up rebuild.

Unfortunately, Monty, et. al. demanded they get the band back together. Ughh.

To those who derided the former 'fastball' poster for espousing the Astros/Marlins model, those teams are waaay far ahead of your 2014 Fightens. Deal with it.

[MG]

Manship had nothing tonight but what do they expect of a AAAA player at best. Kind of guy who only comes on a roster midseason for a short stretch if a roster gets hit with a string of injuries.

Still baffles me though how even Manship is higher on the depth chart than Lincoln. Did Lincoln see Sandberg's oat bran muffin one day early in camp and been in the dog house since?

Can't imagine that Amaro is going to be willing to wait to tweet the pen but likely waits until Adams gets back. Even 80% of Adams is an upgrade over Manship though.

[Handkerchief]

It'll be years before the Phillies can compete with the Marlins and their young talent.

[Curt]

That extra infield Asche got is already paying dividends.

[Chris "Wheels" Wheeler]

Miss me yet????

[Whatever]

hell yes i love these highly delusional ownership conspiracy theories. hilarious stuff, keep it coming. especially love that your "anchor" isn't even with the team.

[MG]

Starting pitching hasn't even been average and has been the biggest disappointment to me so far. Teams lion share of fiscal dollars are invested there. If it doesn't carry this team, they have no shot at .500

[GBrettfan]

I love that someone is posting under the handle Handkerchief now. We need all the laughs we can get.

[Phlipper]

Say, MG, any time that you want to man up and stop welshing on our bet, let me know. It's funny that you keep insisting that I post comments under someone else's name. Why won't you stand behind your assertion?

Man up, dude. Stop trying to hide behind your handkerchief.

[MG]

8 Ks in 9 G for revere already. Ridiculous for a guy with no power swinging so wildly there when this team desperately needs base runners.

[Jack]

The team stinks.

[Bandana]

The bandana is a very underrated item in my opinion.

[Meyer]

Pitiful, but in my long term membership still listenable from a distance.

[MG]

Good AB Howard.

[bay_area_phan]

There's no way that Howard should have batted there instead of Mayberry, but I suppose all's well that ends (sort of) well.

[bay_area_phan]

For that matter, there was no reason not to pinch run for Howard once he reached base. But it's moot now.

[MG]

No rally for you Phils!

[MG]

Nice play Dom.

[Meyer]

Brewers could be sleepers for the 2nd wildcard.

[MG]

Some rare solid defense by the Phils that inning.

[GBrettfan]

Nice catch, Dom. Made it a clean inning for De Fratus.

[GBrettfan]

De Fratus deserves props for keeping this team from scoring, too.

Per Seidman, Brewers this series: .330 BA, .366 OBP, .583 SLG, 17 XBH

[Allen Thornberg]

Actually, I've never thought Reality was Phlipper; the complete lack of humor, the frequently mangled sentence construction, the vicious attacks on Jack and BAP, the body-fluid "humor," and the obnoxiously self-important pseudonym itself all screamed Truth Injection to me; note that Reality first came here when TTI announced he was going to Good Phight.

[Ripley]

I say we take off and nuke the entire team from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.

[GBrettfan]

Hallelujah, this series is over!

[MG]

Fitting end to this series. Manhandled by the Brewers including a bludgeoning of the Phils' crappy middle relievers.

[Meyer]

If offense wins games in April, tip your cap to the Brewers. I for one have tipped a few.

[Account Deleted]

Allen Thornberg - Ya' friggin' naiied it in your 09:52 PM. I'm probably disqualified from yakking about such things. but, in 2 words:

Thank you.

[MG]

Analogy for this series would be the Brewers (epitomized by douche bag Braun) taking the Phils lunch money, giving then an atomic wedgie, and being stuffed in a locker.

[Account Deleted]

Oh, yeah, fellers. Leave Phlipper alone. He's a phan - and uses humor. God bless him.