With Pitchers and catchers having reported to Clearwater, Fla., Spring Training is officially underway.

The Phillies, who are coming off of consecutive trips to the World Series, return much of the same core from the previous two years with newcomers, Roy Halladay, Placido Polanco and Danys Baez now on as additional reinforcements. There will be plenty of debate about how the team’s offseason will affect the team this season. The biggest question is did the team improve?

The Philadelphia Daily News’ Paul Hagen took a stab at answering that question today and the result was a mild yes. Hagen points to the rotation, bench and catcher position as upgrades, with the bullpen a downgraded and the infield and outfield remaining the same.

In regards [...]

Roy Halladay is there.So is Cole Hamels.

J.A. Happ? Check

Brad Lidge? Check.

The pitchers and catchers have arrived at Clearwater, Fla., one day earlier than tomorrow’s mandatory date.

According to philly.com every pitcher has reported except for Jamie Moyer and Jose Contreras. (There’s an old persons joke just begging to be inserted with that).

So good news baseball fans; despite the snow that appeared outside our windows today, baseball is ready to get going again.

The only real news of the day is that J.C Romero said he expects to break camp with the team, implying that he will be completely recovered from his elbow surgery and ready to pitch at full strength by Opening Day.

That’s good news for the Phillies, as Romero is the [...]

He isn’t Placido Palonco and he certainly isn’t Roy Halladay. Maybe that’s why the Philadelphia Phillies signing of Danys Baez has gone so under the radar. We’ll that and the whole “Eagles-Cowboys thing.”

Despite the lack of recognition of the move, it was just what the Phillies needed.

While he is not coming off one of his best years – a 4-6 record with a 4.02 ERA with the Orioles – Baez comes with a truck-load of closing experience.

The Phillies found out just how valuable that can be last year when Brad Lidge struggled and Charlie Manuel could not find anyone else to do the job. Ryan Madson had his moments, while Chan Ho Park and Scott Eyre failed in limited samplings [...]

The past two nights the Phillies are looking like a team that gave it’s all to clinch the division and are not all that concerned about home field advantage for the championship series.  With the exception of another towering homerun by Howard in the bottom of the first (his 44th) the Phillies offense was flat.  Joe Blanton looked equally flat as he allowed 5 runs in 6 plus innings and never seemed to be on top of his delivery. 

Charlie Manuel rested Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino took over the leadoff spot for the night and went 1 for four.  Tracy got his 4th pinch hit in the 7th inning, but was stranded on base as were all the Phillies that [...]

If there was any question of whether or not J.A. Happ would pitch out of the bullpen in the postseason, today’s news should erase it.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel announced that left-hander J.C. Romero has not recovered from his strained forearm injury and will need another month until he is fit to pitch.

That means the Phillies will enter the postseason without one of its biggest bullpen pieces last year, and most consistent left-hander.

Romero was huge in the 2008 postseason, including winning two games in the World Series.

With Romero no longer an option, the Phillies will likely turn to Happ and Scott Eyre to get out left-handed hitters in the late innings. It also means an already [...]

I was listening to Jody MacDonald and Rob Dibble on XM this afternoon, and the subject of closers came up.  The name Billy Wagner was brought up because he is due to be activated by the Mets this weekend after not pitching since late last season.   Their point was that although his salary is $10.5 million, most of the season is gone and the Mets would probably pick up most of what was left just to get something for him.  Wagner has a club option for next season, so any club that acquired him could have him for next year or if not simply use the buy out clause.

Given the Phillies problems with Lidge and the fact that Romero is [...]