Closer Brad Lidge has been struggling a little bit in Spring Training, and now we know why. Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. recently announced Lidge has tendinitis in his biceps.

The injury, however, is normal for Lidge this time of year. At this time last year the swelling from the tendinitis required a cortisone shot, and another in May.

Lidge battled through the pain in his arm and it showed in the first half of the year as Lidge didn't really get back to form until after the All-Star break.

But this year, as in others, Lidge and the entire organization is downplaying the severity of the injury.

"Just a little biceps tendinitis," Lidge told the media. "We'll let it calm down for a couple of days and then see how we feel - maybe play catch for a couple of days and then get back in there soon."


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The Phils will need Ruiz in September and October.


Having a lot of superstars is great for obvious reasons. But the thing that makes a team great is having guys on the roster who can step in for those superstars when needed and make the plays that need to be made, or just play in a supporting role and do all the little things.

Fortunately for the Phillies, they have a lot of both types of guys. The superstars -- Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Jimmy Rollins -- aren't hard to pick out. But what makes this 2010 team so dangerous is just how stacked the roster is with great supporting players.

The superstars get a team in position to win, but it's the role players who ultimately do the things necessary for the game to be won.

So heading into one hell of a playoff push, let's take a look at the five guys who everyone should keep an eye on as potential difference-makers.



Wilson Valdez

Early in the season, Valdez was forced to split time with Juan Castro at shortstop while Rollins recovered from an injury. It became abundantly clear very quickly, however, that Valdez was the superior player in nearly every aspect.

He's never going to be a .300 hitter, but he's come through with some clutch hits and has been fantastic in the field. In fact, Valdez has only been charged with one error this season and has turned 19 double plays from third base, shortstop, and second base.

He likely won't see a whole lot of time in the playoffs, but he will be a huge part of the push to stay in first place and will be a great guy to have coming off the bench.



Ross Gload

If you would have told me Gload would be batting .281 with six home runs, 29 RBIs, 14 runs and only 10 strikeouts as the Phillies' primary left-handed pinch hitter, I would have laughed in your face. But, here we are.

Gload has made Greg Dobbs all but worthless and is a guy the Phillies really like. He's going to continue to be the go-to guy off the bench and will be highly counted upon all throughout the push and into the playoffs.

A big situation doesn't seem to rattle him, so he should be fine when the lights are on. I wouldn't have thought it to be the case when they signed him, but there's a bit of confidence in everyone watching that when Gload hits the plate he's going to come through.



Kyle Kendrick

Kendrick likely won't find himself in the rotation come playoff time. He'll be relegated to the bullpen in favor of Joe Blanton, who will keep the fourth spot. And while I believe Kendrick is the more talented pitcher, it's definitely the right move.

Blanton, even with his maddening tendency to give up first-inning runs and put the offense in a hole immediately, is the more consistent of the two. He's not going to come out and blank anyone for seven innings, but he's also not going to allow 11 runs in the first four innings.

Kendrick has the ability to do the first, but is just erratic enough to do the latter. And in the playoffs, that's just something the team cannot afford.

But out of the bullpen as a long reliever, I believe Kendrick can be a real difference-maker. His problems seem to come about when he really starts pressing. He feels like if he doesn't strike out the side to start the game he's not doing his job. He'll begin to calm down later in the game, but by then it's sometimes too late.

As a reliever, he might be able to relax knowing exactly what sort of situation he's going into and being given a specifically tailored assignment. And when Kendrick is relaxed and just going out and slinging it, he turns into a dangerous pitcher.



Carlos Ruiz

Alright, so maybe he's not exactly in the same mold as the other guys, but he's not exactly a superstar either and will definitely play a huge role for the Phills over the next two months or so.

Ruiz isn't getting a lot of the attention because of the way Howard has gone off as of late, but Ruiz has been nearly spotless for a long time now. He's coming up with the clutch knocks when they need them and has been a life-saver behind the plate.

Chooch is quietly hitting .296 at this point in the season, and if he can carry that over into the playoffs it's going to make the Phillies' lineup a real forced to be reckoned with from top to bottom.



Brad Lidge

Closers are like kickers in the NFL: no one really knows their name unless they do something great or really mess something up. In Philadelphia, Lidge's name is known for a little bit of both.

But for all the talk, Lidge has actually been pretty good this season. He has blown five saves, but three of those came in one bad stretch from late June to early July. And, if I'm not mistaken, it later came out that Lidge was already having elbow problems then.

Since then, Lidge has blown only two saves and has a respectable 3.38 ERA and a 1-1 record. He is not ever going to be the same guy we saw in 2008, but he is a guy the Philles can count on to come through when they really need him.
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Cole Hamels does his best Roy Halladay impression.


For the second game in a row, the Philadelphia Phillies have pulled off a 1-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds and, for just the first time since 1975, have swept the Reds in a four-game series.

And for the second game in a row, it came down to great pitching and a clutch base knock by Jimmy Rollins. It wasn't quite as dramatic as an 11th inning walk-off hit, but Rollins came through in the third inning to drive in what would turn out to be the game-winning run.

Not surprisingly, it was Carlos Ruiz coming home from third with two outs. If anyone was doubting the impact Rollins could make on this lineup, they're not anymore.

But even more important than Rollins was Cole Hamels and his rough-looking-but-effective 7.2 scoreless innings with six scattered hits, three strikeouts, and three walks in 112 pitches.

Hamels was around the plate all day, but wasn't getting a lot of the calls and had to work himself out of a jam a couple times. He then gave way to Jose Contreras for the final out in the eighth inning with a man on second. Contreras walked the first man he faced, then forced a ground ball to get out of the inning.

Then in the ninth, a perfect combination of J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge finished off the game.

Romero came in to first the first batter -- left-hander Jay Bruce -- and struck him out in four pitches. Charlie Manuel then made a decision unpopular with the sell-out crowd at Citizen's Bank Park and took Romero out to make way for Lidge to face two consecutive right-handed batters.

But the crowd got behind Lidge as he struck out Drew Stubbs and got Miguel Cairo to fly out on the very first pitch, ending the game and completing the four-game sweep.

Great teams win the close games, but the Phillies' bats are still a cause for concern. Only four hits is not going to get the job done on a normal day. They've benefited from outstanding pitching the last 21 innings as the pitching staff held the Reds scoreless, but sooner or later this team is going to have to win with their offense.

That's how they've won in the past, and that's how they're going to have to win this season.

Hopefully Chase Utley and Placido Polanco can come back strong and this lineup can be complete for more than a couple weeks and start making their annual late-season push. But without a lot more offense than we've seen over the past week or so, the Phillies are still going to struggle to stay in the middle of the pack in a competitive NL East.

But, for now, it's at least good to see the Phightin' Phils back to their winning ways.
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With Utley playing well, the Phils could start rolling.


The Phillies lost one of the most up-and-down games I've ever seen to the Minnesota Twins by a score of 13-10, but there were a lot of positives to take from the game.

For starters, the Phils scored 10 runs -- something they haven't been doing a whole lot of recently as they fight to fully escape their offensive funk. It's still too soon to proclaim it over, but with 14 hits and a double-digit run total, they're certainly making strides.

They also did all that without Jimmy Rollins and Carlos Ruiz -- both of whom are expected back in the lineup sometime in the middle of next week.

And to keep with the recent trend, the starting pitcher looked very good for the most part. Cole Hamels had a difficult start to the game, allowing three runs in the first inning, but he turned it around and allowed only one more run in the next six innings he pitched.

Overall, Hamels finished with seven innings pitched, five hits, four runs, three earned, walked two, struck out seven, allowed one homerun, and had one error.

Chase Utley was the star of the game on offense going 3-5 with three RBIs and a couple extra-base hits. Utley, like the rest of the offense, appears set to pull out his funk once and for all and make a push in the latter portion of the season.

Any negatives there were to find with this team came from the bullpen.

The Phillies were leading 9-4 heading into the ninth inning after seven very good innings from Hamels and a great eighth inning by J.C. Romero, but a combination of Jose Contreras and Brad Lidge gave the game away.

Contreras walked a man, allowed a base hit which turned into a run, and then gave up a pinch-hit homerun to Jim Thome to make the game 9-7. With no outs, he was replaced by Lidge who, after getting two outs, gave up a homerun to Joe Mauer with a man on base to tie the game at nine heading into the bottom of the ninth.

The wheels fell off from there as Chad Durbin and Danny Baez took their turns messing things and eventually losing the game, even after Ross Gload brought the Phillies back with a pinch-hit homerun in the 10th to tie the game at 10.

So, for once this season, it wasn't the offense getting knocked around. But the play of the bullpen is more than alarming. If they don't pick it up tomorrow, we could see a bit of a shake-up from Charlie Manuel in that 'pen.

Losing a game they should have won is certainly going to hurt, but if they can rebound and beat the Twins in the finale to take the series, they should be able to get on a roll as they'll have six more consecutive home games, three of which come against the cupcake Cleveland Indians.
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Seriously, why use any other picture of Brad Lidge?


If you listened closely enough this past Wednesday, you could hear the collective groan of a city when we were all informed that Brad Lidge would be leaving Denver in the middle of a series with the Rockies to head back to Philadelphia for an MRI on his surgically-repaired elbow.

Ryan Madson is already out for a couple months and the bullpen probably wasn't up to snuff to begin with, so losing Lidge would be an absolute catastrophe.

But Lidge and Phillie fans everywhere got some good news on Friday when it was revealed that there is only minor swelling in the joint and nothing more serious like a bone chip or any ligament damage that would have required a stint on the DL.

"We knew the elbow joint swelled up, but the problem is, we didn't really know if there was something in there that made it swell up," Lidge told the media after a Phillies win against the Brewers. "In my mind, I was praying there wasn't. Fortunately, it turned out that way."

"My goal now is to get the inflammation out of there very fast. Hopefully, it'll not take much more than a day or so. Then, obviously, we'll be doing everything we can to prevent it from coming back. Once it's gone it shouldn't be back."

Lidge will resume throwing on Saturday, and could even close out the game later that day, if necessary, and if he throws without any discomfort.

Phillies' skipper Charlie Manuel is going to take it easy on Lidge because he understands he will be a vital piece later in the season. If they work him too hard in May, it could affect his ability to contribute in August and September when the games really start to count.

So if Lidge isn't 100 percent when he throws Saturday morning, Manuel will look for other options should a save situation arise. It probably won't be anyone specific, just whomever he feels most comfortable with at that time -- most likely Jose Contreras.

Hopefully the Phils can continue to hit the long ball like they did against the Brewers Friday and they'll be far enough ahead that it won't matter.

Joe Blanton steps onto the mound without a win this season and a complete game could be just what he needs to get his season moving in the right direction.
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