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I’m going to take a close look at Chase Utley‘s minor league career and rookie season(s), much like I did with Jimmy Rollins when he was traded to The Dodgers. When I wrote about the franchise-best shortstop last winter, I called James Calvin Rollins “the rarest of the rare”. Damned if we didn’t have two gems surrounding the Keystone Sack in the Keystone State for more than decade. This is…
In a lot of ways, the 2012 season was the beginning of the end for the Phillies’ short-lived “dynasty.” In the aftermath of a 102-win season, the Phillies limped into 2012 – so to speak – without Ryan Howard, Roy Oswalt, Raul Ibanez or Ryan Madson, and the downturns of players like Roy Halladay were only a breath away. What’s more, they were christening the start of another season without…
In Chase Utley’s major league career, he has recorded an assist by throwing the ball to first base 3,474 times. Add in his minor league career, amateur career, and thirty years of practice sessions and he has made that throw to first base thousands upon thousands of times. Chase Utley fields a ball and throws it to first base as naturally as he breathes. It’s what he’s been training to…
Over the next few days, we’ll be looking back on the most memorable moments of Chase Utley’s career with the Phillies. You can conveniently find everything that’s written about the subject under the category “Utley Retrospective” above. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me send out a tweet with the hashtag “#TheMan“. Early on, I limited its use for when Chase Utley did something great, like hit a home…
As Adam Dembowitz wrote about earlier, the Phillies traded second baseman Chase Utley to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two as yet unnamed minor league players. He will likely be the last veteran player the Phillies trade this season and joins Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, Ben Revere, and Jonathan Papelbon as players to be flipped in a trade. Utley will reunite with long-time double play partner Jimmy Rollins at Chavez Ravine….