Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the demise of what would have been one of the greatest seasons by a second baseman in the history of baseball. Undoubtedly, the Phillies season is in jeopardy as well.
In the fifth inning of today's play, John Lannan of the Washington Nationals, playing in his first major league game, hit the Phillies' Chase Utley in the hand with a pitch, resulting in a broken hand. Utley expects to miss four weeks or more with the injury.
Had Utley continued through the season without missing any time due to injury, he would have projected to finish with the following statistical line:
126 runs, 216 hits, 27 home runs, 132 runs batted in, 11 stolen bases, 67 doubles, .334 batting average, .412 on-base average, .576 slugging average
Rogers Hornsby's 1922 or 1925 seasons are the best, but at the same time, Utley had a chance to hit 30 home runs and 60 doubles, which no other player in the history of baseball has ever done.
No, Chase Utley's season is not necessarily over, but any chance he had of setting historical records or winning a Most Valuable Player Award are now ruined. Surely, Utley doesn't care about that, he's probably putting the team first, but as fans of his and the Phillies, we can't help but miss what we almost had.
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What does Utley's injury mean for the Phillies' playoff berth chances?
The timing of the injury could not be worse. The non-waiver trade deadline is Tuesday, which gives general manager Pat Gillick little time to determine if the Utley-less Phillies should be buyers or sellers on the trade market.
It would be foolish to say that the Phillies chances of making the playoffs have been eliminated, after all, who would have thought that the Phillies would get back into things last season after trading Bobby Abreu for a bag of infield dirt? But by the same time, there's no replacing a player like Chase Utley. He's one of a kind.
To stay in the hunt, everyone is going to have to be better. It was a team effort before, but it will have to be even more of a team effort now.
