Chase Utley

[kaiser]

Will someone please tell me what the frick is going on with Ut? He's hitting at his lowest average in the past six years. Beyond bad right now.

I know he will come around. I just need someone else to say so, too.

[tah161]

prolly playing hurt. He has done it in the past

[kaiser]

I don't think that is it, since no one on the team is hitting right now.

[hot4tx]

I think Utley, Rollins, McLouth, Adam Lind and Carlos Pena entered a blood-pact to hose my fantasy team.

Seriously though on the year Utley's BB% is up (16.7% vs 11.2% career, K% is down (15.3% vs 18.1% career) and adj HR/AB is in-line with his career (5.8% vs 5.9%). Its his .272 BABIP this year that is low compared to his .318 career BABIP.

However, remember he had a pretty good April but has stunk in since about the start of May. If you just look at numbers since then his adj HR/AB has been 3.7%, almost 50% lower than his career and his BABIP is .269. So he could be playing through an injury (with Rollins out maybe he doesn't want to leave the entire middle infield to backups), or he could be getting unlucky and started pressing.

I'd like to see those charts people do on where and what he's swinging at to see if he is possibly chasing pitches out of the strike zone more (a sign he's pressing) or if he's making contact with more bad pitches that are harder to hit into the stands and are more likely to become outs.

While there is still the possibility of an injury the fact that he had a good April makes me feel a little better than if he'd started off terribly and not improved for 2.5 months (McLouth). I still think of Chase as a buy-low and probably will until the 2nd to last day of the year

[soty]

He is too good of a player to not turn things around. Unless he is hurt I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[IrishDrunk]

UGH. Peter Gammons is reporting he's having surgery and will miss 5-6 weeks.

[DoctaDre]

its 8 weeks that utley is out bro, cry more

my fantasy team is screwed. got polanco dl, utley out for 2 months, Lind hitting about as well as my 8 year old neice,

[Seatownfavorite]

Yeah, I had Utley and Pedrioa.

[bobnerns]

Chase Utley (thumb) could have the splint from his surgically repaired thumb removed in the next 2-3 days.

Utley can begin doing exercises to strengthen the thumb once the splint in removed. GM Ruben Amaro says the original timetable remains in effect, meaning a return around September 1 can be expected. "We'll see how he feels once he gets out of the splint," Amaro said. Aug. 4 - 11:38 am et

What the hell? He was supposed to be out 6-8 weeks. Sept 1 will make it 9 weeks + 1 day. Everyone kept saying Utley has a history of recovering faster than projected. Now he's a week slower? Come on Phillies, you're killing me!