Chase Utley

On the eve of a four game sweep of the Padres, the Phillies rotation have shown fans why there has been so much buzz around them.

In this series, they held the Padres to a total of three runs—yes, three runs in four games.

For the past decade, the All-Star teams have been highlighted by the same players year after year. Players like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Ichiro, Albert Pujols, and Chipper Jones have appeared in the starting lineups every year and it's starting to get old. Between now and 2014, a new generation of faces will emerge as baseball's best and brightest and the old ones will begin to fade.

The Philadelphia Phillies are just over two weeks into the 2011 baseball season, and their super star second baseman has yet to take the infield.  Unfortunately, at this point there is no guarantee that Utley will take the field this season.

So far the Phillies have done fine without Utley, going 9-4 without him and sitting atop the NL East division. The pitching staff has, at times, looked as though they might be able to carry this team without anyone at all playing second base.

Bill Simmons calls it the Ewing Theory.  Other sports fans have associated the phenomenon with Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez, Tiki Barber and Drew Bledsoe. But in Philadelphia, there is only one player who should come to mind:

Bobby Abreu.

A red-hot cleanup hitter and a clutch bullpen performance led the host Phillies past the feisty New York Mets 10-7. With the victory, the home team held onto first place in the very early stages of the 2011 pennant race.

With the temperature holding around 50 degrees, both the climate and the final score more resembled a defensive battle in the National Football League. Of course, it was a cool evening for baseball and an unexpected April slugfest.

Injuries are a part of any game, and we know that some injuries mean more to a team than others.  A star first baseman means a lot more to a team than a bench player who might get 20 at bats as a pinch hitter per year if he’s lucky.

An injury means more to a team if a player is a big part of their pitching or hitting games too.  If a team is like the 2010 San Diego Padres and does not have a very good offense, they would be more at risk if their start hitter, Adrian Gonzalez (now with the Boston Red Sox) was injured.

The 2011 Philadelphia Phillies have had a rough spring so far, losing closer Brad Lidge and second baseman Chase Utley for indeterminate periods.

Luis Castillo could not even lock down the starting second-base job, which will now fall to Wilson Valdez for Friday's season opener.

The beginning of the Philadelphia Phillies' most anticipated season to date starts tomorrow afternoon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at Citizens Bank Park at 1:05 p.m. EDT when Roy Halladay starts for the Phillies against their former "ace" Brett Myers, who will be starting for the Houston Astros to begin a three-game series.

This season is undoubtedly one that all Phillies fans are looking forward to, and one that they hopefully will never forget for all the right reasons.

The Philadelphia Phillies enter the 2011 season as the class of the National League East by a large margin. The Phillies continue to upgrade their team while their divisional opponents struggle to keep up.

The Philadelphia Phillies cured? Say it isn’t so.

But what if that figment of our imagination came true? What if the World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies were indeed cursed from here on out?

Looking at the way this team is shaping up for the 2011 season, I’d put my money on the Phillies being cursed… here’s why.

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