I'm curious as to what the Phillies Phaithful at the Good Phight see in store for Utley in 2009.  After his incredible start, Utley's last four months were decidedly pedestrian.  He picked things up a bit in the post season, and had some absolutely huge hits, but he wasn't on fire then either. So what can we expect next year?

If the slump was a product of a nagging injury, presumably he'll be better by next spring and his performance will rebound as well.  Has anybody heard any credible information about his health?  I know he's not one to talk about factors like that. 

On the other hand, I saw signs that the league had found a weakness in his hitting approach and he did not seem to do much to adjust to it.  Obviously, this is just observational, and of course subject to faulty memory, but it seemed that pitchers were very effective at throwing pitches that started at him and tailed over the inside corner.  Utley would react by flinching his right shoulder inward, and the pitch would be called a strike.  When he swung at those balls, he didn't hit them.  He also seemed to have less strike zone judgment  and less patience in the later stages of the season (except for his multi walk game in the playoffs)

Any thoughts?

If the Phils make it to the World Series maybe we should consider using Myers as the DH against lefties.  Manuel won't use Coste because he won't want to tie up his extra catcher, and right now, Myers looks like a more dangerous right hand batter than Bruntlett or Taguchi.  (Of course my grandmother looks like a more dangerous right handed batter than Bruntlett or Taguchi).  And let's not discount Brett's superb base running skills, as demonstrated by his awesome first to third sprint.

If I remember correctly, the Dodger's situational bullpen lefties (Beimel and Kuo) gave us fits in the series out in LA, and that they were especially effective against Utley and Howard.  I would like to see Manuel split those two up by batting Utley second and leaving Howard in clean up. Victorino or Werth could hit third. Utley hasn't been hitting for much power for quite some time and his contribution is actually better suited to the two hole right now.  In fact, I'd even consider dropping Utley to sixth, but I know that won't happen.  Keeping the two lefties together in the lineup often gives those situational left handed relief pitchers a chance to get two outs without having to face a righty.  I'm guessing that Manuel keeps both lefties together though.