Chase Utley's knees.
Ryan Howard's legs.
Roy Halladay's shoulder.
And now Cole Hamels' arm.
Forgive me if I'm a little leery of the way Hamels and the Phillies are downplaying yesterday's decision to shut him down for at least another week.
Instead of throwing to hitters in a live batting practice session, Hamels said his arm was still tired from Saturday's bullpen session and that he was going to back off things again.
That means instead of missing just a few starts, he might be MIA until at least May.
Dennis Deitch has the ugly details from Clearwater.
What rankles is the way Hamels and the team is handling this. First, not a word of Hamels' winter tendinitis came out until he showed up in Clearwater and indicated he was behind in his throwing program.
Now he says he's not going to get an MRI.
The Phillies' recent track record when it comes to divulging information about injured star players does not exactly spark a ton of confidence.
Hamels, who inked the biggest contract in team history last year, worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 million, says he's suffering from "dead arm."
If it turns out to be more than that, the Phillies are dead in the water.
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