The Official Site of Chase Utley

Tue, Jan 26th 2010, 11:33

Utley 'excited' to play behind Halladay

It is about this time every year that Chase Utley starts getting antsy for Spring Training.

He spent the early part of his offseason moving from Southern California to San Francisco, so his wife Jen could be closer to her family. He vacationed a couple times in Mexico. He went to Jimmy Rollins’ wedding in the Cayman Islands. But just a couple weeks ago, he picked up a bat, and when that happens, he knows Clearwater, Fla., is not far away.

Utley met with Phillies beat writers Monday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, and touched on a variety of topics.

On landing Roy Halladay at the expense of trading Cliff Lee: “[Halladay is] one of the best pitchers in baseball. I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. Everybody I’ve talked to who’s played with him or against him has nothing but good things to say about him. His preparation is off the charts. I’m excited to see him work.

“Cliff Lee, I had a good time playing behind Cliff. Obviously, he pitched outstanding. Hopefully at some point I get to play with him again. But it’s a business. We all realize this now. Every year there are new faces in the clubhouse no matter what.”

On if he would have rather seen the Phillies take a shot to win the World Series with Halladay and Lee in the same rotation, and not worry about restocking the farm system for the future: “Yeah, anytime you can get the best pitchers in baseball on your team, you would want that. But I trust what the front office does. In my opinion, they’ve done a very good job since I’ve been here of getting good players and good people in the clubhouse. And I think that’s the reason we’ve been very successful. I trust what they do.”

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