Gordon sidelined again Sunday

Royals third baseman Alex Gordon, substituted Saturday due to a sore hip, sat out Sunday for Mark Teahen. The Royals are calling the injury "day to day."

Utley takes first step

Chase Utley's back at it, playing four innings of a spring game to get himself ready for the regular season after offseason hip surgery. Oddly enough, Utley didn't make his debut with the Phils, but instead went 2-4 with a double in a minor leage intra-squad game.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the decision was made collectively by Utley and team personnel.

"We felt like he was ready to get into one and test the waters," Amaro said.

Amaro said that after the intrasquad game team trainers told him Utley was "tired, but it was a good workout for him. We'll have to see what happens, how he feels tomorrow morning, and kind of progress him day by day."

Amaro said that while Utley has been eager to play, the second baseman has resisted the temptation to return before his hip was ready.

"He knows what is at stake, and how important it is for him to be healthy in the long term," Amaro said. "This was probably a test date for him, and we'll see how he comes out of it."

Manuel said that the team would proceed with caution.

"We'll take it easy on him," Manuel said. "He's not ready for me to just turn him loose and start playing every day. We're going to kind of break him in."

Makes sense that Utley would start in a minor league game if he's not quite up to snuff. A step down allows him to get his bearings, have some success and build confidence before return to the parent club.

If A-Rod can't come back...

Boston's coverage of Alex Rodriguez's hip injury included this forward-looking musing on the outside chance that the ailment becomes career-threatening.

The Rodriguez news, changing by the hour, has more immediate impact on the Sox. A-Rod seems certain to miss the beginning of the season, could be out until late summer, and may have a career-threatening condition with $275 million still owed from the Yankees.

While that money could impact the Yankees over the years, with YES Network money and the New Yankee Stadium set to open in April, I don't see New York entering any financial straits, perhaps, ever.

Even with a torn labrum A-Rod should shine

So Alex Rodriguez will attempt to play through pain. A torn labrum in his right hip could eventually require surgery, but A-Rod will tough it out for now.

"There's two courses of action concerning what he has," Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said Thursday from Tampa, Fla. "There is treat it conservatively, which would imply rest, exercise and treatment. Or you can treat it aggressively, which is by surgery. At this point in time, we are going to go the conservative route."

There have been comparisons of A-Rod's injury to Chase Utley's. Utley played last year with his own hip injury and is just getting back to playing baseball again after surgery in late November.

Recently we have seen other high-profile baseball players undergo surgery to address labral injuries, including Phillies second baseman Chase Utley and Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. Utley, for one, had labral surgery in late November and is optimistic that he'll be ready for Opening Day. "Optimistic" is not "certain," though, and the time lapse between Utley's surgery and Opening Day will be about 19 weeks.

So, let's see how much Utley's numbers suffered from 2007 to 2008 to see what kind of impact we might see in A-Rod's 2009 season, assuming he can play through the pain like Utley did.

Utley
2006 - AB: 658 R: 131 HR: 32 RBI: 102 SB: 15 OBA: .379 SLG: .527 AVG: .309
2007 - AB: 530 R: 104 HR: 22 RBI: 103 SB: 9 OBA: .410 SLG: .566 AVG: .332
2008 - AB: 607 R: 113 HR: 33 RBI: 104 SB: 14 OBA: .380 SLG: .535 AVG: .292

A-Rod
2006 - AB: 572 R: 113 HR: 35 RBI: 121 SB: 15 OBA: .392 SLG: .523 AVG: .290
2007 - AB: 583 R: 143 HR: 54 RBI: 156 SB: 24 OBA: .422 SLG: .645 AVG: .314
2008 - AB: 510 R: 104 HR: 35 RBI: 103 SB: 18 OBA: .392 SLG: .573 AVG: .302

Utley's numbers over the past two years were most significantly impacted with his broken hand back in 2007. That injury caused him to miss several weeks in the late summer, retarding what might have been a career year. That said, Utley might've been on a growth trend that was further retarded in 2008 with the hip injury. His numbers in 2008 included a better slugging percentage than in 2006 and a better batting average, showing that despite the hip injury he was still playing at a very high level.

Of note: Utley stole 14 bases in 2008 despite the hip problem, which was just a couple of bags short of his career high and one short of his 2006 total when he batted 51 more times.

Fantasy Impact: If he can tolerate the pain, A-Rod has every ability to play with this injury and play well. Utley did not experience much of an impact in terms of matching his stellar numbers from previous seasons. A-Rod shouldn't either. If you think it's worth risking an eventual surgery or midseason shutdown, A-Rod is still a first round draft pick and high-end candidate to anchor your fantasy team's offense.

A-Rod's hip

The hip that's potentially forcing Alex Rodriguez out of the World Baseball Classic is not a new injury, according to Yankees manager Joe Girardi.

"Alex expressed a little stiffness. There was really no pain," Girardi said on Wednesday, a day after the 33-year-old slugger played for the Dominican Republic in a tuneup for the World Baseball Classic. "We just thought it was best because he had some minor issues last year with it. We'll have a better idea after today with what the course of plan is."

The team announced on Tuesday that Rodriguez would get his hip checked by Dr. Marc Phillipon in Vail, Colo., on Wednesday afternoon. An exam Saturday revealed a cyst in the hip.

"Whenever you have something going on, you're concerned," Girardi said. "The fact he didn't have a lot of pain is a little bit more comforting. He's been able to play, and play at a high level. It hasn't kept him from doing anything. It hasn't kept him from driving the baseball. That's the good thing."

At this point it sounds like the Yankees and Rodriguez are trying to stop the injury from becoming a bigger problem, but if the issue lingered through the offseason into the spring there might be more to it than needing rest.