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Spring Training stats don’t matter at all, everyone knows that. Right? Right? Well, let’s hope so. Cause the offense isn’t looking so hot right now any formula for success for the Phillies until they get their big bats back and probably even after they do has a lot to do with dominating starting pitching. Joe Blanton got banged around yesterday, and a look at the numbers for the guys in the rotation this spring shows they haven’t been especially dominating:

Worley has had a nice spring so far and Lee’s numbers are pretty good overall. Halladay’s high ERA has been well documented and Blanton’s is getting up there as well after a rough day yesterday. Hamels doesn’t have the high ERA, but opponents have hit .303 against him and he has struck out just ten in 18 innings.

One thing the guys in the rotation have done is continue to prevent walks. As a group, the five pitchers above has walked just ten in 84 2/3 innings so far, which is a tiny walk rate of 1.06 per nine innings. That helps keep their ratio as a group pretty low, but hidden in that number is the fact that they have allowed 97 hits in 84 2/3 innings. That’s too many.

Three hits for the Phils yesterday as the fell to Boston 6-0.

Blanton started the game for the Phillies and was hit hard, allowing five runs on seven hits over five innings to raise his ERA to 4.80. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five. Qualls was the only other pitcher likely to stat the year with the Phils to pitch in the game. He struck out one in a scoreless seventh, dropping his ERA to 4.15. He has now allowed just six hits and two walks in 8 2/3 innings.

Galvis had another extra-base hit, a double. He was 1-for-3, upping his line to 274/294/484. Orr played three innings at short for the Phils and was 1-for-1 at the plate to raise his average to .293. Montanez started in right and got the other hit, going 1-for-3. He’s at 326/362/465.

Wigginton and Mayberry were both 0-for-3 and struck out twice. Wigginton is hitting .230. Mayberry is at an ugly 206/254/270 in a team-high 63 at-bats.

The Phillies sent Brian Sanches, Scott Elarton and Jake Diekman to minor league camp.

This just in: No timetable for Chase Utley’s return. No, really. And apparently we should all just try and calm down a little.

As if.

Two games for the Phils over the weekend.

Jim Thome played first base in an official Spring Training game for the first time this year yesterday as the Phils and Orioles played to a 3-3 tie.

Halladay started for the Phils and struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and two walks. He has a 5.40 ERA and a 1.30 ratio through five starts, but has struck out 24 in 20 innings.

Bastardo took over for Halladay in the seventh, faced two men with runners on the corners and struck both out. Contreras pitched the eighth in his third appearance and allowed a run on a single and a double. He has now been charged with six runs in 2 1/3 innings, but the good news is there may be something magical about the way the ball is coming out of his hand. Papelbon threw a scoreless ninth to drop his ERA to 1.13. Juan Morillo threw a 1-2-3 tenth.

Thome played five innings at first and went 1-for-3 with a double and two RBI. No balls were hit to him. Ruiz was 2-for-4 with a double to up his line to 484/515/774 after 31 at-bats. Mayberry went 0-for-5 to drop his line to 217/266/263.

Galvis was 3-for-4 with three singles, upping his line to 271/292/475.

Orr, Galvis and Ruiz all homered for the Phils on Saturday in a 10-5 win over Boston.

Hamels started the game for the Phils and allowed two runs over four innings on four hits and two walks, raising his ERA to 4.00. Qualls and Diekman each threw a scoreless inning in the game, with Diekman keeping his ERA at 0.00. Raul Valdes went two frames and was charged with a run on three singles, pushing his ERA to 2.08. Sanches pitched the eighth and allowed a run on a walk and three singles, which pushed his ERA up to 6.43.

Galvis started at second and went 1-for-4 with his second spring home run and first error. Pierre was 2-for-5 with a double. Podsednik 0-for-2. Ruiz 2-for-4 with a double and a home run. Orr 2-for-4 with his first homer. Nix had two hits, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and raising his average to .226.

Polanco played third base on Sunday and went 1-for-2.

Ryan Madson will have Tommy John surgery and miss the 2012 season.

Not sure I’d put it near the top, though.

The Phils played the Yankees this afternoon after news broke that Domonic Brown had been sent to minor league camp. Yankees won 5-3, dropping the Phils to 9-11.

Worley started the game for the Phillies and allowed three runs in the first inning thanks to double, single, double, single by the first four batters he faced. Things got better after that, though, as he followed up the ugly first with five shutout innings. He threw six innings on the day, allowing three runs on seven hits and a walk as his ERA rose to 2.81. He struck out seven.

Herndon pitched the seventh and allowed a run on a single and a double, upping his ERA to 3.00.

Stutes followed Herndon and struck out three, but allowed a run on a double and two singles. His ERA is up to 4.50.

Papelbon got two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 ninth as he dropped his ERA to 1.29.

Erik Kratz homered for the Phils in his only at-bat, his second homer of the season. He’s hitting .389 (7-for-18). Miguel Abreu played three more innings of shortstop, going 1-for-2 with a double at the plate. 2-for-5 in official Spring Training action.

Rollins, Victorino and Wigginton were all 1-for-3. Rollins is hitting .262 while Victorino and Wigginton are both hitting .244.

Nix was 0-for-3 with a strikeout to drop his average to .185. Mayberry 1-for-3 with a strikeout and an RBI.

Galvis started at second and went 0-for-4. His average have dropped to .235 thanks to a 1-for-his-last-12.

Cole Hamels is expected to pitch Saturday as the Phils play the Red Sox.

And by obvious things, what I have in mind is Utley and Howard topping out their combined Spring Training production by fielding ground balls while sitting in a chair. Stuff like that.

The Phillies can’t score in Spring Training, which wouldn’t matter at all except there’s a whole lot of fans out there worried they won’t be able to score when they start playing games where nobody is running laps in the outfield either.

As if on cue, the Phils got four hits yesterday, all singles, as they lost to Toronto 2-0 to drop to 9-10 in official Spring Training action. Over their last six games they’ve scored 16 runs, which is about 2.67 runs per game.

Cliff Lee started the game for the Phillies and pitched very well. He went six innings, allowing a run on five hits to drop his ERA to 3.45. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven.

Chad Qualls set Toronto down in order in the seventh, dropping his spring ERA to 5.40. Contreras pitched the eighth and allowed an unearned run. Travis Snider reached on an error by Podsednik in center with one out and Kelly Johnson followed that with a double to right that scored Snider. Contreras got the next two batters, dropping his ERA to 27.00 after two outings and 1 1/3 official innings.

The Phillies got one hit, a single by Ruiz, and two walks (Nix and Mayberry) over five shutout innings by Brandon Morrow. Ruiz was 2-for-3 on the day, upping his average to .478. Mayberry 1-for-2 with a walk to up his line to 224/283/306 in 49 at-bats.

Podsednik 0-for-1 with an error. Pierre 0-for-3 with a pickoff/caught stealing and left five men on base. His average is down to .257. He has stolen two bases this spring and been caught three times.

Galvis started at second and hit eighth, going 0-for-3 to drop his average to .255.

Miguel Abreu played three innings defensively at short, handling one grounder and going 0-for-1. He’s 1-for-3 with a single and an RBI at the plate so far. Just about anybody who can play short warrants attention for the Phils, but Abreu probably doesn’t have the bat to help the team no matter what he can do defensively. Abreu has a career 265/293/382 line in 2,811 minor league plate appearances. That’s not real inspiring, but he does top Freddy Galvis in all three categories (246/292/321 for Galvis). I’d say there’s just about no chance for Abreu, but it’s not that kind of thing anymore when it comes to middle infielders for the Phillies. Abreu and Galvis were born on the same day, November 14, with Abreu born five years earlier.

Abreu is also not a shortstop. He has primarily been a second baseman in the minors, making just four appearances at short over the 711 minor league games he has appeared in.

The Phillies play the Yankees this afternoon with Worley expected to pitch.

This suggests that Polanco could be back in the lineup within a few days.

The article linked above says that Thome played seven innings in a minor league game yesterday and things went well.

Today’s guess on who might start the year with the Phillies. And yeah, it’s a lot different from the last one.

Here are the hitters:

Changes since the January post are the removals of Utley and Valdez and the addition of Galvis.

It seems likely at this point that Utley, Howard and Martinez will start the year on the DL. It’s a little less clear where Domonic Brown will be, but as much as the Phillies need his bat my guess he’ll be somewhere learning how to catch fly balls.

One hitting spot needs to be filled by a backup infielder who can play short. If Rollins and Galvis both start, the Phils have nobody on the bench who can play shortstop. Polanco seems like he would be the choice in an emergency, but I’m guessing that wouldn’t take long to get real ugly. Pete Orr and Hector Luna are the players the Phillies have currently who could make the base case for being the utility guy, but both seem like they would be hard to carry if they can’t play shortstop.

Anyway, assuming 13 hitters, one of the two remaining spots will be taken by a utility guy. My guess is the Phils add one from outside the organization and it’s Pete Orr if they don’t.

The utility guy, could, of course, turn into the starting second baseman. That would presumably mean Galvis or Orr as the utility guy, advantage Galvis cause he can play short.

That leaves one hitter slot and I’m guessing Juan Pierre will take it, despite the fact that Lou Montanez and Scott Podsednik have both outplayed Pierre to this point in Spring Training. I think the Phils would be better off giving that spot to someone else, Brown or Podsednik especially. I don’t think they will. Brown is obviously the best choice offensively, but he has put the Phils in a tough spot by playing defense so awful it’s hard to put him on the field.

Here are the pitchers:

Herndon, Willis and Contreras are off that list from the previous version. Contreras surely has a spot if he does not start the year on the DL.

My guess is that Herndon would start the year in the pen if Contreras were on the DL and might even if Contreras did not.

Still no second lefty in the pen, what with Willis blowing up and being released. Raul Valdes looks to me like he should have a legit shot, though, having pitched very well in Spring Training so far. Joe Savery and Jake Diekman have also pitched well so far, but I’d guess they both start the year down.

Anyway, at this point my guess would be that the Phils carry 12 pitchers to start the year — the ten above plus two of Contreras, Herndon and Valdes. If I have to guess two I would go Herndon and Valdes with Contreras on the DL.

Injury roundup here.

Contreras is expected to pitch this afternoon as the Phils face Toronto.

The Phillies played two games with the Blue Jays this weekend, winning one and losing one.

Toronto hammered the Phils 10-2 yesterday in a game memorable because Hamels and Contreras combined to allow nine runs in 3 2/3 innings.

Hamels got the start and didn’t fare well, allowing five runs on eight hits and no walks over 3 1/3 innings. Only four of the runs were earned thanks to a fourth-inning throwing error by Mayberry at first. Eight hits is a lot to allow in 3 1/3 innings — opponents are now hitting .322 against Hamels in official Spring Training action. His ERA is 3.86. Qualls followed Hamels and he pitched very well, facing six hitters and retiring five of them (the other reached on an error by Frandsen, his fourth). Contreras started the sixth and things didn’t go well. He faced five hitters, striking out one and allowing two singles, two doubles and a stolen base. After he left, Herndon promptly allowed a two-run homer to Jose Bautista, with one of the runs charged to Contreras and leaving Contreras with a 108.00 ERA after one official appearance. Herdon went 1 2/3 frames, allowing a run on two hits and upping his ERA to 2.57. Opponents have hit .310 against Herndon so far. Bastardo threw a scoreless eighth, allowing a single and a walk to the first two men he faced but keeping the Blue Jays off the board.

Montanez started in left and went 3-for-4 with a double, raising his line to a monster 448/452/655. Pierre was 1-for-1 to raise his average to .267. Podsednik 1-for-1 and has a 371/450/514 line.

Mayberry started at first, went 0-for-4 and left four men on base. 195/250/268.

Saturday the Phils beat the Blue Jays 4-3 in ten innings.

Worley got the start and threw four scoreless innings, dropping his Spring Training ERA to 1.80. Papelbon was next and allowed two hits, but kept Toronto off the board in his inning, also dropping his ERA to 1.80. Aumont pitched the sixth and was charged with a run on two hits and three stolen bases. Sanches threw a 1-2-3 seventh. Purcey pitched the eighth, allowing a leadoff homer to JP Arencibia before retiring the next three batters. His ERA is up to 3.00 with the run. Stutes surrendered a single and a home run in the ninth, pushing his ERA to 4.50. Raul Valdes set Toronto down in order in the top of the tenth, keeping his ERA at 0.00.

Luna was 2-for-2 and drove in two runs, including the game-winner in the bottom of the tenth when he singled home Podsednik. Podsednik was 1-for-1 with a walk and a double, raising his line to 353/436/500 with a team-high five extra-base hits (all doubles). Polanco was 1-for-1 to up his average to .529.

Polanco hurt the ring finger on his left hand on Saturday. The linked article suggests he will miss a few days. This says it is not broken.

Ryan Madson still seems to think the Phillies made an offer that may not have been made. Whatever happened, the Phillies would be a whole lot better off with Madson for one-year, $8.5 million than they are having signed Papelbon to a four-year, $50 million deal.

Jim Thome played first base in minor league games over the weekend. The linked article also says that Nix hopes to play today against Detroit. Scott Elarton will start that game.