Phillies' injury woes pile up

First it was Chase Utley. Now it's Placido Polanco who's ailing in the Phillies' infield.

Polanco insists he's not worried about a hyperextended elbow:

"It's just a day-to-day thing I think," Polanco said. "When I've had it before, I never stopped playing. But since I had surgery, they took me out."

Polanco was limited to 132 games in 2010 while dealing with chronic left elbow pain. He had scar tissue and bone spurs removed from the arm when he underwent surgery in November.

"It's right where I had the surgery, but it's nothing bad," he said. "I've had it before. I've had it a million times. But the fact that I had surgery on that elbow, we're being safe. We're playing it very safe. We'll see how it feels tomorrow and the next day, take it a day at a time."

Reality?

If he's dinged enough to play no more than 130 games this year, and at last year's OPS+ of about .726, and if Utley comes in with about the same .832 OPS+ of last year, assuming Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard don't improve on last year, and that batting order doesn't strike a lot of fear anywhere.

Add in the tendinits of Brad Lidge, whether he winds up as closer or set-up man, and I wouldn't print those Red Sox-Phillies World Series tickets and programs yet.