Bill Conlin: Hard to predict what Phillies will do with roster

CLEARWATER, Fla. - This is an official announcement: Many of you are expecting to read the St. Patrick's Day column I have done since 1993, which predicts where the Phillies will finish and why. It's the "Farmer's Almanac" of predictions - sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. But by October, who remembers who wrote and said what on March 17? In 1993, I wrote the Phillies would win the pennant, and they did. I kind of forget most of the predictions since then. And I can't remember where I said the Phils would finish in 2008, only that I picked the shabby Braves to win the pennant. Yikes! So that column is on hold until next week. We're just a day removed from the Cole Hamels scare and he won't get a clean bill until he gets some innings under his belt. Meanwhile, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino are still away at the World Baseball Classic wars, where the flies are dropping like pitchers.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. and trainer Scott Sheridan met with the media yesterday morning to kind of sound the all-clear. Except it always sounds more like a caterwauling ambulance siren than an all-clear when the GM keeps using "pain and tightness" in the same sentence, even when he tempers it by explaining it's something the double 2008 postseason MVP goes through every spring training. Both Amaro and Sheridan stressed that an err-on-the-side-of-safety approach was taken given Hamels' lengthy history of back spasms and elbow pain.

Meanwhile, the guy who seems to have the best grip on the situation happened to be on the hill against the Reds. Brett Myers pitched like a man who had just read the MRIs and was up on whatever else went down during Hamels' visit to team Dr. Michael Ciccotti in Philly.

I'd like to say Myers was in midseason form during a blazing 5 2/3 scoreless innings highlighted by no walks, seven strikeouts and a 12-6 curve that would have buckled the knees of Stevie Wonder. But Brett's midseasons sometimes find him in strange locales like Allentown, Reading and Clearwater. Last year, he landed successively in all three while chasing his vanished confidence and vacationing mechanics.