Spring Training

Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Roy Halladay arrived for spring training as a trio of aging stars whose ability to play was limited in 2012 by injuries. The impact on the Phillies could be seen in the standings. After five consecutive division titles, the team finished at .500, and questions arose about the end of perhaps the best era in the franchise's history. The impact on the players carried into the offseason, in which each man in his own way altered his plan of attack with the hope of an improved 2013 for himself and his team.

The Yankees signing 39-year-old Andy Pettitte, who spent all of last season throwing baseballs to his kids, has heartened a lot of American League teams. If the Yanks were sure that their other six potential starters were healthy and effective, they'd have kept Pettitte as a spring-training workout director and not given him $2.5 million. But, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, "Among an out-of-shape Michael Pineda's disappearing fastball velocity, a heretofore-underperforming Phil Hughes and an injured Freddy Garcia, the Yankees face rotation questions.

Mike Schmidt last night was anointed the Phillies' opening-day third baseman, but the team's general manager said he still had some strong reservations. General manager Lee Thomas said he remained concerned about the readiness of Schmidt, who still is not throwing 100 percent and has not hit a spring- training home run. "From the beginning, I've operated on the assumption that if Mike couldn't do the job, he'd know that and come to us," Thomas said before last night's 5-4 exhibition victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bob Watson insists baseball really means it this time when it vows to speed up games. Since 1995, commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly has vowed crackdowns. The average time of a nine-inning game, meanwhile, ballooned with the increase in offense, going from 2 hours, 47 minutes in 1998 to 2:53 the following year to a record 2:58 in 2000. Last season, with a larger strike zone and a decrease in scoring, the average dropped back to 2:54. "Things have kind of slipped through the cracks," said Watson, who last month replaced Frank Robinson as baseball's vice president of on-field operations.

DAVID ROBERTSON walked out of the Yankees clubhouse, holding a pair of crutches, his right foot in an oversized black boot. Instead of making his second spring-training appearance, he had gone to a hospital yesterday for an MRI after a household accident: He sprained a foot when he stumbled on stairs while moving boxes. "It's embarrassing. I already had 'Mo' rag me out about it," he said after speaking with closer Mariano Rivera. The New York Yankees were waiting to find out the cost of their first misstep of 2012.

NINE THINGS I learned at spring training in Clearwater, Fla. (and one I already knew). Bottle service: As a young player at his first big-league spring training, Charlie Manuel had a locker between Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison. One day, Allison invited Manuel to dinner with the intention of schooling the young player on "how it is here in the big leagues and how you're supposed to act and everything," Manuel told me. Out at a bar in Orlando, Manuel recalled Allison saying, " 'I'm going to introduce you to a drink today, and you're going to drink it for the rest of your life.

You are traveling to find the true meaning of spring training. You walk off the plane and throw your winter jacket into the back seat of the rent-a-car. You watch the palm trees sway, and you feel baseball in the sunshine. You must be on the right track. You are not looking for the Grapefruit League standings. Or for Dwight Gooden's spring-training ERA. You are not looking for Dwight Gooden, period. You are not looking for Dale Murphy, George Brett, Pedro Guerrero or Eddie Murray.

Darin Ruf's transition to left field at triple-A Lehigh Valley might still be a work in progress, but listen to the men paid to evaluate his work for a living, and you'll be astonished by the progress. "The left-field play has been very good," said Joe Jordan, the Phillies' director of player development. "It's not a concern for me. It's not a concern at all. " That's quite a different take from the one we heard seven weeks ago, when Ruf's quest to make the big-league roster out of spring training ended mostly because playing left field had been such an adventure for the 26-year-old slugger.

"Let's go eat" were Hunter Pence's three most memorable words in 2011. By the time the Phillies' season ended, however, he was still hungry even after getting his first taste of playoff baseball. "We definitely didn't reach our ultimate goal last year," Pence said Monday night at the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Dinner in Cherry Hill. "We accomplished some great things. We had a great regular season, won another division title, so to be a part of that was special.

THE PHILLIES will begin Grapefruit League play on March 3 against the New York Yankees at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla. The Phillies will play 17 home games this spring, including an opening exhibition against Florida State on Feb. 29. They will conclude the exhibition season with two games against Pittsburgh on April 2 and 3 at Citizens Bank Park. Reporting dates for pitchers and catchers and the full team have not been set yet, the team said. Spring-training three-game packs will go on sale Dec. 14 on phillies.com, and individual ticket sales for spring training begin Jan. 12. The full schedule is on Page 55. In other news: * The Phillies outrighted Pete Orr and Brandon Moss, and moved Jose Contreras from the 60-day disabled list to the 40-man roster.

Darin Ruf's transition to left field at triple-A Lehigh Valley might still be a work in progress, but listen to the men paid to evaluate his work for a living, and you'll be astonished by the progress. "The left-field play has been very good," said Joe Jordan, the Phillies' director of player development. "It's not a concern for me. It's not a concern at all. " That's quite a different take from the one we heard seven weeks ago, when Ruf's quest to make the big-league roster out of spring training ended mostly because playing left field had been such an adventure for the 26-year-old slugger.

At least now they know. The uncertainty surrounding Roy Halladay was, metaphorically speaking, like a bone spur fraying the fabric of the Phillies' 2013 season. It is the kind of uncertainty that had a devastating impact on the two previous Phillies seasons. Two years ago, it was Chase Utley's mysterious spring-training disappearance. Last year, it was Utley and Halladay and Ryan Howard. It isn't easy for a team when a key player is unavailable because of injury. It is much harder when the missing player's status is shrouded in mystery.

SAN FRANCISCO - Carlos Ruiz took part in his daily pregame routine during batting practice at AT&T Park yesterday. He fielded ground balls at third base alongside Michael Young. But for the second time in the last five games, Ruiz did not start behind the plate when the Phillies took the field later in the night to take on the San Francisco Giants. Erik Kratz started at catcher in place of Ruiz, who is hitting .100 (2-for-20) since returning from his 25-game suspension. Over the weekend, Ruiz said he's still attempting to get into a comfort zone at the plate after his near monthlong absence.

Remember Yuniesky Betancourt? He's the guy who hit .447 with three doubles, a homer and 14 RBIs for the Phillies in spring training, but was considered surplus to bench needs and allowed to leave when it became clear his future was in an IronPigs uniform rather than red pinstripes. GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said it was a tough decision, but the team was "comfortable with where we are. " Yeah, that Yuniesky Betancourt. He signed with the Brewers - which didn't portend well, since the fans in Milwaukee kind of booed him out of town when he played there in 2011.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Power is the thing that attracted the Phillies to Art Charles. "Charles is a guy who has big pop," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the day he acquired the 6-foot-6 first baseman from the Toronto Blue Jays for reliever Michael Schwimer. "Whether he's going to be a major-league hitter at some point, we don't know, but we know he has a lot of power. " After watching Charles play for a month at low-A Lakewood, the Phillies are happy with their return so far because he has provided the advertised power and even more.

Roy Halladay sought refuge in a three-year-old e-mail. He opened it again about three weeks ago and read the message sent to him before the most important game of his storied career. Until 2010, Halladay had never pitched in the postseason. He wanted advice from Harvey Dorfman, the author and sports psychologist, whose e-mails served as an appendix to Halladay's bible, The Mental ABC's of Pitching . He pitched a no-hitter in his playoff debut. And three weeks ago, Halladay, then unrecognizable, was compelled to read those words while in Miami and preparing for his third start.

HARRISBURG - Reading second baseman Albert Cartwright has been on a tear to begin the season and more importantly, from his standpoint, he has felt fine physically. Cartwright entered the weekend with a .356 average and 13-game hitting streak. He was obtained from the Houston Astros in January 2011 and didn't have the best of introductions to the Phillies. During his first week in spring training in 2011, he tore his right Achillies tendon while participating in conditioning testing and missed the entire season.

CHARLIE MANUEL hinted a night earlier that it was probably a good time to give Ben Revere his first day off. Revere, Manuel said, had been trying too hard in his first month with a new team. And the offensive results haven't been pretty. But for a player whose game revolves almost exclusively around speed, a sore left quad is probably a good reason, too. "He said something about his leg in spring training, [but] he didn't say anything about it to me [recently]," Manuel said of Revere, who had started 22 straight games before yesterday.

Former Phillies catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud hit .333 with 21 doubles, 16 home runs, and 52 RBIs in 67 games at triple-A Las Vegas last season before being traded in the offseason from Toronto to the New York Mets as part of the R.A. Dickey deal. This year, d'Arnaud is hitting .250 with one home run and eight RBIs for triple-A Las Vegas. Yes, he is back in the same city even though he was traded in the offseason. The Mets and Blue Jays also swapped triple-A affiliates during the offseason with the Blue Jays triple-A team moving to Buffalo.

If you're looking for the most improved player in the Phillies' farm system, it might be 22-year-old outfielder Aaron Altherr, who is off to a great start at single-A Clearwater. Altherr, once considered one of the Phillies' top 10 prospects by Baseball America, hit just .243 and struck out 99 times in 2011, when he started the season at single-A Lakewood and ended at Williamsport. He followed that up by hitting .252 with 102 strikeouts last year at Lakewood. "The thing with Aaron is that he made some adjustments at the very end of the year at Lakewood," said director of player development Joe Jordan.