2B Chase Utley was voted in by the fans to start the All-Star Game but he will have to miss it due to injury. Utley has played in 72 games this season for the Phillies and he was 73 of 264 (.277 avg, .849 OPS) with 49 runs scored, 11 homers, 37 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He will be replaced in the starting lineup by Martin Prado of the Braves. This was the fifth time Utley was selected to play in the All-Star Game in his career. 1B Ryan Howard was picked as a reserve for the N.L. Howard has played in 80 games this season for the Phillies and he is 93 of 317 (.293 avg, .850 OPS) with 52 runs scored, 15 homers and 59 RBIs. This will be Howard’s third appearance in the mid-summer classic. Roy Halladay has made the pitching staff for the N.L. He has pitched in 17 games (all starts) for the Phillies this year and he is 9-7 with a 2.42 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP. Halladay has only walked 17 batters in 130 innings this season as he has been very aggressive in the strike zone. This will be Halladay’s 7th All-Star Game of his career.

33-year old righty closer Brad Lidge was simply awful for the Phillies last season. He pitched in 67 games (0 starts) for the Phillies last season and he was 0-8 with 31 saves, a 7.21 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP. This season he started late because he was rehabbing from some surgery. He is off to a good start for the Phillies in 2010. He has pitched in 13 games (0 starts) for the Phillies so far this season and he is 0-0 with 5 saves, a 3.27 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. He has whiffed 16 batters while only walking 3 in 11 innings which is promising. The Phillies can’t afford to be blowing games late this season like they did last season because the Braves and Mets are for real in 2010.

26-year old lefty starting pitcher Cole Hamels had a rough go of it in 2009 working in 32 games (all starts) in which he was 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP. But he looks like his old self this year. He has started 14 games for the Phillies this year and he is 6-5 with a 3.75 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. Hamels has whiffed 85 batters in 86 1/3 for the Phillies as he seems to be all the way back for the Phillies. He should start getting more wins soon as the offense and bullpen are both going to get better at some point this year.

33-year old righty starting pitcher Roy Halladay tossed a perfect game (the 20th in MLB history) against the Marlins last Saturday. He whiffed 11 helpless Marlins as he threw 72 strikes out of his 115 total pitches. Halladay has started 11 games for the Phillies this year and he is 7-3 with a 1.99 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP as he has been outstanding this year. He has only given up 73 hits this season in 86 innings pitched as he has been missing a ton of bats this year. He is being really aggressive in the strike zone as usual as he has whiffed 70 batters while only walking 12. Halladay has been awesome this year and there is no reason to think he can’t keep up the outstanding work.

The Phillies traded for righty starting pitcher Roy Halladay knowing that he was a horse who could give the bullpen a rest every five days. He has started 9 games this season and he already has 4 complete games and 2 shutouts. He is 6-2 with a sparkling 1.64 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP so far this year. He has pitched 71 1/3 innings for the Phillies this season allowing 65 hits, walking 10 batters and whiffing 58 as he has been simply outstanding this season. I’m actually shocked that Halladay already has 2 losses on the year with the team he has backing him up. I fully expect Halladay to be one of the leaders (if not the winner) in the Cy Young Award Voting at the end of the 2010 season.