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2008 The reason that Chase Utley is even cooler than you think: in his first major league exposure, 439 plate appearances split over the 2003 and 2004 seasons, he batted .257/.313/.436, drawing just 25 unintentional walks. That's a pace for about 40 walks in a 700-plate appearance season. His minor league rates were a little better, but with a discount applied for the greater difficulties of major league pitching, it was safe to conclude, yes, that's all there is. Almost magically, Utley became more selective, seeing more pitches per plate appearance and upping his walk rate. In 2004 he hit .200 against lefties, in 2005 he hit .219. Again, he got better, hitting over .300 against them in both '06 and '07. This is the rare player who actually grew on the job. The only blemish on his season was a month missed after a John Lannan pitch broke his hand. He should be an MVP candidate again in 2008. 2007 In our 2006 edition, we used this space to talk about how Utley needed to be given a chance hit against left-handers in order to learn how to hit them. The previous season had been the first when he was allowed to play regularly against lefties, and we weren`t worried that he only hit .219 against them; it was a learning experience. Utley proved to be a good student, hitting .301 off of them last year and filling in the last hole in his game. He didn`t have quite the same power against them as he did against right-handers, which explains the slight drop in his slugging average, but you can safely buckle up and enjoy several seasons` worth of stardom from here on out. The inheritor of Mark Grace`s slow white guy/smart baserunner mantle, you won`t see him make many mistakes as far as the chances he takes. 2006 In his breakout season, Utley improved his hitting against lefties and swiped 16 bases in 19 tries. While his .219 BA will still cause some to write that he can`t cope with southpaws, his .469 slugging percentage, seven homers, and 25 walks in 125 ABs show he`s learned enough to be dangerous against them. The Phils should never have benched Utley against lefties on the presumption he couldn`t hit them. The best way to ensure that a young left-handed hitter won`t be an everyday player is to prevent him from getting the experience he needs to learn to hit southpaws. The team had both Placido Polanco and David Bell on the roster--Bell cost so much that they had to play him, Polanco was too good to not play, and Ed Wade was too stubborn to make a trade if he couldn`t hornswoggle someone else. As a result, only 57 of Utley`s 403 ABs in 2003-04 were versus left-handers. 2005 The Phillies are believers in Utley, citing his improved defense at second base and the ungodly number of RBI that he accumulated in the big leagues (57 in 267 at-bats, a rate that exceeded Thome's). We're believers too, though we could care less about the RBI and would like to see Utley refine his pitch selection. Utley is not going to be a star, but second base is a thin position and his extra-base power should provide the Phillies with a competitive advantage. Polanco's unexpected return might seem to cripple Utley's fantasy value, but it's not the disaster that it may seem; Utley should still get the lion's share of at bats against right-handed pitchers, and he's posted a pretty big platoon split in his brief time in the bigs. 1996
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