Wednesday was a bad day for the Phillies’ pitching staff.

First, we learned that closer Brad Lidge received a cortisone shot for inflammation and soreness in his right elbow. The Phillies’ claim it is only a minor setback in his recovery from two off-season surgeries, one of which was on the inner part of his right elbow. The soreness is on the outer part of the elbow and is something Lidge normally has in spring training.

“Coming into spring training, every year Brad has some lateral — or outer — elbow soreness,” said Phillies’ team physician Michael Ciccotti. “It’s just part of his reconditioning routine. Because he started a little bit later this year with his throwing because of those two surgeries, that soreness has lingered a little bit longer. Normally it resolves by the second or third week in March.”

The soreness, however, has lasted longer than normal, which could explain why Lidge’s velocity remains in the high 80′s. …

Phillies’ pitcher Kyle Kendrick only pitched two innings during Tuesday’s Grapefruit League game against the Houston Astros before being pulled from the game.

According to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Daily News, “Typically starters will pull back in their final outings of the spring, but Kendrick only threw 40 pitches, which is fewer than a starter would normally throw at this time.”

This was seen as the surest sign yet that Jamie Moyer would, in fact, be the fifth starter in the Phillies’ starting rotation.

This was confirmed by Ryan Lawrence, Phillies’ beat reporter for the Delco Times in a tweet a little before 3:30 PM.
ryanlawrence21
Kendrick’s in pen. He was texting media relations guy b4 we arrived, to see if he should confirm it. But they’ll let Manuel do it after game.
It was a tight race all Spring, with both Kendrick and Moyer pitching very well. Kendrick had a …

There is a lot of speculation amongst Phillies fans and media types that right fielder Jayson Werth is not going to be playing in Philadelphia come April of 2011. The 30 year old outfielder is in the last year of his contract and with uber-prospect Domonic Brown waiting in the wings, many expect that Werth will not fit into the team’s future plans.

Of course, this is all pure conjecture. Ruben Amaro, Jr., the always evasive Phillies’ GM, is likely to keep his cards very close to his chest right up until August 1st. And Werth has had little to say on the matter other than denying that he’s focused on his future beyond 2010, or that a recent lunch with former Yankees great Reggie Jackson was anything more than just lunch between old friends (Jackson is friends with both Werth’s mother and steph-father and the two have known each other since Werth was in elementary school).

Chances are that the lunch was simply …

Last night I participated in the inaugural Battle of the Blogs fantasy baseball league draft. It’s a league comprised of 20 baseball bloggers from all across the country, all of whom are part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

I somehow managed the second worst draft position possible with the 11th pick, bested only by fellow Phillies’ blogger Fire Eric Bruntlett who was dead center at 10th. Lucky for me and my draft strategy, no one before me had taken a pitcher, so I was able to nab Roy Halladay (homer pick, I know). I ended up with a decent enough draft for a 20 team league, with Halladay and Josh Beckett at the top of my rotation and Adam Dunn, Manny Ramirez and Ichiro in the heart of my lineup. I’m weaker in the bullpen then I normally prefer, with Rockies’ closer Huston Street as my best arm, but there’s no runaway favorite in a league this big. And while I like my team …

Brett Myers makes his debut against his former club today when the Astros and Phillies face off in Grapefruit League action. When Myers signed a one-year deal worth $5.1 million with Houston this off-season, he promised to “stick it” to the Phillies, with whom he spent his first eight seasons in the majors, every time he faced them. Despite the tough words, his former manager misses him.

“He’ll probably bring his big old white dog in the clubhouse,” said Charlie Manuel. “I miss Myers. Really. I miss getting on him. I miss his mouth. Really. Seriously, I do miss him. I think in our camp this year we’ve been a little bit quieter without Myers.”

[Right now it's just before 3PM and Myers is done for the day. He pitched 5.1 innings and gave up three runs on seven hits.]

Coming into today’s game, Myers has a 6.43 ERA in 14 innings this spring. He has struck out 15 batters while walking 10.

Myers …

According to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andy Martino, Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero is being sued by Robert Eaton, with whom Romero reportedly had an altercation during a game in Tampa Bay last June.

Eaton, 26, of New Port Richey, Florida, has filed a lawsuit in Pinellas County, alleging that Romero struck him after a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Eaton alleges that Romero caused him serious and permanent injury that resulted in his failing a physical, effectively barring him from enrolling in firefighters school. The lawsuit is reportedly for $15,000.

The incident allegedly occurred while Eaton was seeking an autograph from Romero. Eaton claims that he yelled out, “How about you get me some juice?”, in order to get Romero’s attention. The statement was a reference to Romero’s 50 game suspension earlier in the year after it was found that he had used a banned substance.

Charges were not pursued by the St. Petersburg police or the state attorney’s office because of …

Scott Mathieson, who many people thought would compete this Spring for a spot in the Phillies’ bullpen, was among the first group of players to be reassigned to the club’s minor league camp. Mathieson was named the Phillies’ top right hand pitching prospect by Baseball America in 2005, but he has had two Tommy John surgeries since making his major league debut on June 17, 2006.

He has since battled back and routinely hit the high 90s while pitching with the Reading Phillies last season. Despite his recent success, GM Ruben Amaro Jr., manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee indicated early on that they believed that Mathieson still needed a lot of innings against live hitters before making it back to the big league club.

“He’s a guy we didn’t feel was going to be ready to go in April [for us] and be refined enough in his secondary stuff to be able to compete for a job at the big league level,” Amaro …

After what has been quite a lengthy absence, we here at Hot Stove Philly have returned. As tends to happen from time to time, life got in the way of our more enjoyable, and unfortunately less lucrative, pursuits.

Nevertheless, life has calmed down somewhat, and with that, we are able to focus more of our efforts to doing what we love to do, namely comment on Philly sports.

Our return is not without its changes, however. Hot Stove Philly will now be a Phillies focused sports site. That’s not to say we won’t ever comment on the goings on at the Wachovia Center or Lincoln Financial Field, but the primary concern will be what is happening within the friendly confines at One Citizens Bank Way.

The reason for this are simple. We are better at providing insight and analysis on baseball than we are at the other sports and while there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Phillies blogs with their recent success, we believe that we will be able to provide you with the …

It’s official, according to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. Roy Halladay is a member of the Philadelphia Phillies and will be introduced at a 5 PM press conference. The Phillies are expected to announce his contract extension that will keep him in Philadelphia until 2013, as well as the news that they have traded Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners for three prospects.

Whew. Now we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The rumor mill can stop spinning, at least for a day.

The Phillies are expected to announce that Halladay has been acquired for minor leaguers Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis d’Arnaud. Likewise, they are expected to announce that they have acquired pitching prospects Phillippe Aumont and J.C. Ramirez, as well as outfielder Tyson Gillies, from the Mariners.

The blogosphere went into an online frenzy around 2 PM Wednesday after it was learned that one of the players in the deal (as of this time it is unknown who) failed his physical. Shortly thereafter …

Update: SI.com’s Jon Heyman is reporting that the deal is done and it involves the Phillies, Blue Jays and Mariners. Heyman is awaiting confirmation that Cliff Lee is the player being traded to Seattle, but that is the most likely scenario.

CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury is reporting that the Phillies are in negotiations with Roy Halladay over a possible contract extension. Andy Martino of the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Halladay and his agent have checked into an area hotel room.

A source also told Salisbury that Halladay is expected to undergo a physical exam with the Phillies medical staff later this week.

I’ll give you a moment to catch your breathe and compose yourself…..

OK, glad to have you back.

It is unclear, according to Salisbury, who the Phillies would trade away IF this deal were to actually happen, but there has been rampant speculation all day that one of those players could be Cliff Lee.

In an article written Monday on Foxsports.com, Ken Rosenthal wrote that while he had …

Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. has repeatedly said that the team’s top priority this offseason, now that they have bolstered their bench and replaced third baseman Pedro Feliz, is to sure up a bullpen that bruised and battered for much of last season.

Brandon Lyon and J.J. Putz are both players that the Phillies were said to have had serious interest in coming into this week’s baseball Winter Meetings in Indianapolis.

Both players have since signed with other teams (Lyon with Houston, Putz with the Chicago White Sox). Scott Eyre and Chan Ho Park were integral parts of the Phillies run to the World Series last season (and particularly Eyre, who was invaluable in the team’s 2008 World Series victory), and yet negotiations with both teams appear to be at a standstill. Indications from Amaro are that there is a good chance the Phillies will move on from both players and replace them with younger talent, most likely players currently in their farm system.

So what gives?

The Phillies are …

The Houston Astros have been very busy during this year’s baseball Winter Meetings, signing relievers Latroy Hawkins and Brand Lyon on Wednesday.

Today they announced the signing of former Phillies third baseman Pedro Feliz to a one-year deal worth $4.5 million.

He batted .266 with 12 homers and 82 RBIs in 2009, his second season with the Phillies.