Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Signs your career is nearing an end: posts like this one.

Ryan Spaeder, writing for the Sporting News:

Utley has put together a career that compares favorably with the careers of most of the second basemen who have been enshrined in Cooperstown. Take a look:

—  From 2005 to 2009, Utley had five straight seasons with at least a 7.0 WAR. Every other second basemen in history with at least four total 7.0 WAR seasons is in the Hall of Fame – Jackie Robinson (4), Sandberg (4), Charlie Gehringer (5), Morgan (5), Nap Lajoie (7), Eddie Collins (8) and Rogers Hornsby (8).

—  Utley batted .301/.388/.535 during that five-year peak from 2005 to 2009. Only four other second basemen have slashed that in a season since Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. And none of them did it twice.

— Digging even deeper into his 2005 to 2009 peak: Utley averaged a .388 on-base percentage, 73 extra-base hits and 15 stolen bases per season. Only four second basemen in history have equaled those numbers in a single season, again all Hall of Famers: Craig Biggio, Gehringer, Hornsby and Lajoie; Gehringer is the only one who did it twice.

— Utley’s peak also yielded a great deal of World Series success. He has seven career World Series home runs. Duke Snider is the only National Leaguer with more (11). In 2009, he tied Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, for most home runs in a single World Series, with five. His career .795 World Series slugging percentage ranks second best all-time among players with at least 35 plate appearances — edged only by David Ortiz, by six-ten-thousandths of a point.

That is just a sampling of all the little Chase nuggets Spaeder, who goes by Ace of MLB Stats, unearthed. There’s no doubt it will come down to a longevity thing with Chase– his four-year window is off the charts, but a somewhat late start (he wasn’t a full-time player until he was 25-26) and injuries are working, hard, against him. Still, his 2009 World Series performance is one of the greatest Philly sports things I’ve ever witnessed. If only Charlie had started Lee in Game 4…