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Goddamn you, Ruben. Goddamn you.

Ruben Amaro felt today – TODAY! – was the day to declare that the Phils are never ever getting back together with their longtime second baseman… like, ever:

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Well, that will do wonders for what little trade value Utley may have had left:

Opposing GM: We’ll give you a compensatory pick and a bag of used BP balls for Chase.

Rube: Can’t. He’s our starting second baseman. 

Opposing: Funny you should mention that…

[UPDATE: Fine, fine– Utley has no trade value at the moment. But no good comes from dismissing in that manner. Utley comes back, hits .290 with three home runs for three weeks and looks like some semblance of a real player again (totally plausible), I can’t imagine a contending team wouldn’t take a flyer on him after he clears waivers.]

[UPDATE 2: To further that point, this is yet again what happens when you sit on tradable assets too long. Maybe Utley was the guy we all secretly rooted to retire a Phillie – fair – but, as was the case with Cliff Lee, the Phils waited until age caught up with Utley and he became worthless. Now he sucks and is hurt, and he might suck because he was hurt. Either way, he’s worthless at the moment.]

As if Ruben unnecessarily shoveling dirt on Chase wasn’t hard enough to read, here’s Utley’s terse response when asked about the comments [quote also courtesy of Ryan Lawrence, who’s doing yeoman’s work out in LA]:

“Well, I think Cesar has done a really good job,” Utley said before taking the field to stretch with his teammates. “There you go.”

Shirts available in all sizes:

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Get one.

Side note: I give it 20 or so hours until Ruben is forced to yet again apologize for needlessly piling on one of his veterans. I say Mike Missanelli’s show tomorrow.