It’s looking more and more likely that Kris Benson will make a contribution to the Philadelphia Phillies. In actuality, it’s looking more doubtful that he’ll ever pitch for the team. Benson was supposed to make his first start for Single-A Clearwater tonight, but was scratched from that start. He’s again suffering from tightness and soreness in his right biceps, and for some reason Assistant General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr thinks it’s not the same as the tendinitis he had in spring training. I don’t know sounds similar to me.

“But it’s a concern enough for him not to pitch,” Amaro said. “He didn’t feel comfortable pitching. He kind of tested it this morning and didn’t feel comfortable posting up and pitching tonight. We’re concerned about it. We obviously don’t like it. We’d like to have him pitch consistently and be healthy, but we’ll stay with him for now and see how he progresses. We need to get him back on the mound so we can evaluate him.”

This should definitely be a concern for you Phillies fans, as a lot of you were hoping he’d help to stabilize the back end of that rotation. At this point in his rehabilitation, you have to wonder if he’ll be ready to pitch at all. This was supposed to be his first of several starts in the minor leagues. Which means before this setback, he wouldn’t be set to return till around the all-star break, now who knows?

Unfortunately, the Phillies are going to have to look at trade options now for a pitcher around the deadline. Brett Myers did have an effective start the other night, but till he strings them together the team can’t consider him an ace. Don’t get me wrong, with this lineup the team DOES NOT need to try and trade for an ace. They just need to find another late rotation guy who can keep the team in games. To bad there aren’t many pitchers available for trade yet.

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