Philadelphia Optimism?

Leave it to Chase Utley to pick the city of Philadelphia up when it's down (certainly no easy task). Excerps from his interview in the Inquirer:

"I'm very excited," Utley said. "I expect Ryan to come out and be ready. I actually think he still has room for improvement. The same with Jimmy, as well as myself. I think I can play better. I hope - actually, I don't hope - I expect everyone to want to get better."

"Two years in a row, we've been one or two games out of the playoffs, and I don't want that to happen again," Utley said. "We need to come into spring training from day one and be ready to go. We know what it takes to win - we've just got to do it."

And if for some unknown reason you still need proof:

'They were the most productive trio of infielders in baseball last year. None exceeded the group's 362 runs, 576 hits, 115 home runs or 334 RBIs. The trio outproduced Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees, and Carlos Delgado, David Wright and Jose Reyes of the New York Mets.'

So the future of Philadelphia sports isn't as gloomy as the last few weeks.

The full article can be found here: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/baseball/16467919.htm