"I just need to do baseball movements at game speed, and it's hard to replicate that until you play in the game," Utley said.

--RHP Gary Majewski needed a change of scenery. So, two years after the death of his half-sister in an all-terrain vehicle accident and three months after one of the most disappointing seasons of his career, he signed a minor league contract with the Phillies on Jan. 5. And with a solid start to spring training, thanks mostly to his revived sinker, he has put himself in position to earn a spot in the Phillies' bullpen.

"I probably could've waited longer and signed a (major league contract) somewhere else," Majewski said. "But hell, these guys won the World Series, and I heard nothing but good things about them."

Majewski, 29, began the spring with six scoreless innings of relief.

In May 2007, after being traded to the Reds and pitching through arm trouble, his half-sister, Cortney Carraway, was killed. He took a 10-day bereavement leave from the Reds, cut his scraggly hair and shaved his goatee. And when he returned to the mound, he wasn't himself.

"My mentality is that (stuff) happens and it happens for a reason," he said. "I'm sure mentally somehow it hurt me. I wasn't concentrating as much and I wasn't having fun."

Now, though, Majewski's shoulder pain is gone. His outlook on life finally has brightened.

"You tell yourself, 'You're married and you've got a little girl to support now,'" said Majewski, whose daughter, Kylee Jade, is 9 months olds. "Pull your head out of (the sand) and get after it."

--INF Marcus Giles used a rare off day in the spring training schedule to get a pair of tattoos. One, a cross with the words "Big" Ed Costa on his right arm, honored a childhood friend who was killed by a drunk driver in December 2008. Giles was with Coste 10 minutes before he was struck from behind while riding his bicycle in Alpine, Calif.

"He wanted to get a little exercise and he was riding around our neighborhood," Giles told the Wilmington News Journal. "His wife was coming home from the grocery store and drove around the accident scene. She didn't know it was her husband lying on the ground."

The man accused of driving the pickup truck that struck Costa, Travis Webber, allegedly sped away and was arrested two days later after he entered a diner across the street from a vigil being held for Costa.

The second tattoo, placed under Giles' left arm, lists the exact GPS coordinates where his daughter, Lundyn May, is buried. More than six years ago, she was born two months premature and died 16 days later. Giles already has a tattoo of Lundyn May's footprints on his left wrist.

--C Carlos Ruiz gave the Phillies a scare when he left Panama's first game in the World Baseball Classic on March 6 with an apparent neck injury. After the game, Panama manager Hector Lopez speculated that Ruiz had a pinched nerve. But Ruiz was back in the lineup March 7, and after Panama was eliminated from the tournament, he rejoined the Phillies and didn't skip a beat.

--OF John Mayberry Jr. and INF Jason Donald have impressed the Phillies throughout spring training. Mayberry, acquired from Texas in a trade last November, has shown power to all fields, while Donald has adjusted well to playing second and third base after moving from his natural shortstop. But without any starting spots available, the Phillies may prefer that Mayberry and Donald play every day at Class AAA Lehigh Valley instead of sitting on the bench. Veteran OFs Geoff Jenkins and Matt Stairs may be more suited to that role.

"When it comes right down to it, it's how much (Donald and Mayberry) are going to get to play," manager Charlie Manuel told the Philadelphia Daily News. "For them to be productive, they've got to play some. I remember when I was 23 years old and I became a pinch hitter (in the majors). That was a tough job for me. That was real tough."

BY THE NUMBERS: 45 -- Consecutive regular-season saves for RHP Brad Lidge.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "As many times as I've tried in my life, I can't read the future. I don't say to myself, 'I hope I'll be in the majors this year or the year after.' When it happens, it happens. For any player to get to this point, you have to have confidence. Whether you're the worst guy here or the best guy here, you have to believe you're here for a reason." -- INF Jason Donald on his chances of winning a spot on the Phillies' roster in spring training.