[Full Cougar]

Phillies second baseman surgery could keep him out for 4-6 months. Providing further details, the Phillies said in a press release on Tuesday that the three-time All Star had surgery Monday morning to trim the labrum and a bony lesion in his right hip at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Dr. Bryan Kelly performed the procedure, which was described as an "arthroscopic debridement." Kelly said the surgery went well and the findings were consistent with the tests performed before the operation.

How bad will this effect the Phillies if at all?

[njpsufan]

If you take worse case then he is back in early June and hopefully full- speed by end of month. So you need someone to replace him for 2 months. Now last year he and Burrell carried the Phils for the first 2 months, so very hard to replace that. Bruntlett is a good fielder but no hitter. Some talk that Phils may get Nick Punto which would be a good fit. You are never going to find a 2B to replace his bat but hopefully rest of team can pick-up slack. If he is back in mid April then full speed by early May so only one month. Either way think Howard has to be hot out of the gate, if he struggles like this year we could be in a hole early.

[Full Cougar]

He would deffenitley be a hard player to replace.

[njpsufan]

Yes he will, but it really is going to depend on the length of time. The 2 names I keep hearing are Nick Punto or Felipe Lopez. Both make sense and Lopez esp, will be cheap.