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Today is the day. He's FREE! JC Romero's suspension for testing positive for a banned substance has been served. He is eligible to pitch tonight. To make room on the roster, the Phillies have optioned Sergio Escalona back to the minors. For some reason, Jack Taschner remains on the team. To read last week's Phoul Ballz interview with JC Romero, click here . Todd Zolecki asserts that Antonio Bastardo is better than Jake Peavy. Check out today's Zo Zone . Superfan John's got loads of updates on current and former Phillies properties. Check out the HomeSide News blog for tons of great notes and info. Acting on a clause in his own contract, Lehigh Valley reliever Mike Koplove has elected to become a free agent. The IronPigPen talks about where he could end up. Check that out here . As revealed today by Greg over on the BlueClaws Blog , Lakewood's mascot Buster is now "tweeting" on Twitter.com. Check that out right here .

JC Romero was nice enough to take some time today to answer some questions after his "rehab" appearance in Lakewood. Romero threw 2 perfect innings against the West Virginia Power, the Pirates' single A affiliate. Here are JC's comments... JC on today's appearance- I felt pretty good. I had a good sinker working today. I felt a little sluggish. Ya know, I think it was a little early (11:05am game). I'm not accustomed to throwing early. I felt good, but I wasn't as sharp as I wanted to be. Even though my sinker was moving, I was disappointed with my breaking pitches. On whether he had a pitch count today- Not really, just two innings. Just trying to get the feel for the game. It was a good outing overall. On his pitching schedule between now and June 3rd, when he is eligible to return- Twice. I'm going to Lehigh Valley- Saturday, Sunday...and, going back to back days. But today was the only day that I'll have actually pitched two innings. On if h...

So far this season, Brad Lidge has been scored on in 8 of his 15 appearances, including his last 5. Last season it took Lidge until Joe Blanton's first Phillies start on July 22nd, to be scored upon 8 times. In fact, through May 14th last year, Lidge had only been scored on once (his first run allowed was on May 13th). All of Lidge's runs this season are earned. It was August 3rd last season before Lidge let up earned runs for the 8th time. There have been rare occasions where Lidge struggled this badly. To start his career with Houston in 2002, Lidge was scored on in his first three appearances. In August 2006, Lidge let up runs in three straight appearances for the second time in his career. The following month, Lidge was scored on in 6 out of 8 appearances. Lidge's 2006 season ERA was 5.28. Other than that single rough year, Lidge's highest season ERA came in his first full season in the Majors, 2003, at 3.60. There have been no times in Lidge's career that he wa...

This Phan-a-vision shot that the Phillies have been using, makes the team's grand left fielder, Raul Ibanez, look like Capt. Aceveda (Benito Martinez) from my all time favorite TV program The Shield . ************* News notes on our Phillies... Carlos Ruiz injury set back.... read here . JC Romero sues supplement company...is still cool. Info here . Brad Lidge experiencing knee inflamation. Is day-to-day. Details here . ************* The Good Phight has Scott Franzke's & LA's call of Rauuuul's Slam. Click here .

The baseball world is buzzing this week with arbitration talk and World Baseball Classic roster announcements. Firstly, Tuesday was the day when players and teams exchange dollar numbers for arbitration. Reportedly, Ryan Howard is asking for $18 million, while the Phillies offered $14 million. So, if the two sides reach an arbitration hearing again this year, Howard would, at least, get a 40% raise. Wouldn't we all like to be guaranteed a 40% pay increase this year? While MVP-runner up Howard stayed headed toward arbitration, Ryan Madson , Joe Blanton and Shane Victorino have all come to terms with the Phillies on new contracts. Madson's deal is worth $12 million, with incentives, over 3 years. Shane's deal is for one year, and is for $3.125 million. Big Joe's contract is also a 1-year deal, worth $5.4 million. The remaining Phillies still up for arbitration, aside from Howard, are Jayson Werth and Chad Durbin . Werth is said to have requested $4 million, while...

In what continues to be a string of bad luck (Utley surgery, Amaro Jr. over-spending on Ibanez, Elton Brand's shoulder injury) since Pat Gillick retired as Phillies GM, news is unveiled tonight that JC Romero has been suspended for the first 50 games of next season. It's all very confusing, especially since the Phillies, MLB and Romero all knew about this during the post season. But it seems Romero purchased a supplement from a GNC store in Cherry Hill, NJ on July 22nd, and was told by a nutrionist, the Phillies' conditioning coach Dong Lien and MLB that the supplement was acceptable to use. 3 months later, it turns out, the supplement was not allowed. Romero was initially informed of the positive results on September 23rd. ESPN reports that during October Romero was told, by the Players' Association, that the case would be dropped because the findings of his drug screening were positive due to pills purchased over the counter. That did not prove true, obviously. Romero...