While anxiously awaiting the inevitable Stephen A. Smith column asking why Chase Utley (a white man) isn’t receiving the same amount of criticism for his lack of production as Ryan Howard (a black man) would under similar circumstances…

It is rather obvious Chase Utley, the best second baseman in baseball, is struggling mightily. Given his previous hip problems, speculators have jumped to the conclusion that Utley must be hurt again. Only Utley knows if it is due to injury, since he won’t tell anyone, but there is another possible reason for why he can’t hit: a good ole’ slump.

The question is, which is better for the Phillies?

Some would argue that an Utley injury is in fact best for the Phillies. How? If his hip is bothering him again, it is not going to go away for the rest of the season, and in all likelihood it will continue to get worse. An injury would be a concrete reason, but probably the worst outcome for the success of the Phillies. They need a healthy Chase Utley to hit for them.

Utley has probably never experienced a slump as drastic as this, one that has seen his batting average plummet to .256. It is the lowest it has ever been this “late” in the season, and has coincided with hitting slumps and other injuries to make the Phillies near-unwatchable in the past few weeks.

It has also seen Utley become a liability in the lineup, especially as the all-important No. 3 hitter. Whenever the Phillies piece together some kind of rally, he has become the rally killer, grounding into double plays or inning-ending outs all too often and squandering chances to add runs for a team that is having trouble scoring any at this point.

Utley is far from the only Phillie to blame in this stretch of bad baseball. The team did salvage a win in Boston yesterday to avoid a sweep, but now faces consecutive series against two first-place teams, the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. The revenge factor of course will be in play against the defending World Series champs, but the Twins are also a tough team that the Phillies, in their current funk, will have a difficult time beating.

The reality of the situation is, whether by injury or slump, Chase Utley has been far from his normal self in the last month. That has to change as soon as possible. If he is indeed hurt, which there is little reason to think is the case, it may ruin the Phillies’ season basically before it began. A slump, albeit a baaaaaad one, is the most likely, and best-case, explanation. This also means it is reversible and that, as ugly as it is now, there are brighter days ahead for Philly’s favorite second baseman.

There is a third scenario. Maybe Utley’s acting debut is weighing heavily on his mind, as he and Howard will be filming next week for an episode in the next season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, where he may get the chance to answer Mac’s letter:

Or maybe it’s the fact that someone wrote that letter in the first place that is weighing heavily on his mind…