“4 those sincerely concerned, I’m doing ok & plan 2 B back by opening day. 4 those worried abt your fantasy team, u ppl are sick”

Doesn’t sound like he’ll be signing autographs for the fantasy people anytime soon. I can only imagine the tweets he received about his injury to spur that statement on.

The Domonic Brown trial is complete — for now. The verdict? A hung jury. That’s what happens when you break the hamate bone in your wrist and will miss the next 3-6 weeks after undergoing surgery.

That’s exactly what happened to the Future Franchise Player of the Phillies on Saturday. And, while the timing stinks for Brown, it also doesn’t.

The fact is Brown was mired in an 0-for-16 slump before breaking a bone while getting his first hit of the spring. He was under the radar and in the spotlight as The Man everyone wanted to succeed Jayson Werth in right field.

Phillies super prospect Domonic Brown broke his right wrist on Saturday. He will likely be out until mid April.

Brown and his swing haven’t been right since he was called up last year to give the Phillies some depth when Shane Victorino was injured. He was kept around and barely played down the stretch, save a pinch hit appearance here and there. He got rusty and formed bad habits. To this day, he is trying to find his swing — with an entire Hot Stove Nation watching and critiquing him.

By now, most Phils fans know the story of ESPN breaking down his swing for all the Phillies locker room to see. Then, seconds later, Brown walked in said locker room. Awkward was how writers described that scene.

Brown has likely been putting pressure on himself and is not getting better, today’s hit notwithstanding.

Nobody wants to see the guy get hurt and miss out on spring training at bats. But, the “competition” for the right field slot is long over at this point. Ben Francisco will get the nod on opening day.

Brown? He’s not out of the picture at all for this season. In fact, this will ultimately help him. He gets to withdraw from the scrutiny, the spotlight and the pressure. He’ll rehab and then go to Allentown for a “rehab” assignment that will last a few weeks.

With the Iron Pigs you have to hope he finds the beautiful, natural swing that makes him one of the top prospects in all of baseball. He’ll be able to do it away from Philadelphia, away from the magnifying glass.

Then, once he gets himself together, Ruben Amaro can bring The Future Franchise back to Philly where he can play a bit more regularly than he did last year.

You never want to see an injury, but this may just be the best thing for Domonic Brown and the Phillies long term.

This was bound to happen once the NFL went above and beyond in response to “hard, smash mouth” hits on the football field. A guy gets injured badly, and a penalty is called. The only problem is, the hit was clean.

Austin Collie was hit after making a catch against the eagles on Sunday. A 15-yard penalty was immediately assessed. But, was it a penalty? Judge for yourself.

From our standpoint, Collie was hit in the process of making a football move. He was far from defenseless. He got spun into the second Eagles defender, Kurt Coleman. It sucks that he was injured as badly as he was. It sucks he is added to the NFL’s rising concussion statistics.

Still, this was a hit that is part of the game. If hits like this are penalties, players will start to play more tentatively and then the injuries will really rise.

And, before someone starts to say we have this opinion because we are Eagles fans, please note we also had no issue with Dunta Robinson’s hit on DeSean Jackson.

Putting pressure on the quarterback consistently can make an average secondary look good. The Eagles have one of the better pass rushers in the NFC in Trent Cole, and we’re hoping the addition of rookie Brandon Graham would help decrease the double and triple teams that Cole faced this year.

Now, the Birds have to hold their breath as they await an MRI on Cole’s ankle. He suffered an injury that forced him to be carted off the field during the eagles preseason game in Kansas City on Friday. X-rays were negative. That, however, only means it’s not broken. That can be good or bad news depending on the outcome of the MRI.

Trent Cole is scheduled to have an MRI on his ankle. A severe sprain would not be good.

If he has a high ankle sprain or strain, that could actually impact him more than a break. Without any medical training, let’s just say that it seems longer to fully heal from a high ankle sprain than from a break. Sprains can linger for months at a time. And, for a 270-pound pass rusher who relies on speed, the ankle injury will impact Cole like it does a running back. He needs to be able to get a push at the line of scrimmage. He needs to be able to burst past the o-line.

Look, just having Cole on the field will help as his name alone will force teams to key in on him and allow Graham to have single blockers to beat to start the year. Racking up 34 sacks the last three years, including 12.5 in both 2007 and 2009 earns you that. However, how often will he realistically get to the QB if he’s not able to go full speed? We need sacks, not Mamula’s.

The bottom line is that the Eagles defense relies on two players this year to make things happen — Cole and Stewart Bradley. As they go, the defense will go. We saw what happened last year without Bradley. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out what happens without a 100 percent healthy Trent Cole.

Today’s MRI will tell us a lot about what to expect at the start of the year. Let’s hope for a mild sprain and not a severe one.

Before last night’s game at Cincinnati, Utley was hitting .390 over the last two weeks.

When Utley was pulled for a pinch hitter Monday, we all knew something was up. An MRI on his thumb is scheduled for today.

If he just sprained or jammed his thumb and is out for a week or two, the Phillies can survive.

Placido Polanco will take his Gold Glive and man second, assuming he’s healthy. Without Utley, the smart money says he’ll play through elbow pain.

A combination of Wilson Valdez and Juan Castro at third is far from ideal. But both proved during Jimmy Rollins absences this year that they can fill the hole adequately in the short term.

With all the injuries the Phils have had this year, they’re still just 3.5 games out of first. Other teams would have completely tanked. See the Mets last year.

If, however, Utley is out for an extended period of time — think six to eight weeks — Ruben Amaro will have to address the issue. The good news is that he can find either a second or third baseman thanks to Polanco’s flexibility.

Of course, long term, nobody can replace Utley’s intangibles. If that’s the case, the Phils may be in trouble.

For now, cross your fingers and hope the MRI isn’t bad.

Todd Herremans was moved over to sub for Peters.

The last time Peters missed significant time was in Oakland. And, we all remember how well the Eagles moved the ball in that game.

Let’s hope Peters is OK and able to play after halftime. With just under 7 minutes left in the first half, the Eagles trail the Cowboys 7-3.

The Birds will now turn to rookie Shady McCoy who has shown flashes of being able to tote the rock this year. However, he can’t block for crap. That could result in Donovan McNabb being under more pressure today.

In an effort to knock the Phillies off the front page, the Eagles acquired Will Witherspoon on Tuesday.

In an effort to refocus the Philly sports spotlight on themselves today, the Eagles have made a trade at the deadline to solidify themselves as championship contenders.

Will Witherspoon was acquired to add needed depth at the LB position. We’re sure this move will knock J-Roll, Ryan Howard and the Phillies off of the front page of Wednesday’s papers. The Eagles are obviously jealous of the Phillies ability to win a ring and pursue a second, and made this move to take back their town.

The zero time Pro Bowler will surely fill the gap created when Stewart Bradley tore his knee to shreds during a charity fund raising event in August.

This move is significant for two more reasons. First, Omar Gaither is clearly more injured than the team suspected, and the Eagles couldn’t rely only on Jeremiah trotter to man the middle as the team gets into the NFC East schedule.

Second, Reggie Brown will now play an active role in the Eagles offense and is finally ready to realize his potential.

To get Witherspoon, the Eagles traded Brandon Gibson and a future fifth round pick to St. Louis for Witherspoon. Gibson, a late round pick this year, was ahead of Brown on the depth chart. Andy Reid and company wanted to get Brown in a position to make plays.

Why else would the Eagles pick up Witherspoon and the $5 million he is owed in each of the next two years?

For more than a decade, Eagles fans have been subjected to that patronizing statement from coach Andy Reid after every loss.

This is one week we must accept that line simply because it’s true. Sunday’s embarrassing 13-9 loss the the Raiders — a team whose only other win was against a winless Chiefs team — started with Reid the GM and ended with Reid the coach.

Coach Andy Reid is to blame for Sunday's 13-9 loss to the Raiders.

From purely an Xs and Os standpoint, the Eagles were not ready to play. Granted, the Raiders have talent on the defensive side of the ball, but their offense is putrid.

Outside of Justin Fargas, Michael Bush and Zach Miller, they don’t have an offensive player who would play a prominent role on the Eagles, the Giants, the Saints or any other winning franchise. Even Fargas and Bush are pushing it.

Yet, the Raiders beat the Eagles.

The Raiders don’t have a legitimate NFL quarterback or receiver.

Yet, the Eagles were so bad that Raiders signal caller JaMarcus Russell was one of Peter King’s offensive players of the week in his Monday Morning Quarterback column.

On defense, the Eagles’ ineptness at covering the tight end was again demonstrated when Zach Miller shaked-and-baked his way past the Axeman and the Eagles defense on the way to an 86-yard touchdown.

The offense couldn’t do anything because the offensive line looked like Hiroki Kuroda pitching against the Phillies line-up. Jason Peters left the game with a knee injury in the first quarter and didn’t return.

King Dunlap replaced Peters and the Raiders took the Santa Monica freeway to Donovan McNabb the rest of the day. The Eagles offensive line at that point had just one projected starter playing — center Jamaal Jackson. Peters was out of the game and Todd Herramans has yet to suit up this season.

Then, there are the Andrews brothers — Shawn and Stacey. This is where Reid went wrong. He counted on Shawn who has been bothered by back injuries and depression the last two years. We all know that Shawn is in Los Angeles right now. Stacey was coming of of ACL surgery, yet Reid signed him to a six year, $40 million contract. Stacey started the first game, but then was relegated to the second team because he couldn;t get his blocking technique down.

Reid the GM is responsible for the Eagles lack of depth on the line that resulted in yesterday’s loss.

Reid the coach was responsible for not having his team ready, and not taking advantage of the one thing that did work — the running game. Brian Westbrook rushed the ball six times for 50 yards, an eight yard-per-carry average.

Reid is quoted on PhiladelphiaEagles.com as saying they should have run more.

“Coming out, I thought we could have run a little bit more, yes,” Reid said. ”I think we had 14 runs, we could have had a few more than that. But we did what we thought would help us win the game. But looking back we probably could have run the ball a little bit more.”

Not running the ball is purely the fault of coaching; personnel is purely the fault of the GM.

For the Eagles, they are both Reid. They are both why the Eagles loss to an inept, inferior organization yesterday.

Starting left tackle Jason Peters should be OK after sustaining a knee injury on Sunday.

Since we all know coach Andy Reid is the only person in the world who is allowed to discuss injuries to his players, we’re left to take his word on the status of four of his guys who got banged up in Sunday’s humiliating 13-9 loss to the Raiders.

According to Philadelphiaeagles.com, Victor Abiamiri (knee sprain) and Brodrick Bunkley (rib contusion) are day-to-day and will be fine.

Starting left guard Jason Peters, who left with a knee injury early in the first quarter and did not return, also has a sprain and should be ready to play next Monday night in Washington. A long-term injury to Peters would have devastated the offense. King Dunlap proved himself unfit for duty on Sunday.

Linebacker Omar Gaither sprained an ankle and is being evaluated later in the week.

With the number of Eagles who went down on Sunday, the team is lucky to have no apparent season-ending injuries.