Feb. 17 -- SPELLING RELIEF

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Happy Sunday. Another beautiful, sun-spalshed day here. The mercury should be climbing to about 80 degrees today.

There's plenty in your $1.50-center about Kris Benson's first (of what will be many) spring-training bullpen sessions and Carlos Beltran's attempt to make like Jimmy Rollins and predict the Mets will be the "team to beat" in the NL East this season. But we also threw a change-up from the newsy spring-training updates and wrote a feature about overused relievers.

You see it every year, don't you? Relievers who make 80 or 90 appearances, and pitch 90 or 100 innings, in one season and struggle or get injured the next. It happened to Geoff Geary over the past two seasons with the Phillies. In 2006, Geary tossed 91-1/3 innings over 81 games and posted a 2.96 ERA. Last year, his ERA swelled to 4.41, and he was shuttled to and from the minors.

Talked to Geary yesterday (he's alive and well in the Astros' camp in Kissimmee, Fla., near Orlando), and while he didn't use his workload in 2006 as an excuse, he speculated that it may have affected him last year. Tom Gordon believes that pitching in half the Yankees' games in 2004 and 2005 contributed to his injury problems during the past two seasons and the partial tear in his shoulder that he'll attempt to pitch through this year.

So, what's the solution? Gordon said relievers have to tell their managers when they need a day off, but that isn't easy. No reliever wants to admit he's tired, even when he can't lift his arm. Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee said teams have to carefully monitor their relievers, but that's difficult, too. When the stakes are high to win, it's hard not to use your best relievers. Last September, Dubee and Charlie Manuel called on Gordon, Brett Myers and J.C. Romero in nearly every game.

Thus, relievers will keep pitching, even when they probably shouldn't.

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We'll try to get some Phillies reaction today to Beltran's comments, although Rollins, the player most likely to return fire, hasn't arrived in camp yet. He's expected to be here tomorrow or Tuesday, just in time for the first full-squad workout.