PHILADELPHIA -- As Ryan Howards time in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform counts down, fans are going to see more of the former MVP at Citizens Bank Park.Howard has been platooning with fellow first baseman Tommy Joseph for the majority of the season, and Joseph has been getting most of the starts lately. But manager Pete Mackanin said Thursday he plans to use Howard in all three games against the Marlins -- a series which starts Friday night at 7:05 p.m. in Philadelphia.I spoke to Joseph and Howard. Joseph will play today and Howies going to play the next three unless we see a lefty, Mackanin said. I re-thought that and decided that Howie is going to play a little bit more because this is possibly his last year here.Howard is in his final year of a five-year, $125 million deal, and he has just eight home games left with the Phillies. Mackanin added he wants Howard to also play in the final three when the Phillies close out their season against the Mets at home on Sept. 30-Oct. 2.A three-time All-Star, Howard is the last remaining piece of the Phillies 2008 World Series team still on the roster. Philadelphia fans have seen Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins and Carlos Ruiz all traded in the last two seasons. Mackanin is hoping Howard will get a warm send off in what could be his final games at Citizens Bank Park.Hes really meant a lot to this organization, Mackanin added.Howard, 36, has made only eight starts in September. For the season, he has 19 homers and a .678 OPS in 103 games. Meanwhile, Joseph has had a solid rookie campaign, belting 19 homers in his first 92 major league games.The Marlins are scheduled to throw three right-handed pitchers in the weekend series, starting with Tom Koehler on Friday.Koehler (9-11, 3.97 ERA) will be making his 30th start of the season, his fifth of which has come against the Phillies. In his first four outings against Philadelphia in 2016, Koehler is 2-1 with a 2.19 ERA and has gone at least seven innings in three of them.Koehler was not so sharp his last time out, allowing four earned runs and three homers in five innings against the Dodgers.The Marlins, who were off Thursday, enter the series in fourth-place in the National League Wild Card race. The Marlins are on a two-game winning streak, and at 73-73, they cant afford many losses in their remaining 16 games.Obviously, it was a big game because every win is big, Marlins manager Don Mattingly told MLB.com after his team beat the Braves on Wednesday.The Marlins will be facing Phillies left-hander Adam Morgan (2-10, 5.73 ERA). Morgan shut down the Marlins earlier in the month, holding them to one run on five hits in six innings on Sept. 5.Morgan has gone at least six innings in each of his last three starts and has a 2.41 ERA and 0.696 WHIP in that span. Cheap NBA Jerseys China . -- Cam Newton pranced into the end zone, placed his hands over his chest and did his familiar Superman pose. Supply NFL Jerseys . R.J. Umberger scored twice to lead the Blue Jackets to a franchise-record for consecutive wins with a 5-3 victory Tuesday night over the Los Angeles Kings. http://www.wholesalechinajerseys.net/ . 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Publicly, nobody is panicking.The AAC held its annual gathering in New England to eat lobster, kick off its fourth football season and start talking about what happens if the conference loses members to Big 12 expansion.I cannot stand here this morning and ignore the recent Big 12 news regarding realignment, Commissioner Mike Aresco said during his state of the conference address Tuesday. Although I do want to address it at the outset, Im not going to dwell on it.Coming off a successful 2015 on the field that included 10 victories against Power Five teams and four teams ranked in the Top 25 at some point, the conference is again facing uncertainty. While Aresco likes to tout the American as the equal of a Power Five league -- he uses the term Power Six -- the fact is there is still a wide gap in revenue and prestige between the AAC and high-resource conferences.The Big 12 offers a chance for two or maybe even four schools access to the pot of gold that comes with Power Five inclusion. And most of the 12 schools in the American have expressed interest either publicly or privately in joining. There are no secrets here.I think its pretty evident whos been maneuvering, but we respect each other enough to not put each other on the spot, said East Carolina athletic director Jeff Compher, who is the chairman of the American ADs group.Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen said: Were committed to the present right now. I think that keeps us balanced.Aresco met with AAC athletic directors in Rhode Island over the last three days. He said the meetings were productive and all schools participated. While the public nature of the Big 12s exploration of expansion is not ideal, Aresco said, he is pleased with the transparency of his members.I think weve set a tone that we are going to approach this in a workman like fashion, Aresco said in an interview with the AP. Were not going to be morose. Were not going to be actinng like woe is me.dddddddddddd Just the opposite of that. This just means there is work to be done.Aresco said contingency plans to deal with possible departures have been discussed. He would not give details, but said the league has considered that it could lose as many as four members, dropping membership to eight.All things considered I think wed like to be back at 12 if we lose some schools because it gives you more (television) inventory, Aresco said. The American is halfway through a six-year television deal with ESPN.There is only a handful of schools that I think would be attractive to us. What we dont want to do is risk the progress weve made, put it in jeopardy. We dont want to do anything to dilute our brand in any way. Could we stay at 10? If it makes more sense, absolutely. Especially in the short-term. We can play a championship game at 10.Aresco said he has not had an extensive conversation with Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby about the Big 12s plans, but they did talk. Aresco said he is comfortable that he will be kept in the loop as the Big 12s plans come into focus. Aresco said Bowlsby did not lay out a timetable other than to say the Big 12 hoped to work quickly.Aresco took over as commissioner in 2012 when the American was still the Big East. The conference was falling apart during that round of realignment. Ultimately, defections forced the conference into a near-complete makeover and what emerged was the American Athletic Conference. Aresco said having gone through the Big Easts downfall will help the American get through this.This is not going to be fun. Its not going to be easy, Aresco said. We know we had to rebuild three years ago. I think it was a dire situation then. Its probably less so now but that doesnt mean that there wont be specific challenges. Were trying to be prepared.---Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP ' ' '