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| Explaining the Phillies offense to Mrs. Gump |
The first month of the season has ended and the Phillies are
who we thought they were, to borrow a phrase from former NFL coach Dennis
Green. They’re in last place in the NL East at 8-14, they have second worst run
differential in the Majors at -40 (60 runs scored 100 given up) and they flat
out can’t hit the ball. If anybody tries to complain to me about the current
state of this year’s team my standard response is, “Well, what did you expect?”
This team does not have a chance to be good the same way the
Sixers did not have a chance to be good in the wretched season they just
finished. The problem is the Phils were put together with the intention of
winning whereas the Sixers always intended to lose. This season will ramble on as a disaster but as fans of the Phillies it’s important to find some good
in the ball club, even when it is almost all bad. That’s why we’re
starting a new series on The Hitter’s Count Blog called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It’s a
fitting name because each inning, each game, each series from here on out will
most likely have some good, some bad, and some ugly to it, that’s just who the
Phils are these days. Ryne Sandberg is the opposite of the Man With No Name
because he’s not doing anything to help this collection of low grade baseball
talent, but that’s for another time.
The Good
Holy shit! Is that Freddie Galvis hitting .361 after 21 games?
A couple big hits? Flashy leather? Is a Phillie making the most of an opportunity for the
first time since Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth? Let’s not get carried away
we’re not even ¼ of the way into the season but let’s do a quick comparison
shall we?
Galvis Stat Rollins
21 Games 21
.361 Avg .185
.403 On
Base .280
.444 Slugging .333
9 Runs 10
3 Errors 4
.964 Fielding
% .944
I’m sure none of us really expected Jimmy Rollins to turn
back the clock in LA, but did anybody expect
Galvis to be out playing him at the plate and in the field after a
month? No, nobody did.
Speaking of making the most of an opportunity (so far!),
there’s young Rule 5 draft pick center fielder Odubel Herrera. Odoobs, as we
call him, has been the most productive offensive player on the team and has
held his own in center considering he was a second baseman his whole career
until a few months ago. Odoobs is hitting .304 and leads the team in extra base
hits (8), runs (9), and is second in steals (4), slugging (.430), and walks
(5).
Some other positives to take from the first month include
Aaron "Lemon" Harang starting the season with 3 straight quality starts, he did not get
his 4th against the Cardinals Wednesday night. Jonthan Papelbon is 5
for 5 in save opportunities and only given up one run. Ken Giles, the heir to
the Pap throne, has the most appearances and most innings in the bullpen, and
the lowest ERA – he has yet to allow a run. Cole Hamels can’t seem to find the
strike zone consistently but he’s still grinding out starts, and has his ERA
down to 3.19 after a rough first two starts.
The Bad
It may be hard to distinguish the bad from some of the ugly as
there will be plenty of both as the season goes on, but The Hitter’s Count will
do its best. So we knew the offense would be bad coming into the season, but
here’s just how bad it is with league ranks and the National League averages
following each stat. Note this is out of 15 teams.
Runs – 60 / 15th / 87
Hits – 157 / 14th / 180
Doubles – 26 / 14th / 36
Home Runs – 12 / 15th / 18
Average – .223 / 15th
/ .248
On base – .280 / 14th / .311
Slugging - .325 / 15th / .385
Wow, painful just to get that down on paper. And that’s not
even the ugly!! This is like that scene in Forrest Gump where the principal
shows his mom this here’s normal, this here’s Forrest, and he points well below
the minimum acceptable IQ. In this case, it’s every single offensive stat. Too bad Sandy can’t sleep with somebody to get
us out of this mess.
The Ugly
Chase Utley. My god, not sure I’ve ever seen anything as bad
as Chase Utley’s stat line through the first month. Chase Utley is 8-70 on the
season, hitting .114. EIGHT FOR SEVENTY! He went 3-3 with 2 home runs in a game
against the Mets two weeks ago, so if you take away that game Utley is 5-77
(.064) with zero extra base hits. He does not have a double on the season. Chase
has certainly hit into a ton of bad luck as evidenced by the
advanced stat metric BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) where he is dead
last in the league at .102. Regardless, it’s been raw sewage at the plate
for Chase and stupefyingly Ryne Sandberg continues to pencil him in batting 3
every single night. Sandy had no qualms about dropping Ryan Howard down in the
lineup as low as 7th, and while Howard hasn’t responded to the tune
of raising his average he has belted 4 home runs this week, which is nice. I
just don’t get the thought process of Sandy continuing to bat Utley in the most
important spot in the lineup when he’s proven to be in the worst slump of his
career. Make it stop Chase, or Sandy, one of you. For the sake of everyone.
Jake Diekman. Oh boy. 9 innings pitched, 10 earned runs, 9 walks, 2.44 WHIP, 10.0 ERA. Time to rethink some things Jake.
Jake Diekman. Oh boy. 9 innings pitched, 10 earned runs, 9 walks, 2.44 WHIP, 10.0 ERA. Time to rethink some things Jake.
We don’t need to get any more in depth than this. Until next
time sports fans..
