The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Vol. 2

2015 Philadelphia Phillies

I’ll start by saying I don’t watch this team any more. How can you? If you’re watching the Phillies on a nightly basis without more than just a fan’s regular interest in their team you probably need to readjust your priorities in life. We’re talking catastrophically bad baseball being played by a team with two talented baseball players, total. So let’s talk about them for the brief good portion of Volume 2 of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly that is the 2015 Phillies.

The Good

Cole Hamels continues to be, well, Cole Hamels. From early May until his second start in June he had a 6 start streak of at least 7 innings pitched and 2 earned runs or less. He’s the last Phillies starter to register a W in the win column, way back on May 23^rd. Yes, we’re nearing a month without a win from a Phillies starter. After his first ever rough start against the Reds he bounced back with a masterful performance on Sunday in Pittsburgh in which he struck out 12 in 7 innings. He took a no decision and the Phils lost 1-0 in extras for the second time in the series. You gotta laugh.

Hamels has a 2.96 ERA, leads the NL in innings pitched (really great job Sandy), is 4^th in strikeouts at better than a K an inning, and is also 4^th in WAR at 2.8 wins above replacement. We’re a little over a month away from the trade deadline and I think it’s just fantastic that we’re letting Ruben Amaro be the guy who pulls the trigger on the impending Hamels trade. You know, he’s got such a great proven track record of judging prospect talent that we should entrust him with the trade that will need to be a cornerstone of the rebuilding process for these Phillies. He’s done so well since he’s taken over for Pat Gillick, I have phaith.

Next we have the only position player on the team I wouldn’t cut or trade if it were possible. Maikel Franco looks like he should be a ball player for the Phillies at the hot corner for years to come. He’s leading this group of batsmen with a .274 batting average while also leading them in slugging at .530. He has shown some slick fielding chops and will need to hone that craft a bit as he has been prone to some errors that should be avoidable as he gets more seasoned. He hit his 7^th home run of the season last night and if you’ve watched him at the plate, boy, he does not get cheated with his swings.

The Bad

Alright, enough of the stuff that doesn’t make you want to gouge your eyes out when watching. Because trust me, that’s what you’d probably rather do if you were subject to watch 3 hours of abject garbage each and every night. Man, I would love to hear Larry Andersen’s off the record thoughts on this pathetic excuse for a baseball team.

So let’s get this straight, it’s hard to differentiate the bad from the ugly but we’ll start with this entire team. Since the last Phillies related Hitter’s Count post when they were in the midst of an obviously unsustainable offensive outburst, the Phils have gone 5-21. In the 21 losses the Phils are averaging 2.28 runs per game which includes being shut out in 3 of their last 5. During the current 8 game losing streak they’ve been particularly horrendous. In the 8 games they’ve been outscored 51-14, or basically 7 to 2 every night. Yikes, we may have just dipped into the ugly section early, but let’s save that for individual accolades – or whatever the opposite of accolades is.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the horror that is Phillies baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks lead the NL with 291 runs scored (4.5 per game) and the Brewers are second to last at 50 runs less than the DBacks with 241 (3.6 per game). The Phils, dead last, have scored 41 less than the Brewers! They are at 200 runs on the season or 3.0 runs per game. What else are they last in do you ask? Home runs of course, with 37 on season or .56 a game. The Reds and Dodgers both have more than double the Phils home run total. They’re also last in total bases (by 50 total bags), last in slugging at .347 (next closest is .371) and last in OPS. Man, the Brewers are pretty damn bad as well as they kept the Phillies out of the basement in batting average and on base percentage, but not by much! Here’s a nice little fun fact, the McDonald’s Home Run Payoff winner last night won $800 because the Phillies had not homered in 8 games – the payout accumulates $100 every night the Phils don’t homer. Remember the days when we never saw that go past $100? They’re gone.

The Ugly

Have to draw a line somewhere on this. We’ll get into some ugly, as if what I’ve said already wasn’t.

Here are starter’s lines during this 8 game losing streak.

Cole Hamels vs Reds – 6 IP 5 ER 2 BB 7 Ks 1 home run allowed – Lost 6-4

Aaron Harang vs Reds – 6 IP 7 ER 2 BB 5 Ks 4 home runs allowed – Lost 11-2

Jerome Williams vs Reds – 6 IP 4 ER 1 BB 3 Ks 1 home run allowed – Lost 5-2

Kevin Correia (who?!?) vs Pirates – 5.2 IP 0 ER 1 BB 4 Ks – Lost 1- in 13 innings

Sean O’Sullivan vs Pirates – 6 IP 4 ER 4 BB 1 K – Lost 4-3

Cole Hamels vs Pirates – 7 IP 0 ER 1 BB 12 Ks – Lost 1-0 in 11 innings

Aaron Harang vs Orioles 6 IP 4 ER 2 BB 2 Ks 1 home run allowed – Lost 4-0

Jerome Williams vs Orioles .2 IP 6 ER 2 BB 1 home run allowed / Dustin McGowan 3.1 IP 6 ER 2 BB 4 Ks 5 home runs allowed – Lost 19-3

Yeah, that's right. I listed the first two guys that pitched in the epic debacle that was the 19-3 loss to the Orioles. It was so bad Jeff Francoeur pitched the final two innings. He plays right field.

Even when they pitch well, they fall flat on their face at the plate is the point I’m trying to make here.

Chase Utley, where do we start?  After having a decent two week stretch at the end of May it looks like it could really be time for Chase to hang em up. He raised his average from .099 on May 8^th all the way to .207 on June 2^nd but since then Chase has 3 hits in his last 12 games and his average has dipped back down to .183. The guy just takes an oh fer every night. It’s depressing, he just is not a Major League Baseball player any more. Sandy and the Phils brass are keeping him in the lineup though! Maybe they want that option to vest, so they can get him another year at $14 million hitting under .200. Who knows? The Phillies certainly don’t.

Freddy Galvis hit .355 in April. He hit .237 in May and is hitting .140 in June. We call this regression to the mean.

Ryan Howard posted a slash of .280/.311/.550 in May as he swatted 6 homers and knocked in 15 runs. In June he’s slashing .174/.224/.304 and has 1 home run in his last 19 games. He has 3 RBIs in June. Three.

Lastly, the Phillies are sitting at 22-44 which projects to 54 wins. Gulp. They have a run differential of -111. The next closest team to them as far as run differential is concerned is Milwaukee at -72. In other words, the Phils are far and away the worst team in Major League Baseball. Staggering.

Okay, I don’t think I can go any further but I believe you all get the idea. Let’s go Phils, huh?

Now for the unique perspective of Mr. Andrew Eisenhart and his 3 paragraph essays -

The Ryan Howard Situation

The Phils are awful.  This we know.  Depending on how you judge success, they have become significantly worse successively over the last 3-6 seasons.  You cannot point to one specific example as the cause of this; there has been a series of events that have led us to where this organization is right now.  In a knowledgeable fan base such as Philadelphia, that sentiment is a fairly widely accepted belief.  However, if you listen to sports radio (Do they even talk about this Phillies anymore?  It’s all Eagles and Sixers draft.), Ryan Howard tends to bear the brunt of a lot of criticism and undoubtedly takes the most blame for where the Phillies are as an organization.  This common feeling can be attributed to two indisputable facts: Howard’s rather large contract and the downfall of his offensive production over the last three seasons. 

Numbers never lie, but they often fail to tell the whole truth.  Ryan Howard will be making a cool $25 million per year through the 2016 season.  Folks tend to see that number and just think, “another overpaid athlete.”  On the surface, this is understandable.  But people should look beyond the surface and realize this is a guy who has a very limited window to maximize his profit potential.  Every time I read anything business related, the underlying theme is always geared around maximizing your profit margins.  Athletes need to do this as well and we shouldn’t criticize them for it.  Rather, like any business, the blame should be directed at the mismanagement that has taken place.   

Howard’s contract is critically regarded as one of the worst contracts in baseball by the “experts.”  On the contrary, I guarantee you the players and their agents hold Ryan Howard and his agent (CAA Sports) in very high regard.  The fans should view Ryan Howard’s contract and think, “Bravo, Ryan, Bravo.”  Why don’t we give him and his agent some credit for negotiating a good deal instead of the blame?  It’s not as if there is a real salary cap in Major League Baseball (See: Yankees, New York).  If the Phillies weren’t the laughing stock of Major League Baseball, would this negative sentiment still ring true?  In 2013, I bought a house for 20% less than the listed price.  I negotiated like a dog pleading for food on a bad day in Bosnia.  We went back and forth several times until we found some middle ground.  In the end, when the sellers agreed, people congratulated me.  Additionally, I felt great about what I had pulled off.  Who wouldn’t?    

This keeping-it-real opinion is brought to you by Chuck Shick.