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These Phillies are not your slightly-older brother's Phillies. While they're not exactly terrible in comparison to the league (in fact, they've been a bit unlucky), they are really bad in comparison to themselves and the team that has been fielded over the past few years. 2007 notwithstanding, this Phillies "dynasty" has been slightly overrated offensively, while their bread and butter has been a pitching staff that has been nothing short of awesome in most seasons. However, with Roy Halladay ineffective and now on the shelf with an injury, as well as the slight regression of Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels, the Phillies' below average offense has caught up with them, thus the reason why they find themselves in last place in the NL East with a 31-37 record.
Truth be told, the offense has been average or worse in every season since 2008. Ryan Howard's success had always been a bit overstated (just don't say that to Huston Street), and Chase Utley had been on the decline for a couple of years. With both players out due to injury, the Phillies have remained below average in terms of OPS+, despite the efforts Hunter Pence (121 OPS+), Juan Pierre (101 OPS+, .363 OBP), and a cast of useful part-time players led by Jim Thome (126 OPS+). They're also enjoying a career year from their longtime backstop...
Ruiz, or "PHAKKIN' CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH," as he's known as by the locals, has used the ridiculous slash line above to post a team-leading 164 OPS+, which is good for sixth in the National League, just behind Ryan Braun and ahead of Carlos Gonzalez. It's not easy to be the best hitting catcher in the league when you're 33 years old and play the same position as AJ Ellis (who is having the careerest of years), but Chooch is doing it anyway. Good for him. I like catchers, even ones who play for the Phillies.
As I mentioned above, pitching has been the specialty of this era of the Phillies, with the exception of 2007, when they were an offensive powerhouse (which also coincides with when Jimmy Rollins was still a useful big leaguer). They've been absurdly above average-to-exceptional, with last year's 127 ERA+ representing the pitching staff's peak. Everyone who started a game not named Joe Blanton experienced a tremendous amount of success, and the club's league-high 102 wins reflected as much. This season is a much different story, as the staff's collective ERA+ has fallen to 95 - not quite Rockies-level failure (87 ERA+), but still not good.
The last part of that paragraph is really weird because, aside from Kyle Kendrick, everybody in the rotation is good at striking people out and also good at not walking people. Even Blanton, whose ERA+ sits at just 79, has struck out 68 batters and walked just 12. However, perhaps due to the fact that he's in or around the zone so often, he has allowed a league-leading 96 hits this season. The BABIP isn't even THAT high (.315), so it's reasonable to suggest that his propensity to be hit hard will continue. Meanwhile, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels remain two of the best in the league as far as K/BB ratio is concerned (along with Blanton), yet Hamels' ERA+ has dropped by 20, and Lee's by almost 50. This is due in part to being slightly more hittable this season as compared to a year ago. As is the case with Blanton, both guys are allowing a relatively-average BABIP, so the trend may continue as the weather heats up. Weird stuff, as the peripherals for each of these pitchers (and for Vance Worley, who has actually improved from a year ago) are good-to-excellent.
Jonathan Papelbon is closing games for Philly after coming over from Boston as a free agent. He has been excellent as always (over 10 K/9 and less than 2 BB/9), but there have been grumblings about him being misused by Charlie Manuel, b. However, that might have to do with the fact that, aside from Antonio Bastardo (157 ERA+) and Raul Valdes (188 ERA+), the rest of the bullpen has been bad. And, when wins start to be hard to come by, the fingerpointing begins to run rampant. We know that better than almost anyone.
Probable starters and more after the jump...
Game 1 - tonight at 5:05 PM MT (ROOT Sports)
Josh Outman (0-2, 8.44 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (9-3, 3.34 ERA)
Game 2 - tomorrow at 5:05 PM MT (ROOT Sports)
Alex White (2-5, 5.56) vs. Joe Blanton (6-6, 4.93)
Game 3 - Thursday at 5:05 PM MT (ROOT Sports/MLB Network)
Jeff Francis (0-1, 12.46) vs. Vance Worley (3-3, 2.80)