Philadelphia Phillies are presenting us with a dance of the infielders, just as predicted.
The Philadelphia Phillies dance of the infielders continues, just as manager Gabe Kapler suggested it would. The question among the team’s fans is: will it remain the same way for the entire year, emphasizing the defensive versatility Kapler prizes, or will the whole thing settle down so that the same fielders can get used to another modern baseball reality, the defensive shift, from one position.
Older fans and professional observers may be inclined to believe things will ultimately settle. Others aren’t so sure.
The Phillies listed five players on their website April 15 as 25-man roster infielders: J.P. Crawford, Maikel Franco, Cesar Hernandez, Scott Kingery, and Carlos Santana. Consideration of their abilities reveals the problem. All of them could start for some team, and that doesn’t mean for three of them, it would take a pretty weak team.
Probably half the teams in baseball would start all five of them a fair number of games in a season. The obvious problem is there are only four infield positions, without getting into arguments about what pitchers and catchers are. Additionally, two players listed as outfielders can also play infield, a third once did, and one of them, Rhys Hoskins, is likely the Phillies first baseman of the future.
Thus far this season, only one of the team’s infielders has seemed stable at one position. Ironically, he’s the one many fans think should be traded, Hernandez. He has played in 12 of the Phillies first 13 games, all of them at second base.
Crawford, who was handed shortstop in December, has been at “his” position in 10 games. Santana, who was handed first base when he joined the team in the same month, has played in 11 games at that position. Franco, who has played in only 11 of his career 387 games anywhere but third base, has played in just eight games at his position.
And at the heart of this matter is Kingery, and your instinct may be to say, ”Oh, hell, so Kingery has played – count ‘em, 10 games off his natural position, second – while players got days off.” A deeper dig here reveals a begging question and a weird fact.
The question: is it odd the four starting infielders got a total of 11 of 52 possible complete position-games off in the first two weeks? Kapler’s answer would be no. Players always need rest. Move yourself into the 21st century.
(I’m thinking of copyrighting “complete position-games,” a complete game at one position, and “position-games,” any part of a game at a particular position. Analytics people will love the second. The potential in a given game is nine, ten in the AL. The practical maximum is two. Or is it three? Wheee. More numbers. What’s the goal number?)
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The weird fact is Kingery isn’t just covering the resting players on their days off. He’s played in four games at third, not five, and in four games at short, not three. He’s also played three games in the outfield. Pedro Florimon is also in this mix, playing short and third.
All of this has not gone entirely smoothly. Franco and Kapler have already had an “emotional,” clear-the-air session on the field before a game in the past few days. Predictably, Kapler saw the talk in a positive light, and Franco should be cut some slack for improving his swing, so far, and wanting to play while he’s producing (12 RBI before play April 15).
Kingery already has eight extra-base hits while bouncing all over the place like Bugs Bunny, and some expect him to settle somewhere.
The question is: where?
As long as the Phillies continue to win eight games for every 13 played, expect Gabe Kapler to consider a position-game number of 2.50 or 5.50 to be just fine.
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For the record, Florimon started at short with Kingery at second against Tampa Bay, April 15. So, would that be the first or second time that double play combination has played together?
Oops, another issue…? Never mind, Scott Kingery just hit a three-run double, taking over the team lead in RBI. Who cares where he’s playing?