A rant by star pitcher Jake Arrieta highlights the problems of the weakly offensive Philadelphia Phillies, who may also have another problem.
Following the egregious series just put together by the Philadelphia Phillies in San Francisco, their most expensive winter acquisition, Jake Arrieta, lost it. Finding fault with himself, his team’s defensive shifts, a specific player’s defense, and the team’s offense, the pitcher called his team’s effort in Frisco “horse expletive” in front of reporters in the visitors’ locker room.
No one could argue with the ace right-hander. The Phillies are an MLB worst -11 in Shift Runs Saved, as Todd Zolecki notes. (The only other team with a negative figure is Los Angeles.) Sometime shortstop Scott Kingery made a key error in the 6th inning before Arrieta gave up a three-run homer to Andrew McCutchen.
And for the weekend, the Phillies scored a single run in three games, on a homer by Arrieta himself in Sunday’s 3rd inning. This lack of offense is what bothered Arrieta the most. He specifically said when asked what was bugging him most, “We scored one run. That’s not good.”
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Suddenly, the Phillies, who quietly declared themselves rebuilt enough when they signed the former Cubs star, awoke to find part of their renovated house had fallen into a sinkhole.
The Problems Analyzed
The first two issues – mistakenly designed shifts (allegedly) and Kingery’s play – are cousins. Modern teams believe in two things with a passion – shifting and defensive versatility. The shifting leads to the need for versatility. “See, sometimes this guy plays on this side of second, sometimes on that side.”
Sometimes third basemen play on the first base side of second. Second basemen and shortstops play in the outfield. Everybody suddenly plays everywhere, and thus, here and there decision problems arise. Kingery described his on Sunday when talking about his error on a softly hit ball up the middle:
“I kind of got caught in the middle of whether or to slide flip to second base or just come in charging and go straight to first.” That’s right (if Kingery actually said that) – the sentence construction reflects the confusion.
Arrieta had simpler advice – copy the best performing teams’ shift schemes. He added, “That’s not my job.”
As to the offense, at this point, it simply doesn’t seem to be enough. Five regular or semi-regular players noted as hitting below .200 about three weeks ago are now just three, but the two who have moved over .200, Nick Williams and Carlos Santana, have only moved to .236 and .218, respectively. Apparently, for a visit to San Francisco, everybody went cold regarding effectiveness.
Regarding Arrieta’s blaming himself for part of the lost weekend, yes, his ERA jumped from 2.16 to 2.66 in a single inning, but McCutchen’s home run was a tiny bit cheap, barely making the right field stands just inside the foul pole. Arrieta is still one of the NL’s best pitchers.
And Another Issue
So, the Phillies are suddenly floundering? (They’ve fallen to three games behind first-place Atlanta.) Is management flummoxed?
Maybe not. Maybe so.
Manager Gabe Kapler seemed to address Arrieta’s concerns quickly and somewhat intelligently. It doesn’t do, however, to parse what Kapler says sometimes. It’s a bit too positive and too empathetic too consistently, and here and there one always finds a concerning phrase:
"“[Arrieta’s] a really passionate individual,” said Kapler. “He cares a lot about winning and this series pissed him off. It pisses me off, too. It was not our best series.”“He and I are going to spend some time talking about how we position defenders behind him. We are flexible and reasonable as it relates to the way we position defenders and we will be responsive to the optimal positioning based on our spray charts and based on where guys hit the ball, and we’ll also be responsive to our players, their needs and the best way to position defenders behind them, so they are comfortable as they make their pitches.”"
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The concerning phrase is “behind him.” When you’re a team is dead last in shifting efficiency, ten points behind the next to the worse team, maybe the problem isn’t just where they are when they play behind Jake Arrieta.