The Phillies Pull Out All the Stops to Secure a Playoff Berth
It’s mid-August and the Phillies have yet to pop. Are the additions of the legendary Charlie Manuel and Logan Morrison enough to save the season?
It hasn’t been the year that Philadelphia Phillies fans had hoped for out of their Fightin’ Phils after the signing of Bryce Harper in the offseason. The Phillies started off as hot as anyone in the league, sweeping the Braves in the opening series of the season and coasting to various “10-games-above-.500” records over the course of April, May and even into early June.
But unfortunately for them, through a bombardment of injuries and an underperforming lineup and rotation, the Phils finished the month of June 11-16, the month of July 12-11, and now sit in the month of August at 5-7 with a total record of 61-58, which comes out to 3rd place in the NL East and 9 games back of 1st place and 2 games back of the second Wild Card spot.
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No, they’re most certainly not out of it, but if they can’t make some serious changes in a hurry, they’ll be sitting at home again come October and Gabe Kapler could be out of a job, which would be a shame after the strides he took with this team in 2018.
It was a huge problem for them last year, but the inability of the lineup to jel has carried over into 2019. That wouldn’t be that bad of a problem had the rotation been carrying their weight like it did in 2018. 2019, however, has been a different story for the Phillies rotation which we’ll get to in a bit.
Looking at the lineup, Jean Segura is leading the team in batting average (.284) and their best player this year, arguably, has been Scott Kingery who’s come out of nowhere to hit .275 with 14 home runs and 35 RBIs with the second-best OPS on the team (.840).
Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper have combined to strike out 261 times and both hold slugging percentages lower than one Scott Kingery at the top of the order. The home runs are still coming, the walks are still coming, and they both lead the team in RBIs as expected. But the thing is, even though both Hoskins and Bryce are posting what should be considered “typical” years for them, the fact that the team isn’t performing as a whole places an even heavier burden on them.
They both hit like this last year, and in all honesty, might hit like this for the rest of their careers (which isn’t that bad if you’re on a successful team and you’re still producing runs). But the supporting cast is something that needs to step up so Hosk and Bryce aren’t shouldering trying to keep the team above water with averages below .250.
When we look at the lineup post-All Star Break (and all of these numbers in this article are before their game on August 14th):
26th in Runs Scored (119)
26th in Batting Average (.241)
24th in On-Base Percentage (.311)
28th in Slugging (.399)
26th in OPS (.710)
These can’t be your numbers in mid-August if your goal is a championship.
Then when we shift to the pitching this year:
Pre-All Star Break
19th in ERA (4.64)
23rd in Batting Average Against (.265)
22nd in Opp. OBP (.334)
26th in Opp. SLG (.465)
26th in Opp. OPS (.799)
Post All-Star Break
14th in ERA (4.58)
16th in Batting Average Against (.257)
22nd in Opp. OBP (.337)
16th in Opp. SLG (.443)
17th in Opp. OPS (.779)
Nothing has changed drastically much as we can see. Unfortunately, just like how we talk about the Red Sox and say “It’s just not their year,” the same can be said here for the Phillies, a World Series-hopeful team heading into the 2019 season.
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Their hitting coach all year is now out and the great Charlie Manuel is back in as a result of the offense’s shortcomings. The team is also bringing Logan Morrison up to presumably face righties and play first-base. The Phillies are pulling out all the stops now to save their season. Can they pull it off? Absolutely. But now with Jake Arrieta out for the year, the bevy of injuries to the entire pitching staff on (what seems like a weekly basis), and the uncertainty of the rotation outside of Aaron Nola, it’s going to be an extremely-uphill battle if the Phils want to see October baseball in 2019.