Something seems amiss with this team. They sit in third place in the National League East with a 41-37 record. However they are three games behind the Atlanta Braves, and when we look at their record by month we see a team that is just a tad better than a .500 club. Their best month was May where they put together a 16-12 record. They have a 10-8 record in interleague play, and finished June with just a 13-13 record. I think we may be seeing fatigue set in as this team has made consecutive tripe to teh World Series the last two years.
We start with the bad news, the Phillies left side of the infield will be without 2B Chase Utley and 3B Placido Polanco for the next month or two. That means two of the Phillies better contact hitters will be absent from a lineup that has at times struggled to score runs. As a team they are hitting .258. They have scored 367 runs, by belting 676 hits. Their hits total is in the bottom quarter of the 16 NL clubs. Of those 676 hits, 138 were doubles, 18 were tripled, and 79 were home runs. That home run total is fifth among the senior circuit teams.
It also seems that their starting rotation has struggled a bit. Their staff ERRA is right at 4.00, and that is right in the middle of the NL teams. They have given up 324 runs, on 677 hits. 85 of those hits were round trippers. They have struck out just 494 batters, easily the worst mark in the NL, and issued 198 walks. Their closer, Brad Lidge, has converted just five saves and he has a 5.25 ERA.
All of these stats seem to suggest that this is a team suffering from some burnout. They have played an awful lot of games over the past two and half seasons, and we have seen teams in other sports suffer from this same malady.
Related Links:
• Philadelphia Phillies news and notes • The Business of Major League Baseball •MTR Baseball.com
