MLB 2012: Philadelphia Phillies Should Stay the Course

Nobody could blame a Phillies fan for panicking.

The same group of fans just watched their Eagles painfully blow four of the first five games in 2011 and never really recover. A supremely talented team left out of the playoffs because of injuries and underachieving play. That is exactly what they are scared of happening again.

In the NFL season, a 1-4 start is crippling. Major League baseball, though, is a marathon, not a sprint.  Instead of having 12 games to turn a disaster into a success, the Phillies have 158 games after starting 1-3.

This team has been though stretches like this, and every time, they come out stronger.

In these first four games, the team has scored eight runs, so, to this point, they are averaging two a game. There were no less than four similarly bad stretches in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, they lost five of six games in May, scoring just 10 runs, and in June they lost four straight games scoring only seven runs. In May 2010, they lost five consecutive games (including four shutouts), and then in late August, they were swept in a four-game set in Houston, scoring seven runs.

Suffice to say, Phillies fans have seen inept offense before.

The reason they will weather the storm is simple; even without Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, the players on this team are far better than what they’ve shown this season. The humbling nature of baseball has just hidden that fact for four games.

The most notable early underachievers are Shane Victorino and John Mayberry Jr. 

The Flyin’ Hawaiian has yet to get an extra-base hit in 2012 and is slugging just .308; in 2011, he had 60 extra base hits, including a league-leading 16 triples, and slugged .491. When the law of averages pans out, his pop will show itself and the lineup will become more formidable.

John Mayberry Jr.’s slow start was to be expected, and is expected to continue for a bit; in his four-year career, he has batted .238 and slugged .393 from March to May. In June to October, those numbers jump to .279 and .575.  At the end of the day, he is as good a hitter against lefties as you can find in a platoon, with a .304/.345/.608 slash line (Jose Bautista’s slugging percentage last year was an MLB leading .608). When he gets it going, he will drive in plenty of runs from the bottom of the lineup. 

All the five-time defending NL East Champs need to do is relax and let it come to them. In the meantime, let’s give them a chance to do what they do best.  They have plenty of time to show us they still can.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com