25 Early-Season Philadelphia Phillies Stats That Tell the Story
April 23, 2012 by Greg Pinto
Filed under Fan News
If the Philadelphia Phillies have been anything this year, they’ve been predictable.
With Ryan Howard and Chase Utley on the shelf while Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee lead the pitching staff, you expect them to play in a lot of close ballgames and hear the old baseball axiom, “Pitching wins ball games,” at least a million times.
The Phillies have certainly done that. The pitching staff has put things on cruise control while the offense never left spring training. They’ve been hovering around that .500 mark in the standings for that reason.
They have the pitching to keep them close and there is no doubt about that. The real problem is that their offensive firepower is the equivalent of a toddler blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.
There are diehard fans out there willing to keep telling themselves that this club is going to turn a corner. That may be true, but it sure doesn’t look like it’s going to be a big corner. So when pictures and blind statements won’t do the job, we’ll hand the ball off to one of my favorite aspects of the game: statistics.
In this slideshow, I’ll show you why—through numbers—the Phillies have struggled early in the season.
*All statistics used in this slideshow were accrued prior to the Phillies game against the San Diego Padres on Sunday, April 22nd. Any adjustments that need to be made will be done accordingly.
For news, rumors, analysis and game recaps during spring training, check out Greg’s blog: The Phillies Phactor!