Apr 30, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians catcher Carlos Santana (left) watches Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Delmon Young (3) after he was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Sooner or later, somebody was going to get jammed.

It makes sense it was the guy who throws his body around like a goose flying into a jet engine.

Ben Revere has jammed his finger on a base last night, taking him out of the lineup tonight, putting John Mayberry in his place, and sliding – you guessed it – Delmon Young into right field for his defensive debut.  In a way, it’s a relief to have Revere’s inept bat out of the lineup for an evening, but he’s not going to work his way out of his funk if he’s on the bench.  Then again, what if - what if this is him normally.

EVERYBODY RUN.

Young, a guy who has been referred to as “not at all a good defensive outfielder oh god oh god,” will have a stigma to shake off, the stigma being that he makes people say that thing I just said.

Also, I always feel like I need to mention his heinous personal shortcomings, just so it never sounds like I’m proud to have him here.

Meanwhile, Revere’s injury isn’t taking him off any lists and put on other lists, so he’ll probably be available for pinch hitting duty, if Charlie Manuel is feeling particularly trollsome.  That won’t happen, though.  The next time we see Ben Revere, he’ll probably be pinch running for Delmon Young.

Charlie Manuel now has the honor of working out an outfield from four different options, ranging from all power-no defense to all-defense-no power to pinch hitting folk legend to John Mayberry, and we get to enjoy watching him make the wrong decision; not that there is a “right” one when you are managing baseball’s worst outfield.

Apr 1, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Ben Revere (2) reacts after striking out against the Atlanta Braves during the eighth inning at Turner Field. The Braves defeated the Phillies 7-5. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

He also hadn’t walked in a while (Nobody walked for the entire time they were in Cincinnati) and wasn’t getting hit with the ball a whole lot.

So you can guess what this line is going to look like.  You might want to bite down on a wooden spoon: .194/.242/.194

And all of this is emphasized by all the leading off Charlie Manuel has him doing.  He is setting no tables, he is stealing no bases, as he can’t seem to even get to the first one as of late.  But Charlie Manuel is sticking with him, because he is old school and an advocate for the time-proven “60 strikes and you’re out” rule.

“0 for 14, that sounds bad and stuff like that. Nobody wants to go 0 for 14. But at the same time, too, I feel like he’s gotta keep playing a while to see if he can help us and hit and get on base.”

–Charlie Manuel, via Matt Gelb

I think what Charlie means to say is, “I’m sorry, who in the hell else should I be playing in center field?  John Mayberry?  Okay, yeah.  Great.  The guy whose supposed to be the team’s premiere ‘right handed power bat’  but is actually just half an outfield platoon will take over for the guy who can at least make a catch of the year every now and again.”

And Revere will get on base, eventually, you’d think.  His value comes from that and that alone – get him on base and watch him fly.  But the Phillies aren’t doing anything right in that way that “anything” means literally that, and sadly, Ben Revere is one of those things.

Ben Revere At The Plate
Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Everything starts in the beginning, and by everything, I’m including baseball games.

When filling out a lineup, a manager attempts to tell a story, a hopeful one at that. The archetypal lead off man, the hitter who digs his cleats into the batter’s box first, exhibits speed, agility, baseball intelligence, patience, and tenacity.

Take, for example, late great Philadelphia Phillie Richie Ashburn. Ashburn played for 15 seasons, 12 of them in Philadelphia, and batted lead off almost his entire career. Ashburn showcased all of the necessary attributes of a good table setter. He had a career .308 batting average, .396 on base percentage, 12.3 career walk percentage, averaged 88 runs scored per season, and ended his career with 234 stolen bases. Ashburn rightfully deserves to have the most popular section of Citizens Bank Park named after him.

Speaking of Phillies lead off hitters, since August 2001, Jimmy Rollins has occupied the #1 spot in the Phillies batting order. Rollins’ lead off hitting resume shines, but not as bright as his Whiteness. Rollins sports a career .270 batting average, .328 OBP, 7.6 BB percentage, an average of 98 runs scored per season, and over 400 career stolen bases. As a switch hitter, Rollins provided often needed and highly valued versatility at the top of the lineup, while added a dash of power, something that Ashburn never did. Still, lead off hitters need to do whatever it takes to reach base safely, force opposing pitchers to labor, use their speed and acuity to scamper along the bases in order to score as many runs as possible

Now, back to the present day. This off-season, General Manager Ruben Amaro made a change. Needing a center fielder, Amaro acquired on from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for pitchers Vance Worley and Trevor May. Enter Ben Revere, a young (24 years old), speedy, left-handed outfielder with 2 seasons worth of MLB playing time under his belt. Revere satisfied a number of holes the Phillies needed filled, including incredible range in the outfield, a penchant for stealing bases, and youth.

Following the Phillies’ acquisition of Revere, a number of questions begin floating around concerning the top of the Phillies batting order. Would it be the veteran Jimmy Rollins, or the newcomer Ben Revere? Since coming up from the minors, Revere had batted 1st in the batting order in 128 games, or 48% of the time, showing that he has experience as the table setter, and that Twins manager Ron Gardenhire trusted the young outfielder to bat in the position of the batting order that is most likely to accrue the largest number of plate appearances in any given game.

So, after Revere hit lead off in almost every Spring Training game in which he appeared, Charlie Manuel made the decision to hit Revere lead off to start the season. This gave Manuel the ability to move Jimmy Rollins around the order where his combination of speed and power could help the team the most. Revere has hit lead off in every game the Phillies have played this season, but hasn’t put up the numbers the team foresaw when trusting him with the responsibility of the top spot in the order. Thus far Revere has posted a sub .300 on base percentage, only one multi-hit game, 4 total runs scored, and 4 stolen bases.

So, what’s wrong; why isn’t the Phillies new lead off hitter performing as expected? First of all, 8 games is a very small sample size, so in no way am I saying that any of Revere’s stats are predictive for the rest of the season, nor do any of those same statistics indicate anything more than a slow start. On the other hand, if we look at Revere’s splits for the season, he actually looks more favorable. Revere has had 30 plate appearances against right-handed pitching and 7 against lefties in 2013. Against righties, Revere has a respectable .286 batting average and a .333 on base percentage, but against lefties he’s hitless, and has yet to even draw a walk.

Revere is a left-handed hitter, so it’s reasonable to expect his numbers to be better when facing right-handed pitching, but is this pattern indicative of an issue? In order to get to the bottom of this, let’s take a look at how Revere has fared against lefties in his career to date.

Jimmy Rollins
Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

As you can see, Revere seems to fair just as well at the plate against lefties as he does righties. The only significant difference being that Revere must see right-handed pitching a bit better than southpaws due to his elevated walk rate against righties. What allows Revere to be successful against lefties and righties stems from his quick hands and risks allowing Revere to make an incredible amount of contact. This fact is backed up by the stats. Revere sports a 92% career contact percent, which in comparison to Jimmy Rollins’ career contact percentage of 87% means that we can expect more balls in play and fewer strikeouts from the top spot in the order. Revere has a higher propensity to slap hits the other way against lefties, while spraying the ball to all fields against righties, a sign that he often picks up pitches later in the zone.

At 3.54 pitches seen per plate appearance, Revere ranks 65th in the National League in that category, a number he must improve upon. Patience and selectivity at the plate from the lead off hitter allows the sluggers hitting behind Revere gain more information about the pitcher on the mound, generally leading to more successful at bats.

In his career, Revere has hit well against some of the games better left-handed pitchers, including Jon Lest and Tony Sipp as well as some of the game’s lesser lefties like Tim Collins, Jason Vargas, and Tim Collins. He hasn’t faired well against lefties  like Bruce Chen and Mark Buehrle pitches who have little to offer in the velocity department but rely on breaking balls, control, and deception to get outs. in 2013 Revere has put 6 balls in play against lefties, all of which have gone for outs. He’s faced 5 left-handed pitchers, Paul Maholm, Tim Collins, Luis Avilan, Josh Edgin, and Scott Rice. Edgin, Avilan, and Collins all top out around 93 mph on their four-seam fastball, while Rice and Maholm barely touch 90. All 4 throw a breaking ball that come sin much slower than their respective fastballs, and more than one of these lefties throws sinking fastballs.

Combine all that information and we get a sense that when facing lefties, Revere doesn’t perform as well with slower pitches with more depth, break, and movement attached. His quick hands at the plate often get the better of him against southpaws, diving through the hitting zone too quickly leading to a greater propensity to hit the top of the ball, resulting in ground ball outs. Revere’s numbers against lefties should return closer to his career numbers, but given the Phillies need to optimize every bit of their lineup in order to win games, Charlie Manuel should consider letting Rollins bat lead off when facing lefties that don’t rely on fastballs.

Revere is a young, but worthy candidate at the lead off spot. He doesn’t have as high an OBP or batting average as Whitey, but his numbers are an improvement over his predecessor, Jimmy Rollins. Still, the Phillies hitting success hangs sharply on the productivity of Ben Revere, and given his talent, Revere needs to get on base at a more consistent clip, especially against southpaws. While I’m in no way saying that if Revere resolves his early season struggles at the plate that all the Phillies issues will magically disappear, but by setting the table properly, the Phillies will be on their way to winning more games.