Phillies: How did July of 2017 compare to July of 2016?
The Philadelphia Phillies were a significantly better team in July of 2017 compared to 2016 in nearly every aspect of their game.
Heading into 2017, the thought surrounding the team was that the young core Phillies fans have clamored about, would finally take that next step into becoming very good big league players.
After a first half of disappointment, underachieving, and lack of development, the young core has fueled a turn around so far in the second half. When taking a look back to last year, the overall team stats greatly improved in July 2017 compared to in July of 2016.
Offense
The team struggled to score runs in July of 2016, ranking 19th in runs scored with 102. However, home runs were not the reason the team struggled to score.
Home runs was the only major offensive category in July of 2016 where the team finished in the top half of baseball, finishing 14th with 30 home runs, 10 less than Boston who led the league with 40 in July.
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Runs batted in and average are where the team had their biggest struggles in July 2016, finishing 23rd with a .242 average, and 21st with 95 RBI.
In July 2017, a major reason for the teams improved success has been their offense. The team ranked tied for 9th in runs scored in July with the Boston Red Sox, who just overtook first place in the NL East. Both teams produced 122 runs in the month.
The Phillies finished in the top half of baseball in all other major offensive categories in the month of July 2017, as they finished 10th in average with an average of .269, 13th in home runs with 32 and 12th in runs batted in, with 114.
The offensive numbers were not the only major improvement in July of 2017, as the pitching staff also had a much better month in comparison to July 2016.
Pitching
In July 2016, the team ranked 22nd in earned runs allowed with 109, 19th in era with a 4.12 ERA, 23rd in strikeouts with 190, and 23rd in opponent batting average with a .261 average allowed.
The 2017 Phillies would improve in every single category in the month of July, starting with earned runs allowed, as the team surrendered 92 runs, ranking 9th, and would have an era of 3.69, good for 10th in the league.
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The staff had 35 more strikeouts, finishing with 225 for the month which ranked 9th, and would have an opposing average of .240, .21 points lower than July 2016, and ranking 8th in the entire league for the month.
As the offensive and pitching numbers improved, as expected the team record for the month did as well. In 2016 the team finished just under .500 for the month with a record of 13 – 14. In July 2017, they improved by finishing slightly over.500, with a record of 13- 12.
The team traded Jeremy Hellickson, Pat Neshek, Joaquin Benoit, and Howie Kendrick before the deadline.
With the veterans gone, the youth movement is in full swing. The team has responded positively since these moves, and the young guys are starting to prove they have what it takes to succeed at the big league level.
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While it is a small sample size, the month of July can be looked at as a major step in the right direction for the franchise.