Phillies getting mixed results from offense so far this year
By John Town
So far this season, the Phillies’ offense has been in the middle of the pack in the league. They have done well in some areas while struggling in others.
It’s hard to get a gauge on the Phillies‘ offense this year. Of their 10 wins, five have been by five or more runs. Overall, they have averaged 5.18 runs per game, which is eighth highest in the league. However, when you remove the team’s 20-run game April 7, their average runs per game falls to 4.25, which is below league-average.
Other numbers also make it tough to get a gauge on the team this year. As a whole, they have a 95 wRC+, which is below-average and 17th overall. Their combined OPS of .700 also ranks 17th.
Philadelphia leads the league with a 12.4 percent walk rate but also has the sixth-highest strikeout rate of 25.2 percent. On the other hand, they also have the sixth-highest swinging strike rate of 11.6 percent.
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The team has particularly struggled to get hits. They have 129 so far this season, just 23rd in the league. Meanwhile, they have an overall batting average of just .226, which only ranks ahead of five teams. Both of these are likely due to their hard contact rate of 29.4 percent soft contact rate of 21.8 percent. Their hard contact rate is seventh-lowest and soft contact rate is fifth-highest. Unsurprisingly, their batting average on balls in play is .286, well below the league average.
One thing that is particularly noteworthy about Philadelphia’s batted balls is that they have hit the second most fly balls of any team this year at a rate of 40.3 percent. These fly balls don’t have the best results as the team is hitting just .228 with a .646 slugging percentage, both of which rank 15th in the league.
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Hitting coach John Mallee told Matt Gelb of the Athletic that the team is trying to get the ball in the air and hit more line drives as well as fly balls:
"“We talk about hitting the ball on a line,” Mallee said. “Not just necessarily a fly ball. It’s trying to hit the ball on a line, hard and through the middle of the field.”"
Mallee may be stressing line drives to his hitters, but the team has not done it much. In fact, their 17.9 percent line drive rate is third-lowest in the entire league. These line drives usually have the best results, but the team has produced so few those results don’t carry much weight.
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The offense was expected to be significantly better compared to last year’s team, especially when compared to the first half. While they certainly aren’t the worst, they are among the worst in some areas, which counteracts the areas they have done well in. Therefore, it’s just too hard to tell how things will turn out long-term.