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Phillies: Scott Kingery’s nickname should be “The Gravedigger”

By John Town

PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 11: Scott Kingery #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits the game winning sacrifice fly in the twelfth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park on April 11, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 4-3. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 11: Scott Kingery #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits the game winning sacrifice fly in the twelfth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park on April 11, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 4-3. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images) /
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 Throughout this season for the Phillies, Scott Kingery has consistently put himself in bad situations and dug his own grave at the plate.

I will be the first to admit I was/am a huge fan of Scott Kingery and have been since he was drafted. If the Phillies came into this year and had a middle infield of Kingery and J.P. Crawford, I would have been perfectly okay with that. Halfway through the year, I am glad that didn’t happen.

So far this year, the duo of Kingery and Crawford have not done much at the plate. Crawford has missed extensive time due to injury, playing in just 34 games this season. He has an overall line of .194/.312/.333 with a strikeout rate close to 30 percent. His numbers were better after returning from his forearm strain, but he landed back on the disabled list two weeks after returning when a pitch hit him and broke his hand.

Kingery has been the everyday shortstop since Crawford’s first injury. His numbers have been better, but not by much. As of Wednesday, Kingery has a .229/.277/.333 line in 86 games with four home runs, 26 runs batted in, and a 65 wRC+. He has only been at or below replacement-level this year depending on where you look.

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One of Kingery’s biggest struggles this year has been plate discipline. He has just 19 walks compared to 79 strikeouts in 321 plate appearances. On a team that has prioritized walks this season, Kingery has done little of that.

This issue was present last year in Triple-A as well for Kingery. He walked just 4.5 percent of the time in Lehigh Valley, even less than he has this year.

Kingery still had great numbers because he hit well against the lower caliber of pitching.

Kingery’s underlying plate discipline numbers look even worse. He swings at more than half of the pitches he sees, swinging and missing at 13.2 percent of all pitches. While the average hitter swings at about 30 percent of pitches outside of the zone according to Fangraphs, Kingery swings at 39.8 percent of them. That rate is the fifth-highest among qualified NL hitters.

Now, being aggressive at the plate isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maikel Franco and Odubel Herrera both swing at about the same number of pitches as Kingery. However, both possess more power and far more of their fly balls leave the ballpark. They both also walk more and strike out less compared to Kingery.

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Perhaps one of the more aggravating parts of Kingery’s approach at the plate is his tendency to fall behind early in counts. I was turned onto this on the Phillies subreddit by u/bananaflame, who pointed out how many of Kingery’s plate appearances lead to 0-2 counts. Prior to Wednesday night’s game, Kingery had a 0-2 count in 103 of his 321 plate appearances (32.1 percent). Only 22 of these at-bats ended in a hit or a walk. He unsurprisingly is hitting .200 with 46 strikeouts when down 0-2.

Kingery rarely puts himself into good counts as he has drawn a 2-1 count just 54 times and a 3-1 count just 20 times.

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Too many times, Kingery puts himself in bad situations by swinging at pitches early and often. This leads to bad hitters counts and lots of outs. Until this trend changes, his nickname should be “The Gravedigger” for how often he digs his own grave at the plate.

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