Phillies' league-leading offense will prevent the September Swoon fans fear

Suffice it to say, August has been pretty good to the Philadelphia Phillies. They're a league-best 18-7 this month, having closed their gap with the Atlanta Braves in the NL East to just five games. Likewise, they're now several games ahead of the competition for the No. 2 Wild Card and are close to usurping the Chicago Cubs for the top spot in that race.

Of course, Philly fans have seen this story before. The team has generally oscillated between frustrating slumps and torrid hot streaks, hence why they're still jostling for playoff positioning despite three months with 18+ wins this season.

In fact, if their recent track record is anything to go by, the Phillies may be setting us all up for a massive disappointment in September.

However, I'm here to tell you that, thanks to a wildly improved offense, this team's floor is significantly higher than it was earlier in the year.

Phillies' offensive philosophy shift has raised the floor for the entire team

Since the start of August, the Phillies lead all of MLB in batting average (.275), on-base percentage (.357), and walk rate (11.1%), and they're barely behind the Rays for the best strikeout rate (16.0%). Perhaps not so coincidentally, this stretch coincides with the introduction of contact maven Luis Arraez to the lineup, as well as huge leaps from Alec Bohm (.345 average) and Justin Crawford (more walks than strikeouts) at the plate.

In terms of total output, the lineup's .773 OPS ranks third this month, while their 111 wRC+ ranks fourth. You could gripe about the sudden lack of power coming from most of the regulars -- the team has hit 22 homers in August, tied for 24th-most -- but this has been a conscious trade-off; rather than relying so heavily on the long ball, the Phillies are leaning into more contact and putting increasing pressure on the opposing pitcher.

It's hard to say the philosophy shift hasn't paid off. Many teams, including the Blue Jays during their postseason run a year ago, have deployed a more contact-heavy approach to great effect, countering the strikeout-seeking strategy that most pitchers have adopted in order to take advantage of power hitters.

Now, despite that huge production, the position player group still ranks seventh in fWAR (4.2), mostly because the Phillies still don't field or run the bases particularly well. That's hardly surprising given the construction of this veteran roster, but it does put the onus on a heavily worked rotation and previously inconsistent offense to keep carrying the load through October.

With the floor now raised on offense thanks to this new approach, though, handling that burden shouldn't prove to be as daunting as it once was.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow