Offensive Solutions

With our pitching staff, we won't need much more than 10 runs in a 3-game series to take 2 or even 3 of those games. But why test that? Especially against the Braves. I keep reading that they have a better staff than us statistically this season, but I am only reading it in headlines of ESPNinsider articles that I can't actually read so I have no idea what that actually means. I know we have a better rotation than they do, and they have a better bullpen. So the pitching staffs should be pretty much even (although I'd still give us a slight edge. Cole Hamels is our 4th starter).

If the pitchers are even, that means our offense just needs to be better. The Braves scored just 12 runs in this weekend's series, so it's not like they are blowing anyone out of the water or anything with their bats. In 9 games against them this season, our pitchers have accumulated a 3.35 ERA. That means we can expect the Braves offense to score 3 or 4 runs a game every time we play them. I don't think it's so much to ask for our offense to score 4 or 5 runs in those games. So what is the issue?

Raul Ibanez - I have just about beaten this to death at this point, but I think Raul sucks. And he definitely does against the Braves. He's 6 for 32 against them with 11 strikeouts. Ew. He has just a .454 OPS, which is supposed to be a stat that tells you how good someone actually is as a hitter (You know, since batting average didn't work well enough for the past 130 years). It's on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. So it basically tells you how good a guy is at just getting to first but also how good he is at getting more than just first base at the same time. However you look at it, Ibanez sucks.

Ben Francisco - Hitting .148 against the Braves this season and and just .222 overall this season. His batting average in May? Are you ready for this? Because it's really bad. You might want to think twice before actually reading this number. This is an everyday player for us. It's over the course of 13 games. Ready? Ok, you asked for it...He's hitting .094. With 0 extra base hits and 0 RBI.

Although their numbers against the Braves are worse than their season numbers, neither one is hitting above .230. Ryan Howard has 9 home runs and 35 RBI this season. Raul and Ben have 7 and 34. Combined. These are our everyday 5th and 6th batters. No, they shouldn't be putting up HUGE numbers hitting behind Howard because he'll generally get most of them for himself, but they do get a good amount of opportunities from people not wanting to face the Big Man. Last season our 5 and 6 hitters had 43 home runs and 168 RBI compared to Howard's 31 and 108. Howard did have a down year and we did have Jayson Werth, but I would imagine it's pretty normal for a 5 and 6 combined to be better than a clean-up hitter. I'm so confident in this that I'll pick any random baseball team right now and look at their numbers. Actually, I'll pick the team that is 15th in runs scored this season. That's pretty average right? Ok, this is live. Let's hope I'm not embarrassed.

The Astros. According to ESPN, their normal lineup has Carlos Lee batting 4, Brett Wallace 5, and Bill Hall 6.
Carlos Lee - 4 HR 22 RBI
Wallace + Hall - 4 HR 25 RBI

Well that didn't really prove much because Carlos Lee sucks and the Astros generally suck as well. But knowing that the Astros suck, how sad is it that they are 15th in runs scored and we are 16th? Very sad. (I'm re-reading and editing this post and realizing that this is the most awkward and uncomfortable thing you've ever had to read now in 2 years of me blogging about the Phillies. Although I'm keeping it in here, I apologize and thank you for your loyalty in this difficult time in my writing)

The solution to all of this? I've been saying it all year...John Mayberry. And Domonic Brown. Mayberry gets no shot for no reason at all. He was by far our best offensive player today, drawing 2 walks, stealing a base, and hitting a go-ahead 2-run home run. Charlie gets criticized for playing his starters way too much throughout the course of a season and not giving them rest. His reasoning? He plays to win every single game, and he puts the lineup out there that he thinks gives them the best chance to win. So how can you tell me that Ibenez (my new celebrity couple name for our 2 worst players) gives us a better chance than Mayberry out there in one of those spots? And the other spot should have been filled by Domonic Brown. He started the year injured, and he is out for the next weekish because of a sprained thumb, but in between he played in 9 games for the Iron Pigs, hitting .353 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, and a 1.013 OPS. He has dominated all through the minors, and he just needs his shot to do something in the majors. Why are we keeping him down there? Why are we doing this to the future of our outfield?

Everyone knows that this Phillies team has about 2-3 more years at the most to make some serious World Series runs because of the age of our core players. So why are we holding back our 2 biggest building blocks for the future? It's not like they are being blocked by somebody like Placido Polanco (like Chase Utley was) or Jim Thome (like Ryan Howard was). It's 2 people who are collectively hitting .226 this season for a team who is struggling to consistently score runs.

It'd also be a whole different story to me if Utley were back. We could put Victorino or Rollins somewhere behind Howard in the lineup and provide somewhat of a spark back there. But that's not the case. And until it is, there's no possible way to tell me that the lineup we are putting out there gives us the best chance to win a game.

Our pitching has kept us 2 games up in the division. Imagine if we had an offense to go with it...