A Tale of Two Teams

by David S. Cohen on Sep 11, 2007 10:37 AM EDT in News Comment 5 comments

With 19 games to go, the Phillies (76-67) sit 1.5 games behind the Padres (77-65). The Phillies are the best offensive team in the NL and play in a ballpark that emphasizes their strengths. But, they can't pitch. The Padres are the best pitching team in the NL and also play in a ballpark that also emphasizes their strengths. But, they can't hit.

Everyone knows the two teams are wildly different. But how different? These two charts show where the two teams rank in the NL in the important offensive and pitching categories. The two teams are, as they say, like night and day:

	Phillies	Padres		Phillies	Padres
PA	1	13	ERA	14	1
R	1	12	SV	10	4
H	1	15	SHO	14	1
2B	1	6	QS	11	1
3B	2	8	H	12	2
HR	3	9	R	14	1
TB	1	13	HR	15	1
RBI	1	14	BB	10	1
BB	1	6	K	12	7
SO	14	15	K/BB	13	1
BA	1	15	BAA	13	2
OBP	1	15	OPS	16	1
SLG	1	13	WHIP	15	1
OPS	1	14
SB	2	15
SB%	1	12
HBP	1	13

In the eternal war between teams that hit but can't pitch and teams that pitch but can't hit, we have two of the most extreme vying for the last NL playoff spot.

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Comments

B-b-b-but they strike out too much!

Seriously, if ever there was a stat (or a table) that showed the total irrelevance of team strikeouts (batting), it's that one.

by phatj on Sep 11, 2007 11:35 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: B-b-b-but they strike out too much!

Yeah, I liked that 14 sticking out in that chart too.

by David S. Cohen on Sep 11, 2007 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: A Tale of Two Teams

But while the Phillies can't pitch anywhere, the Padres' offense is actually about average away from PETCO.

Phillies
ERA+ 94
OPS+ 115

Padres
ERA+ 113
OPS+ 98

by enterpsmith on Sep 11, 2007 2:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

the flip side

The Phillies offense is still very good away from OFJOAB: 1st in OBP, 2nd in runs and OPS, 4th in HR, etc.

The Padres are 3rd in WHIP (Phillies are 10th), 4th in opponent OPS (Phils are 9th), 6th in road ERA and oppnent batting average (Phillies are 9th and 11th respectively), and 7th in strikeouts (Phils are 13th).

All things considered, I think it's reasonable to conclude that the Padres' park helps their pitchers more than OFJOAB helps the Phillies hitters.

by dajafi on Sep 11, 2007 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: the flip side

and yet - in my admittedly limited reading of sports columnists - nobody writes off the Padres as products of their ballpark the way they often do the Phils.

by perfectdepth on Sep 11, 2007 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs