FanPost

Carlos Ruiz keeps rolling


In honor of Chooch's performance last night, this updates my post from April 19th.
----------------------------------------------------

The Phillies have now played 102 games dating back to August 1, including 15 postseason games.

In those 102 games, the Phillies starting 8 rank like this in OPS:

1. Werth .953
2. Howard .943
3. Ruiz .932
4. Utley .888
5. Rollins .793
6. Ibanez .745
7. Victorino .740
8. Feliz/Polanco .644

Why 102 games and August 1? Simply because that's when Chooch came out of his slump and started having an impact at the plate, so it's admittedly an artificial cutoff meant to make him look good. Note that Ruiz only has 280 PA's over this period, while the rest have between 372 (Rollins) and 439 (Howard).

How has Ruiz done this?
.432 OBP, thanks to a .310 avg and 50 walks (hitting in front of the pitcher helps).
.500 SLG, with 20 doubles and 7 home runs in only 226 at bats.

Of course, Chooch's value is primarily due to his defense and handling of the staff, and any hitting is viewed as gravy. So this is a good bit of gravy.

Is it sustainable? His BABIP over this period is .328, compared to .255 in his 1,100+ PAs before Aug. 1, so probably not at this level.


Just fyi, if you exclude the postseason, for the 87 regular season games since Aug. 1, the only change in the rank order is in the top 2:

1. Howard .939
2. Werth .923
3. Ruiz .895
4. Utley .855
5. Rollins .841
6. Ibanez .731
7. Victorino .707
8. Feliz/Polanco .660