[Ed. Note. - delayed front pag'd, but really good stuff here.]

First, the obligatory "it's not as bad as it feels" note:

Record through game 52 in the past 3 years...

	2008	2009	2010
Wins	28	32	28
Lead	-2.5	4	-2.5
Runs	260	290	238
Runs Allowed	227	254	205
Diff	33	36	33
pythag wins	29.5	29.4	29.9

- same wins (28) and lead (2.5 behind) as in 2008
- in spite of the offensive drought, the same run differential as in 2008 and only slightly below 2009's
- pythagorean formula projects slightly more wins

Hitting
Actually, this really is as bad as it feels:
- 26 runs in the last 15 games
- fewest runs in any 15 games in 2009: 42 (8/24-9/8 and 8/25-9/9)
- fewest runs in any 15 games in 2008: 46 (8/2-8/17)

Thru 5/17 (37 G, 1465 PAs): .280/.349/.465 (.815 OPS) - 5.73 R/G
Since 5/18 (15 G, 532 PAs): .202/.282/.288 (.569 OPS) - 1.73 R/G

Selected ratios (% of PAs):

						Games		Total
			2008	2009		1-37	38-52	2010
BABIP			.283	.286		.313	.243	.294
Singles			13.8%	13.7%		15.2%	13.0%	14.6%
Doubles/Triples			5.2%	5.5%		6.3%	3.9%	5.7%
HRs			3.4%	3.5%		3.1%	1.1%	2.6%
XBH as % of H			38.5%	39.7%		38.2%	28.1%	36.1%
P/PA			3.84	3.86		3.85	3.98	3.89
BB			9.3%	9.3%		9.1%	9.0%	9.1%
K			17.8%	18.2%		17.1%	18.8%	17.6%

- BABIP was unusually high in games 1-37, and very low in the last 15
- no surprises: fewer hits, and fewer of those hits are extra base hits
- HRs were already lower than in 08-09
- More P/PA in the last 15 (3.98 vs. 3.85), keeping the walk rate around 9%

Carlos Ruiz
For the Phillies' last 128 games (more than 3/4 of a season), you can arguably call Chooch the 2nd best hitter on the team.  OPS since Aug 1, including 15 postseason games:

Werth       .934
Ruiz          .924
Howard     .907
Utley        .857
Rollins     .798
Victorino  .749
Ibanez      .745
Feliz/Pol.  .698