I was looking through sortable team stats and noticed that it is quite possible that our pitchers were the biggest problem with respect to us not making the playoffs. I am sure many people want to point their fingers at Burrell or Abreu but it is quite apparent that they were not what kept us out. It was most likely the pitchers, but probably not as most would think. Our pitchers KILLED us with their bats (though their arms weren't that great either).
Here is a quick listing of how each spot in the lineup performed with respect to the rest of the National League.
Batting #1: 4 Philadelphia .796 (9 points out of 3rd)
Batting #2: 1 Philadelphia .920 (by 100 points)
Batting #3: 8 Philadelphia .862 (Close to 6th)
Batting #4: 1 Philadelphia .979 (by 13 points)
Batting #5: 4 Philadelphia .900 (21 points from first)
Batting #6: 11 Philadelphia .748 (40 points from 7th)
Batting #7: 6 Philadelphia .806 (18 points from 3rd)
Batting #8: 12 Philadelphia .659 (best was only .784)
Batting #9: 16 Philadelphia .419 (33 points out of 14th)
A quick analysis shows the following:
#1: Rollins had most of the leadoff ABs and hit pretty well. (Phillies by 20 points)
#2: Utley put up huge numbers batting second and helped raise Victorino's average stats. The hitting here is probably why Rollins scored so many runs (like last year). (Phillies by 172 points)
#3: Bobby put up better numbers than Chase here, but both hit about average for the spot. (Opponents by 75 points)
#4: Howard was huge here (1.144 OPS), but Burrell was solid as well (.900 OPS) as they spilt the ABs. (Phillies by 29 points)
#5: Howard was huge here too (1.034 OPS), but Pat gets an assist as well (.918). Conine had about half as many ABs as Burrell here and put up a .709 OPS. (Phillies by 91 points)
#6: Rowand was the prime culprit here with a .655 OPS. Dellucci (.911), Howard (.918), Burrell (.860) and Victorino (1.100) all tried to salvage this spot, but Rowand, having as many ABs as all those guys put together, officially made it below average. (Opponents by 40 points)
#7: Bring back David Bell and his .790 OPS in the 7 spot. Coste and Lieby (.837 and 1.122 OPS respectively) helped out a bit, but had to offset Nunez's 50 ABs with a .458 OPS in this spot. (Phillies by 10 points)
#8: Nunez is the prime offender here with just under half the ABs and a .627 OPS. Sal helped out quite a bit with a .750 OPS, but almost everyone else stunk it up here (except Coste and Dellucci in limited ABs). (Opponents by 94 points)
#9: Myers was the worst of our hitting pitchers. And it wasn't even close. 63 ABs with a .121 OPS is downright sad. He had 2 hits all year. Lieber, with the second most ABs, was almost as bad with a .252 OPS. Hamels, Madson and Wolf tried to pull it out for the pitchers. Even Victorino, Dellucci and Nunez sucked hitting 9th. (Opponents by 191 points)
Yeah, the 8 hole was bad, but the 9 hole was awful. Part of the blame can be put on our anemic bench, but most of it on the pitchers who couldn't hit a thing. Hitting is an obvious secondary statistic for a pitcher, but it doesn't mean they should just give up the out. Who knows what a few more hits in the 9 hole would have produced.