I've been trying to figure out why the Phillies offense looks so awful, so often, when, in both overall terms and key splits (runners in scoring position, close and late, etc), the numbers suggest it's very good.
Maybe this is it:
| Name (PA) | AVG-D | OBP-D | SLG-D | OPS-D | OPS-O | Difference |
| Burrell (125) | .290 | .425 | .670 | 1.095 | 1.000 | .095 |
| Coste (55) | .288 | .327 | .519 | .847 | .806 | .041 |
| Howard (137) | .250 | .348 | .467 | .814 | .837 | -.023 |
| Utley (127) | .250 | .336 | .448 | .784 | .963 | -.179 |
| Victorino (106) | .310 | .349 | .430 | .779 | .748 | .031 |
| Rollins (113) | .257 | .330 | .396 | .726 | .768 | -.042 |
| Jenkins (99) | .223 | .260 | .383 | .643 | .680 | -.037 |
| Ruiz (75) | .200 | .333 | .292 | .626 | .573 | .056 |
| Werth (68) | .167 | .286 | .333 | .619 | .820 | -.201 |
| TEAM | .241 | .323 | .402 | .726 | .775 | -.049 |
"D" is daytime splits; "O" is overall. So what this tells us is that the Phillies as a team hit a hell of a lot worse when the sun is out for the whole game. Chase Utley and Jayson Werth are the worst culprits; Utley turns into, essentially, a league-average second baseman, while Werth devolves into something like T.J. Bohn. The only Phillie who hits noticeably better during the day is Pat Burrell, which offers maybe the best evidence that his carousing days are really behind him. As a team, the Phillies approximately go from Mike Jacobs overall to Jose Castillo during the day.
The Phillies as a team are 12-19 in day games, the worst record in the NL East and fifth-worst in the majors, ahead of only the three last-place AL teams (Baltimore, Cleveland, and Seattle) and the Rockies. Here's hoping for a lot of rainy Sundays between now and September.