Items after the jump:
- Phils batters vs. projections
- Phillies stats vs. early 2011 and vs. Cards
- Manuel's meeting and the walk rate
- NL Standings and team stats
- Upcoming milestones
Phillies' Hitters vs. Projections
Something I track and will show occasionally is the year-to-date progress for each player's OPS (click to enlarge). The thick black line (.707) is the overall team OPS. The thin blue line behind it is the bench, i.e. basically all other non-pitchers. The embedded graph at the upper right is OPS by month. Every single player's OPS is higher in the month of May.
The Cards have been hit by a number of injuries but continue to score runs. They were tied for the NL lead in April with 5.14 per game, and have bumped that to 5.36 in May, although they are down some to 4.38 over the past two weeks.
Phillies Team Stats vs. early 2011 and vs. Cardinals
First 16 games: 2.7 runs per game (15th in the NL)
Last 29 games: 4.7 runs per game (4th)
Walk Rate
The Phillies' walk rate is climbing slowly. Charlie Manuel held a team meeting on May 9th, after a 10-6 loss to the Mets. The walk rate was 5.7% after that game, but it's been 9.0% since then. League average is 8.3%.
Biggest increases from pre-meeting to post-meeting:
Rollins ..... 6.6% to 14.6%
Pence ..... 4.5% to 19.3%
Mayberry . 1.4% to 11.9%
Victorino .. 7.0% to 12.3%
St. Louis
Please direct your attention to all of the "1"s down the right-hand side of the table below.
Their pitching staff is similar in some ways to the Phillies -- their starting rotation has the 2nd lowest FIP in the league. Meanwhile, the Cardinals bullpen that got hot in the postseason last year has come back down to earth.
Their run differential (and therefore pythagorean win percentage) is the best in the NL, better than even the red-hot Dodgers.
NL Standings and Team Stats
The NL East has been the best division in the NL so far, as it was last year.
162-game pace:
East: 89 wins
Central: 76 wins
West: 77 wins
And as this article says, the difference is even starker if you only count games against teams outside the division:
East: 93
Central: 71
West: 74
Upcoming Milestones
Jimmy Rollins
Needs 5 more stolen bases (14 for the year) to tie dead-ball era outfielder Sherry Magee for 3rd on the Phillies' all-time list at 387, behind Billy Hamilton (508) and Ed Delahanty (412). In fact Rollins has been the Phillies' leader for the post-1920 era ever since he passed Larry Bowa's 288 back in 2008. Surprising perhaps, but Richie Ashburn only stole 199 with the Phillies, partly because he played in an era where there was much less stealing. He led the league once, in his 1948 rookie season, with 32.
Roy Halladay
Needs 10 more strikeouts for 2,000 in his career. He will become the 67th pitcher to reach 2,000, and the 5th who is still active (Jamie Moyer 2,434, Andy Pettitte 2,262, CC Sabathia 2,082, and Kevin Millwood 2,011).