Phillies Stat Notes: Season Wrap-up Edition

** As we wrap up the year, and while it's still fresh in our minds, please take a moment to offer thoughts on how to improve these Stat Notes in 2015 (besides showing better results for the Phillies).

Contents

• NL Standings and team stats
  Phils finish in last place in the East, 23 games out; they'll have the 10th pick in the 2015 draft
  
• Phillies Team Stats: 2014 vs. 2013
  They ranked higher than in 2013 in both offense and run prevention and so improved their run differential, but in the end the results were the same
• Individual Stats
  Four Phillies hit above the NL average at their positions this year -- all four were 35 or over
  
• Today in Phillies History
  34 years ago today -- the Phillies win their first World Series

NL Standings  

The Phillies finished in last place for the first time since 2000, four games behind the Mets.

The East was the NL's best division in 2014

Much was made of the fact that aside from the division champion Nationals, every team in the Eastern division finished the year with a losing record.

Despite that, the East was by far the best division in the NL, based on run differential.

The NL Central had the most wins, averaging 81.8 per team, while the NL East averaged 80.8. However that was with the East teams playing on average about a game below their run differential and the pythagorean projection that that generates, while the Central teams played almost two games above their pythagorean, on average.

In terms of run differential the East was the best division in the NL, and even if you exclude the best team from each division, it's still close:

And graphically...

The Phillies finished in a 3-way tie for 7th worst record in MLB. Since both the White Sox and Cubs had worse records than the Phils in 2013, the Phils get the 9th spot. With the compensation pick added for the Astros' failure to sign #1 pick Brady Aiken, they wind up with the 10th pick overall:

Source: mlbtraderumors.com

Note that with a recent rules change, the teams with the 10 worst records will have their first round picks protected, regardless of how many compensation picks might be inserted before them. For 2015, that means the first 11 picks will be protected.

Phillies Team Stats, 2014 vs. 2013

HITTING

Phillies hitters at Fangraphs

Shutouts

The Phils were shut out 15 times for the year, matching their 2013 total. It was the most by a Phillies team since 1988-89, when they were shut out 16 times each year.

For 2014, they were tied for the 7th most shutouts in MLB (with the Giants and Red Sox).

All told, there were 353 shutouts across MLB in 2014. That was the highest total in any season since 1972 (obviously there were fewer teams and fewer games then).

The % of all team-games that were shutouts this year was 7.3%. That was the highest percentage in MLB in 31 years, since 1981 when teams were shut out 7.9% of the time. 1981 was also the last time that teams scored fewer runs per game, on average (4.00), than this year's 4.07.

To compare to a recent year many Phillies fans remember fondly, across MLB there were 15% fewer runs scored this year than in 2007, and 45% more shutouts.

Strikeouts

The Phils set a team record with 1306 strikeouts this year, but putting it that way is misleading. They were essentially average in how much they struck out: 21.1% of the time, compared to a league average of 20.9%.

Again comparing to 2007, there were 16% more strikeouts this year across MLB, versus just seven years ago.

Progression of key hitting stats:

After a brief surge above the NL average line in early September, the Phils' runs per game dipped again by the end of the season.

(dotted lines represent the NL average for each stat; runs are on the right axis, all other stats on the left)

PITCHING

Phillies pitchers at Fangraphs

Individual Stats

Phillies Hitters

Of the 14 Phillies with the most PAs in 2014, only four hit above the NL average at their respective positions.  All four were 35 years old or older.

One of those was Marlon Byrd, who finished at exactly the average preseason projection for OPS. Four Phils finished above those projections: Rollins, Revere, Nieves, and new Blue Jay John Mayberry Jr.

Only one Phil finished more than 1% above their 2011-2013 average OPS, and even with that Ben Revere was still 6% below the NL average OPS for Center Fielders.

Dom Brown obviously had a season to forget, even with a finish that at least approached league-average hitting (which given his defense is not enough to maintain a starting job):

through 6/28 (302 PA): .217/.268/.318 (.257 wOBA, 59 wRC+)
6/29-on (210 PA): .260/.310/.393 (.313 wOBA, 98 wRC+)

Darin Ruf's season wasn't much better. He followed an injury-shortened AAA stint (.307 wOBA, 85 wRC+ in 91 PAs), with an only somewhat more successful major league trial (.316 wOBA and 100 wRC+ in 117 PAs).

And then there's the bottom of the list, where the team's young infielders both finished with OPS's in the .500s.

(we'll go into more detail on selected players in separate posts)

OPS progression through the season:

(click to enlarge)

ERA progression through the season:

Kyle Kendrick's slight improvement down the stretch, coupled with A.J. Burnett's shaky outings, brought them to essentially the same ERA by the end of the season.

Both Buchanan and Hernandez (before his trade) provided better than expected results, with ERAs in the high 3's.

Cole Hamels, meanwhile, was in a league of his own:

This Date in Phillies History

Milestones

Phillies' milestones will be the topic of a separate post.

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For reference:

- Phillies All-time hitting leaders
- Phillies All-time pitching leaders

- MLB All-time hitting leaders
- MLB All-time pitching leaders