Phillies Stat Notes: Trout's in town, and Rollins chases Delahanty

Contents

• NL Standings and team stats
• Phillies Team Stats vs. 2013
• Individual Stats: Hitters and Pitchers
• Upcoming Milestones

NL Standings and Team Stats

The Phils are back in last place, a half game behind the Mets, and 3.5 behind Atlanta.

This will be the second of the last three weeks that includes two scheduled off days. It won't happen again this year.

Phillies Team Stats vs. 2013

Hitting

The Phils' relationship with the walk is a tumultuous affair:

first 13 games: 10.3% - 1st in the NL (next highest: 9.1%)
next 13 games: 4.8% - 15th in the NL (next lowest: 6.2%)
last 10 games: 10.0% - 1st in the NL (next highest: 8.8%)

 

Phillies hitters at Fangraphs
Angles hitters at Fangraphs

Pitching and Defense

 

 

Phillies pitchers at Fangraphs
Angels pitches at Fangraphs 

Individual Stats

Hitters

Utley: after a lengthy cold spell following his hot start, he has now been hitting again over the last few games. He's still 2nd among all MLB second basemen in fWAR (in a virtual tie with Brian Dozier at 1.9), and leads all second basemen in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and wRC+.

Byrd: There's good news and there's bad news. The good news: his season so far compares well to his career year of 2013:

2013: .291/.336/.511 (.847 OPS), .364 wOBA, 136 wRC+
2014: .312/.358/.507 (.865 OPS), .374 wOBA, 137 wRC+

The bad news: he's not going to be able to keep that up. Even 2013 was helped by a high .353 BABIP (his career average is .327), but his BABIP so far this year is way up there at .424. That's the highest of all 180 qualifying MLB hitters.

Tony Gwynn Jr.

Gwynn's OPS is now down to .521. Since it was suggested he may get more playing time, he has gone 0 for 14 with a walk, to drop his wRC+ to 52, even below Revere's 65. 

Jayson Nix

Jayson and Laynce Nix hit a combined .203/.262/.317 (.569 OPS) in 306 PAs with the Phillies, despite largely being platooned during their time here.

Extrapolated to a full season of 650 PAs, the Nix brothers would have had 30 doubles, 13 home runs, 53 RBIs and 53 runs scored, 47 walks (7.2% BB rate), and 221 strikeouts (34.0% K rate), 2 short of Mark Reynolds MLB record.

Four players are solidly above-average at their positions: Utley, Byrd, Ruiz, and Rollins. The same four are also exceeding their preseason projections.

Mike Trout

Mike Trout is having another fantastic season leading the world in WAR again (excluding great players hitting in extraordinarily friendly conditions whose name begins with Tulo).

However this year that WAR is driven in large part by very high defensive ratings. His hitting isn't what it was his first two years:

2012: .326/.399/.564 (.963 OPS, 166 wRC+)
2013: .323/.432/.557 (.988 OPS, 176 wRC+)
2014: .273/.358/.524 (.882 OPS, 146 wRC+)

He's striking out more this year, at 27.6%, the 11th highest K% in the AL, sandwiched between Raul Ibanez and Adam Dunn.

And when putting the ball in play, he's hitting fewer line drives, 17.6% of balls in play, compared to 22.8% the last two years.

In spite of all that, he has still been the 5th best hitter in the AL so far.

One other interesting note is that his splits have looked different than in the past:

His career home-way splits are quite even, with wRC+ of 168 at home, and 156 on the road. However this year, in spite of playing in a strong pitcher's park, he has benefited from home cookin', while looking decidedly mortal on the road:

Home: .304/.398/.638 (1.035 OPS, 186 wRC+)
Away: .244/.322/.423 (.745 OPS, 108 wRC+)

Likewise, he has had very little platoon differential for his career overall (wRC+ of 163 vs. RHPs, and 158 vs. LHPs), but this year he has been pounding lefties while being merely above average vs. right-handers:

vs. RHP: .234/.310/.459 (.769 OPS, 113 wRC+)
vs. LHP: .389/.500/.722 (1.222 OPS, 241 wRC+)

May just be due to the small sample, but interesting to keep an eye on.

Milestones

Recent milestones and those that may be reached over the next week or so...

Jimmy Rollins -- Phillies Hits Record

Rollins' next hit will tie Ed Delahanty for third in hits in Phillies history. For Delahanty's career total, I am using the 2,211 number that the Phillies used on their broadcast over the weekend, instead of the other numbers that are publicly available:

mlb.com: 2,213
fangraphs.com: 2,213
baseball-reference.com: 2,214
Phillies Media Guide: 2,207

At the moment he is projected to reach Schmidt on June 8, but even if that stays true, they would certainly sit him for at least a day to make sure he broke the record at home.

 

Jimmy Rollins -- Other

• Rollins' next time caught stealing will tie him with Schmidt for 2nd most on the Phillies list at 92. Larry Bowa holds the team record with 94. Caught stealing stats have been kept since 1951.
• He needs 1 more total base to reach 3,500 for his career. He will join Schmidt as the only Phillies with 3,500+, and also become the 15th active player with that many. Rollins will also become just the 9th shortstop in MLB history with 3,500 or more. Only two other shortstops in history had 3,500 by their age 35 season: Cal Ripken Jr, and Derek Jeter.
• Rollins' next home run will tie Dick Allen for 9th most in Phils history at 204.

Chase Utley

• Utley has tied Pat Burrell for 9th most RBIs in team history, at 827.
• He also tied Greg Luzinski for 3rd most Sac Flies on the Phillies list. His next one will tie Bobby Abreu (54), leaving him behind only Mike Schmidt (108). Sac Flies were tracked at various times before, but have only been recorded continuously since 1954.
• Two more runs scored (22 total) will tie Billy Hamilton for 11th on the Phillies list at 874.

Ryan Howard

• Howard passed Chuck Klein last week for 4th most RBIs in Phillies history, at 984 (while mlb.com, fangraphs, and bb-ref.com all show Klein with 983, the Phillies Media Guide has him at 984, so if Franzke or T-Mac think Howard still needs one more to pass Klein, that's why). In any case, still ahead of Howard are Del Ennis (1,124), Delahanty (1,286), and of course Schmidt (1,595). He will likely pass Ennis by the end of 2016, but the other two are out of reach.
• Howard also passed Johnny Callison for 11th most total bases on the Phillies career list, at 2,430.

Cole Hamels

• Bastardo and company made it 6 failed attempts at win #100 for Hamels. In those 6 starts since winning #99 last September, Hamels is 0-3, with 3 no decisions, a 5.40 ERA, 9.3 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9, and a very respectable 3.14 FIP.

A.J. Burnett

• Burnett's next win will be the 150th of his career, making him the 5th active pitcher with 150+. Cliff Lee is tied for 6th among active pitchers, with 142.

Jonathan Papelbon

• Papelbon's last save tied Ricky Bottalico for 7th most in Phils history at 78. Next is Ron Reed, with 90.

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For reference:

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