Phillies Stat Notes: Phillies Roll, JRoll Climbs

The Phillies have the 3th best record in the NL, despite one of the worst offenses in the league.

NL Standings and Key Stats

It's been talked about ad nauseam, but still worth noting: the Phillies are on a...

95 win pace based on their 24-17 record so far -- 3rd best in the NL
67 win pace based on their run differential -- 3rd worst in the NL

The Braves are very very bad no matter how we look at it.

Also note how the Cubs are on a 116-win pace, but are playing under their pythagorean:

Comparing Phillies Stats to Last Year, and to the Braves

As bad as this looks, the Phillies have actually improved slightly in recent weeks, from the very bottom of the NL rankings up to 13th in many categories, including overall hitting (wRC+).

They're last in SB% at 50%, with as many times caught stealing as successful steals.

We'll also have the "pleasure" of seeing the NL's top two teams in sacrifices this weekend.

Pitching

Phillies starters rank 3rd in FIP (i.e. based on Ks, walks, and HRs allowed), and 2nd in xFIP (which is similar but aslo treats the HR/FB rate as not controllable and adjusts it to the league average):

Phillies Hitters

Tyler Goeddel now with a lovely .925 OPS over the last two weeks, has surged (almost by default) to the 5th highest OPS on the team for the season:

Ryan Howard Milestones

Howard's next walk will be his 694th, and will break a tie with Whiz Kids third baseman Willie Puddin' Head Jones for 7th all-time in Phillies history.

Rank	Player	Bases on Balls	PA
1.	Mike Schmidt	1507	10062
2.	Bobby Abreu	947	5885
3.	Richie Ashburn	946	8223
	Roy Thomas	946	5788
5.	Pat Burrell	785	5388
6.	Jimmy Rollins	753	9511
7.	Ryan Howard	693	6296
	Willie Jones	693	6241
9.	Ed Delahanty	643	7141
10.	Chase Utley	625	6617

He has now played in 1497 games, so sometime soon Howard will appear in #1500. Despite his struggles the past few years, he still ranks 16th all-time in home runs by a player in his first 1500 games (with a chance to move up a spot):

Incidentally, he's also 16th all-time in RBIs in the first 1500 games.

Of course, that's still a drop-off from his early pace -- he holds the record for most home runs by a player in his first 1000 games, set in late 2011:

Howard is 10th in RBIs in the first 1000 ("he's no Joe DiMaggio").

Jimmy Rollins Milestones

Jimmy Rollins is deep into his decline phase, with a .664 OPS (80 wRC+), and only 0.1 fWAR, but he still has at least a part time job until prospect Tim Anderson's imminent arrival. And as long as he can hang on, he'll keep adding to his impressive resume.

Last night Rollins singled, stole a base, and scored the White Sox' second and deciding run -- it was his 2221st game at shortstop. On Tuesday, with his 2219th game, he had passed White Sox Hall of Famer Luke Appling for 7th most games at short all-time. In his next game he will tie Larry Bowa for 6th most in history, at 2222.

(Also earlier in the week, he had tied childhood idol Rickey Henderson with 510 doubles, 54th all-time.)

His single was hit #2450, passing Red Schoendienst for 114th all-time, and 13th among all switch-hitters. Next on both the switch hitter list and the shortstop list is Ozzie Smith, with 2460. When he passes Ozzie he'll be 12th in hits by switch hitters, and 9th among all shortstops.

His run tied Roberto Clemente for 87th.

His steal was #469, passing the 19th century's Tommy McCarthy (no relation) for 46th all-time (and 29th in the modern era).

Coming soon -- Extra Base Hits. Shortstops. History.

With the double mentioned above to tie Rickey, Rollins accomplished something else: he passed Derek Jeter for second most extra base hits by a player while in the game at Short.

And with three more, he will pass Cal Ripken Jr. as the all-time leader:

(more on splits by defensive position here, including estimating splits when they aren't available)

Something to keep an eye on.