Phillies Stat Notes: Thrilla in Hotlanta

NL Standings and Key Stats

It's a battle of the two worst (most?) offensive clubs in the league. The Braves have gotten on base slightly more than the Phillies (thanks to walking more), but have much less power.

The Phillies have won 46 games. The Pythagorean Projection says that based on their runs scored and runs allowed, a team would typically only be expected to have won 39.6 games. That difference of 6.4 wins hasn't changed much for the Phils since mid-May, when it peaked at 7.2:

Comparing Phillies Stats to Last Year, and to the Braves

Hitting

That's a lot of "15"s in the Braves' rankings, and the Phillies are right there with them in most categories:

Pitching

Phillies Hitters

Here is how each starter's OPS has progressed to where it is today:

Phillies Pitchers

ERA progression:

Next, below are game logs for each starter. The graphs to the right of each are for the Game Score:

On the color coding:

Green = Quality Start (6+ IP, 3 or fewer ER)
Red = "Bad" start (at least as many ER's as innings pitched)
Yellow = All others

The Game Score is colored separately: dark green for 80+, green for 60+. There are only two at 80+, Velasquez' 16-K gem, and Eflin's previous start before yesterday's.

Note Nola's run of nine straight Quality Starts before the wheels seemed to fall off.

Former Phillie News - Utley

Most WAR (fangraphs) by NL second basemen, last 365 days -- Utley ranks 5th:

#	Name	Team	G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	ISO	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	BsR	Off	Def	WAR
123 Page size: 67 items in 3 pages
1	Daniel Murphy	- - -	150	627	28	94	113	4	4.5 %	8.9 %	.254	.324	.331	.362	.585	.395	152	2.1	41.1	-1.8	6.1
2	Addison Russell	Cubs	156	598	19	70	89	6	9.5 %	24.9 %	.170	.311	.251	.328	.421	.321	100	2.7	2.8	15.1	3.8
3	Anthony Rendon	Nationals	157	676	17	93	57	11	10.8 %	19.7 %	.141	.301	.256	.339	.397	.323	100	0.4	0.8	9.1	3.2
4	Ben Zobrist	Cubs	93	405	13	61	50	4	14.6 %	12.8 %	.168	.282	.268	.379	.437	.354	121	0.4	10.8	3.5	2.8
5	Chase Utley	- - -	129	542	10	69	44	2	7.7 %	18.5 %	.137	.304	.257	.333	.394	.319	102	1.0	2.0	5.6	2.6
6	Danny Espinosa	Nationals	130	459	21	59	59	8	8.3 %	28.1 %	.200	.261	.218	.311	.418	.309	90	5.0	-0.3	9.8	2.5
7	Neil Walker	- - -	152	583	23	62	73	3	9.3 %	18.2 %	.170	.270	.251	.321	.422	.317	102	-1.8	-0.4	5.5	2.4
8	Jedd Gyorko	- - -	131	463	25	52	71	0	6.3 %	20.7 %	.204	.284	.265	.313	.468	.334	113	-0.1	6.9	1.8	2.4

Tonight's lineups

Aaron Altherr comes off the DL to make his 2016 debut, batting 5th vs. RHP Matt Wisler:

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Lineup definitions...

wRC+

Similar to OPS+, Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) measures how a player’s wRC compares with league average after controlling for park effects.  League average for position players is 100, and every point above 100 is a percentage point above league average. For example, a 125 wRC+ means a player created 25% more runs than a league average hitter would have in the same number of plate appearances. Similarly, every point below 100 is a percentage point below league average, so a 80 wRC+ means a player created 20% fewer runs than league average.

Runs vs. Average

Fangraphs converts all of a player's stats to the number of runs those stats would typically generate, all else being equal. The runs in each main category (hitting, baserunning, fielding) are then compared to the average. The graph above also prorates all of these to 600 PAs for easier comparison of players with different amounts of playing time.