March 24, 2013

Team Offense, Philadelphia Phillies

The series on team offense continues with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies finished nineteenth in the majors and eighth in the National League in 2012 with 4.22 runs scored per game.

The CBSSports.com projected lineup that Charlie Manuel may use is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. For the pitcher projections, I simply use the stats from the Phillies pitchers in 2012. That information produces the following results:

  • Best lineup: 4.30
  • Probable lineup: 4.10
  • Worst lineup: 3.83
  • Regressed lineup: 3.95

The Phillies tried to build a dynasty, but ended up with an old, broken down team. Ryan Howard‘s injuries cost him his ability to get on base, although he retains some power. Chase Utley‘s injuries sapped his power, but he still gets on base okay. The two used to do both well, which is what made the Phillies so formidable.

They need to get younger, but they bring in Michael Young. In the NL, his biggest weakness, his fielding will stick out. He can still hit for average, but not much else. The infield is old, and I suspect very porous, which will hurt an otherwise great starting rotation.

It’s going to be an ugly summer on offense in the city of brotherly love.

You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.

Previous posts in the series:

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