Philadelphia Phillies: Laugh no more, these guys can actually hit
The Philadelphia Phillies were terrible last season when in came to run production. The team was young, inexperienced and looked desperate at the plate. As much as we would like to throw the blame on the young guys in the batter’s box a lot of it has to point towards the mound. When your starters ERA is hovering close to .500 what else are young hitter supposed to do but panic.
That was the case last year as the Phillies ranked at the bottom of every offensive category there is. However, that was last year. 2017 has given the team a clean slate and the players have responded better than most expected.
[Mark]The Phillies are swinging the bats with a veteran’s poise now. For the season they have accumulated 38 runs (4th), 61 hits (11th), 9 home runs (10th), 36 RBI (3rd) and a team BA of 2.61 (7th). A major improvement compared to 2016. But why the turnaround?
I will always say that a good defense makes a great offense.
The Phillies staff is much better this season which has allowed the hitters to relax at the plate more and not try to take every pitch out the park. None of that was more evident than their game against the Washington Nationals last Saturday. The Phillies scored 17 runs on 15 hits while their staff surrendered 3 runs on 10 hits. This type of production is what the Phillies need if they are to put the rebuilding years behind them.
New addition, Howie Kendrick has performed better than expected with his team-leading 9 hits and .429 BA. Not to be outdone are young guys like Freddy Galvis, Cesar Hernandez, and Odubel Herrera. If the Phillies can keep up their offensive success, there’s no telling how far they could go this season.
The year is still young but the 2016 plate issues, for the time being, have seemed to vanish.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
