This MUST Change for the Phillies...

Frustration is beginning to kick in as the Philadelphia Phillies have dropped back to back series and lost four of their last five games. However, we can talk all about the center field position. We can talk all about the lineup order, the decisions being made by Rob Thompson, the bullpen struggles, all these things that are relevant to this Phillies team, but there is one clear factor that is currently holding this team back. I'm going to dive into exactly what this is and if that is even a fixable problem with this Phillies team, but before I do do that, do want to remind you guys as always to make sure you are hitting that subscribe button that at this point in time just 38.1% of you guys watching these videos right now have subscribed to us right here on Phillies Digest. I'm going to take things up to a whole nother level. My guy Luke Arcani in press row in Citizens Bank Park preparing for tonight's game and he will be back with the scoop after the fact, so make sure you stay tuned for all of that and the clear issue that is harming this Phillies team right now, it is hitting with runners in scoring position. We knew that this has been an issue to this point, but the layout exactly how significant is that these shortcomings have been common for the Phillies. They're batting 199 with runners in scoring position this season, which ranks 26th in baseball. They went 1 for 11 on Monday. Quote, I think they're trying to do too much. They're getting poolside happy, Thompson said. A lot of ground balls. They have to get back to what we were doing early in the year, getting good pitches to hit, controlling the strike zone, and using the entire field. It can change. Thompson expects it will. Some players in the clubhouse just need to remember that. Quote, there are 70 guys hitting under 200 in Major League Baseball, Thompson said. In fact, there were 44 qualified hitters hitting under 200 on Monday. That list included Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger, Bryson Buxton, Anthony Santander, Dansby Swanson, Brent Rooker, Willie Adames, Max Muncy, Josh Bell, Christian Walker, Carlos Correa, Christian Yellich, and Marcus Simeon, among others. Quote, they just need to relax, Thompson said. It's going to happen. We got a long way to go. Now, a couple directions I want to go here. For starters, I don't love the automatic excuse here being, well, there's a lot of teams struggling. There's a lot of guys playing bad baseball right now. And the names on those lists are clear-cut, very good baseball players. We understand how it works in the sport, how you go through your highs and lows. There will be slumps. That's unfortunately just a part of the deal. But it's not exactly the same conversations I think Rob Thompson is having that we're trying to have with him on this particular discussion. Now, we can go into a couple of different angles with this as well. I do think it gets a little bit overblown, the statement of this Phillies team being all home runs, where they've certainly, you know, leaned into that identity in past years. I think the pendulum has swung a little bit in the opposite direction, where there has been a little bit more small ball, a little bit more reliance on hitting into the gaps. And Alec Boehm, at his best, is a clear-cut, great version of that. Nick Kassianos, I think, does that very effectively. Trey Turner, at his best, is spraying the ball in the gaps, hitting doubles, driving runners in, those type of conversations. That's really important and something that I think the team needs to build off. And I was encouraged at the early part of the year that they were heading that direction. Don't get me wrong. Home runs are great. Chicks dig the long ball. There is nothing better than mashing one over the fence and that automatically counting right away. But you can't rely on that all the time. And I do think that you have to be able to win in a variety of ways. Now, to dive into exactly how poor this has been for this Phillies team, I want to reflect on the numbers by series here. So, shout out to my guy, Phillies Tailgate, constantly on top of things here. And he says, the Phillies are batting 199 with runners in scoring position this season. Here are their series running and scoring position stats. Against the Giants, and again, this is just one game to this point, as I'm recording this before game two, they went one for 11. That is a 0.09% of batting hitting with runners in scoring positions there. Against the Cardinals, they were 2 for 19. The Braves, 4 for 24. Dodgers, 4 for 22. Rockies, 8 for 28. The Nationals, 8 for 32. And you can see when looking at it, it sort of gets progressively worse. Don't get me wrong. I'm not thrilled over an 8 for 32 or an 8 for 28 performance either. But you can kind of live with that far more than you can the 4 for 24, 2 for 19, 1 for 11. When you are hitting below 17% with runners in scoring position, that is an issue for this Phillies team. And that falls on all of them. This can't just be attached to one guy. The automatic, I guess, pushback or concern of where this gets attached to, a lot of times becomes the familiar topics. There's the centerfield outlook. And by the way, to directly acknowledge how poor that has been from the centerfield position overall, the Phillies have gotten 45 at-bats from the centerfield position so far this season. 6 hits, 1 home run, 5 RBIs, 7 walks, 15 strikeouts, with hitting splits of 133, 250, and 200. Yeah, that is not even close to good enough. I'm not here to argue against that. But it is frustrating that essentially, despite the National League and Major League Baseball doing away with having the pitcher hit, the 9th spot has essentially become the same thing for this Phillies team. An automatic out in the lineup. And that can't happen here. I do think there needs to be some larger discussions. And by the way, this comes on the heels of Rob Thompson facing the media yesterday, talking about Brandon Marsh needs to sit down for a couple games. He's back in the lineup today. He played last night, and I get he didn't get to the plate. He was subbed in as a defensive sub because they didn't want to pinch hit for Johan Rojas. I understand all this here. But it's a little bit inconsistent in the messaging when you're saying one thing pretty clear-cut to the media, and then acting the opposite. Now, I don't fully disagree with the decision to get Marsh back in the lineup. And I obviously Rob Thompson should at least have a better feel for how guys mentally handle things. I think there are guys that in certain situations benefit from getting taken out of the lineup, having a chance to sit on the bench, look at it from a different perspective, get his own mentals together, take some extra time in the cage where there is not that constant pressure. I think there's other guys that that's more harmful than good, that they need to keep plugging through it, work through it. They're just going to stew on the bad at-bats and strikeouts that they need to push through it. Brandon Marsh is better than he's played to this point. I'm not ruling out that Brandon Marsh is not good enough for what this Phillies team needs to do. In fact, I think there's probably more evidence on that side of the argument. But it's also tough to discount how good he was during that 2023 run. And immediately after the trade, what that bat looked like, that hit tool, I was really impressed by. And, you know, kind of changed the way that I value Brandon Marsh. We haven't really seen that guy since that point, pretty much the entirety of last year, and certainly the start of this year. It is a new low for it. But it is not just about just those guys. This is the big dogs that got to drive in runs. You have to be, if you're Alec Baum, or you're Bryce Harper, you're Trey Turner, or Kyle Schwerber, Nick Cassianis, the guys of this Phillies team, you got to be able to drive guys in. And the opportunities have been there. This team just has not delivered to this point. And things are not going to change until that changes. Now, it is not as linearly tied to hitting well with runners in scoring position and getting wins. For example, to take a look at the worst teams in the league in this category, you will see some teams ahead of us in the standings. Primarily New York Mets is who I'm alluding to here as we have three NL East teams in this bottom five in the MLB. The Phillies ranked 26th in runners in scoring position with a 199% batting average there. Atlanta Braves 197, Cleveland Guardians 194, the New York Mets 163, and the Mariners 148 there. Now the Mets obviously are off to an 11-5 start. They're holding the lead in the NL East. So this has not been a problem that has plagued them the most here. But for the Phillies, they have not been good enough from a home run perspective. And they've been even worse from a driving in runners here. In an ideal world, this is what needs to change with this Phillies team. I want the full focus on timely hits, driving it into the gap, playing a little bit more small ball, and the home runs will come later here. We know who Kyle Schwerber is, we know how Nick Cassianos can mash, and by the way, still is. Cassie, probably the guy that I've been most impressed with, although he has had the 0-for-5 strikeout performances. Overall, been a very good start to the season for Nick Cassianos. I don't think you can fully say that about a lot of these guys. We know that Bryce Harper goes through his cold spell pretty much once a year. Seems like he's getting it out of the way early this year, for better or for worse. Trey Turner, I think has been mostly solid, but not a guy that is fully back to what the contract would dictate, as I often point to. Bryson Stott, there's been highs and lows. Alec Boehm, certainly far more lows. In fact, if you want to view fan graphs, he's currently viewed as the worst hitter in Major League Baseball, a negative .7 war entering yesterday's game. All this goes to say that it comes on all these guys. There's got to be a little bit of an internal, take things personally, have some pride, and let's start to dig out of it. I do think that will happen. It is a long season. It has been an unfortunate recent stretch, but still plenty of time to get the train back on the track. So, we will see if things shake from here. I do think this type of hitting is contagious, and once one guy is able to flip the switch, get some runners in motion, driving in guys with some RBIs there, that everybody is going to feel a lot better about the outlook here, but that needs to happen first off. Hopefully, that does change tonight as we are expecting some wild wins in Game 2 against the Giants. Once again, as I mentioned, our guy Luke Arcani will be in attendance in press row at Citizens Bank Park, so make sure to stay tuned for some stuff coming out of the game. Check out his socials as well as he'll be all over it, and I will be popping back on to talk about this Phillies team as usual. So, before I sign off one more time, do want to remind you guys to make sure you're hitting that subscribe button once again. 61.9% of you guys watching these videos have not hit the subscribe button just yet. It helps us out a ton here on Phillies Digest. Appreciate each and every one of you guys tuning into this video here. Drop your comments below. I'll be back talking to you next time.