August 09, 2022
The Phillies are on a surge and have had nearly everything go right for them.
Rhys Hoskins can't stop hitting homers, Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto look to have turned a corner, they're getting contributions throughout the entire lineup, pitching is steady, and maybe the most surprising thing of late, the defense has improved.
The Phillies are 12 games over .500 (60-48), took hold of the second NL Wild Card spot after this past weekend's four-game sweep of the Nationals, and have been playing some of the majors' best baseball since the start of June.
By the way, this is all without Bryce Harper.
They'll look to keep the momentum going Tuesday night when they open a three-game series against the Marlins to close out the current homestand.
But before that, how did this all turn around?
Here's what they're saying about the Phils...
The Phillies' fielding has come a long way since April.
Since their hot streak began, their infield defense has been noticeably cleaner and the fixes for it, perhaps surprisingly, are mostly all internal.
Using the defensive metric Outs Above Average, Mike Petriello over at MLB.com took a look at the Phillies' infield and how it's changed over the summer months. In May, they were minus-20 OAA. In July, they were plus-5.
Petriello traced this improvement down to a few causes: They're shifting more, life got easier with better pitching, and Alec Bohm got way better at third base.
On Bohm:
You might remember Bohm from his infamous three-error disaster in early April that led to him uttering “I [expletive] hate this place,” or a pair of defensive mistakes on May 4, or any number of early-season fielding problems that put his future into question. With a minus-8 OAA, he was baseball’s weakest defender in May, but he’s been slightly above average (plus-2 OAA) since. The face of the team’s defensive ineptitude has now become, if not a strength, at least not a weakness.
Why? We’d argue confidence for a young player matters; note that he also had a mere .611 OPS in May and was Philadelphia’s best hitter in July (1.088 OPS), and it's hard not to notice the correlation there. [MLB.com]
Better defense pays dividends, especially late in games when leads need to be protected.
The Phillies have players now who can keep runs off the board without much sacrifice to their offensive production, an underrated point of improvement highlighted by Ethan White over at The Good Phight.
While it was mentioned a bit in those brief clippings, what’s not mentioned is that in conjunction with the releases of Didi Gregorius and Odubel Herrera, not only does the team’s starting defense improve with Marsh in center and Bryson Stott taking over at shortstop full time, their late game defense should improve markedly, something that maybe wasn’t happening as much. With the additions of Marsh and Edmundo Sosa, coupled with the return of Jean Segura, Rob Thomson now has the option to put a rather stellar defense on the field once the team has a lead if he so desires without losing all that much offense in the process. [The Good Phight]
The bullpen, which has long been the bane of this club's existence, has gotten better under interim manager Rob Thomson too, and all mostly with the same relievers who struggled under Joe Girardi.
How?
As Scott Lauber over at The Philadelphia Inquirer writes, Thomson is looking for the best matchups against opposing hitters rather than traditionally assigned innings.
[David Robertson] isn’t the Phillies’ closer because, well, the Phillies don’t have a closer. Not really. Seranthony Domínguez is often the choice to get the last three outs. But since June 3, when the Phillies fired Joe Girardi and gave Thomson an interim promotion from bench coach, Domínguez has entered in the eighth inning (nine times) more often than the ninth (eight times). Seven Phillies relievers have saved at least one game. That’s because Thomson deploys relievers based on matchups rather than assigning them to pitch specific innings.
And here’s the thing: It’s working. The bullpen has a 3.91 ERA in 57 games under Thomson compared to a 4.15 mark in 51 games under Girardi.
...
It could be better. Phillies relievers still have the third-highest walk rate (10.8%) among all teams. But for the first time in years, the bullpen isn’t a stomach-turning mess. And to hear the relievers tell it, a lot of the success has to do with Thomson’s usage patterns. [The Inquirer]
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