Phillies stock watch: Zack Wheeler gets no help, Brandon Marsh is underrated

Another week in April, more frustrating .500 baseball from the Philadelphia Phillies.

There has been just as much good as bad over the last seven days, which is explanation for why they split a four-game set with a beatable Pirates team after they grinded out a series win in rainy St. Louis last week.

This team is historically slow to get going, but there are a lot of interesting indications on the field right now both in the stock up and stock down columns. Here's an overview of who and what is going right, and going wrong right now for the 8-8 Phillies:

Stock up 📈

Trea Turner, SS (.407 last week)

The Phillies' $300 million shortstop found his groove last week, collecting 11 hits in 27 at bats while adding his first homer of the season. For whatever reason, this team's stars insist on only playing well independently of one another instead of at the same time. If Turner and say, Bryce Harper or Kyle Schwarber could get hot at the same time this team might get out of the doldrums.

Brandon Marsh, LF (.348 last week)

Here are Marsh's ranks among Phillies hitters so far this season:

Why he doesn't play every single day is anyone's guess.

Nick Castellanos, RF (.250 last week)

The .250 average isn't all that impressive, but a walk-off hit will always get you on this list:

Johan Rojas, CF (.400 last week)

He only played in five of seven games, but the Phillies defensive outfielder had six hits in 15 at bats and just one strikeout. Perhaps he's finding his Major League bat again.

The bottom 3 starters (1.63 combined ERA)

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Chris Sanchez, Spencer Turnbull and Ranger Suarez had a very good week. They combined for four starts and allowed just four total runs, a 1.63 combined ERA. They also combined for 23 strikeouts in the 22 innings they pitched. If this continues, and there is less pressure on aces Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler things are looking very good for this pitching staff.

Stock down 📉

Bryce Harper, 1B (.074 last week)

Harper's struggles continue. He had two hits in 27 tries last week, with eight strikeouts. 

The Phillies’ entire bench

The Phils' four-man unit of Edmundo Sosa, Whit Merrifield, Garrett Stubbs and Christian Pache had 23 at bats last week. They combined for just two hits. It's not easy coming off the bench, often cold and out of a rhythm. But the Phillies could use better from their reserve hitters.

Zack Wheeler's run support

Wheeler has pitched in four games this season. He has three quality starts. He has 30 strikeouts over 24 innings pitched. And he has been given exactly one run of support in each start. Even Roy Halladay or Steve Carlton would be 0-3 with that kind of help.

Ricardo Pinto (5 ER)

Pinto is clearly the Phillies mop up guy and the team gave him a vote of confidence when they sent Nick Nelson down, and not him when Orion Kerkering was promoted back to the majors this weekend. But he's not doing much with his innings. In five of them last week he allowed eight hits and five earned runs.

The defense

According to a number of metrics, including baseball reference's 'total fielding runs above average,' Philly has one of the worst defensive units in the majors. They are the third worst in this measurement, have the seventh most errors and the ninth worst fielding percentage.

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