Howard:Rollins:and Utley.

[northeastphillyguy]

The three aging Veterans that we need to rely on in 2014 are providing little hope thus far. They are a combined 24 for 122 with a batting average of .197. Toss in 2 home runs,3 doubles,9 walks and 29 strikeouts and one might think those stats belonged to walk on players. With all the injured players on this team the outlook is bleak. However guys like Cedeno,Abreu,and Gwynn Jr are starting to look like good moves by Amaro in the form of adding emergency depth.

 

[jvett77]

It has been disappointing and one reason is how many players Ryno is forced to look at before it all counts. I looked at the OF batting this spring. I think the guys we're counting on will be there. An overall .247 OF avg. is not exciting but if you look at the guys being shuffled in and out of the lineup with little experience, you can see that it waters down the offense. But then, the scary part is how come Atlanta and Washington are hitting okay this spring. Damn scary.

_______________AB____H
B Revere .341 14 44 8 15
T Gwynn .333 16 30 7 10
M Byrd .325 15 40 5 13
B Abreu .273 14 33 5 9
J Mayberry .263 16 38 5 10
C Thomas .235 16 17 2 4
D Ruf .217 18 46 2 10
D Brown .171 14 35 2 6
T Gillies .111 10 9 0 1
L Castro .111 8 9 1 1
Z Collier .100 12 10 1 1
A Blanco .091 11 11 0 1
K Dugan .000 5 5 0 0
C Perkins .000 1 0 0 0
OF Total ABs 327AB 81Hits = .247

 

[Omar 382]

It has been disappointing and one reason is how many players Ryno is forced to look at before it all counts. I looked at the OF batting this spring. I think the guys we're counting on will be there. An overall .247 OF avg. is not exciting but if you look at the guys being shuffled in and out of the lineup with little experience, you can see that it waters down the offense. But then, the scary part is how come Atlanta and Washington are hitting okay this spring. Damn scary.

_______________AB____H
B Revere .341 14 44 8 15
T Gwynn .333 16 30 7 10
M Byrd .325 15 40 5 13
B Abreu .273 14 33 5 9
J Mayberry .263 16 38 5 10
C Thomas .235 16 17 2 4
D Ruf .217 18 46 2 10
D Brown .171 14 35 2 6
T Gillies .111 10 9 0 1
L Castro .111 8 9 1 1
Z Collier .100 12 10 1 1
A Blanco .091 11 11 0 1
K Dugan .000 5 5 0 0
C Perkins .000 1 0 0 0
OF Total ABs 327AB 81Hits = .247

Was this really necessary? I believed you when you said they're hitting .247

 

[Cedrique]

I agree with Rollins. Spring Training Batting Average means nothing. I do think they are short on offense though. They will need some surprises to be any good. I'm thinking Ruiz will be a boost this year but they need someone like Asche or Franco to come up big.

 

[Retroram52]

Well, what northestphillyguy has stated we all knew was coming. Didn't we beat to death with discussions of the consequences of Amaro's ridiculous signings of older players while getting rid of promising young talent? What do folks expect when everyone can see the obvious but you know who??

 

[jvett77]

[/B]

Was this really necessary? I believed you when you said they're hitting .247

Nope. But I like to put a name on it and give it some perspective.

 

[navamind]

Utley's the one you should be the least worried about.

 

[Cedrique]

Utley's the one you should be the least worried about.

Can't argue with that.

 

[Cedrique]

Rollins, Howard and Asche all went yard today against the Bucs today.

 

[northeastphillyguy]

Rollins, Howard and Asche all went yard today against the Bucs today.

That's great news. Two of the old guys stepped up today. maybe we should talk about them more often!

 

[Omar 382]

It shouldn't have taken Spring Training games to intuit that this offense will not be very good. Fangraphs has Howard down for a 0.3 WAR this year. The offense can be decent if Ashe breaks out; Brown, Utley, and Byrd duplicate last year; and Revere has an OBP around .365. With our starting pitching, that would give us an outside chance at a Wild Card spot. Even then, Rollins and Howard are liabilities, and the bullpen probably will not hold a whole ton of leads that our offense gives them.

 

[Caligula]

LOL @ Spring Training stats.

 

[northeastphillyguy]

Maybe Sandbergs message finally got through to Rollins,or maybe it was the negative publicity. Rollins just might care a little bit about the image he projects. He has two more hits today and one was a homerun! Howard has two hits also. The Phillies are up 5-1 so far. Rollins Utley and Howard need to lead this team by example. Today has been positive so far. I hope it continues!

 

[Omar 382]

In my personal opinion, it's almost never good to see back to back days with home runs for Jimmy. It just encourages him to uppercut the ball even more. He needs to make his outs on the ground or preferably through line drives.

 

[Cedrique]

LOL @ Spring Training stats.

Yeah, they are meaningless, but the old guys needed a couple good games in a row to curtail the "I can't see any way this team can be expected to go up north and suddenly start hitting in the regular season " sentiment.

BTW, How many times has David Ortiz been "done" in spring training or in the first month of the season, then go on to have a good year? I think he appears to be done again.

 

[Omar 382]

LOL @ Spring Training stats.

I wouldn't render them completely worthless, but the manner in which jvett uses them just doesn't make sense. For example, Howard is flailing against lefties this spring, which he has always done, so that tells me that he hasn't worked at all this offseason to make any strides to hit better versus lefties. But Utley or Dom hitting under .200 doesn't bother me much at all.

 

[northeastphillyguy]

The comments about spring training stats being meaningless are not valid. What if the entire team ended up the spring with a .185 batting average. Also what if the total ERA for pitching was 9.85. There would be concern. What about borderline players fighting for a job. There is meaning to spring training stats. However it does mean less than real season stats in my opinion. There are good signs to look for such as Revere stealing 5 bases and hitting for a decent average. If you feel good about that then it has meaning.

 

[jvett77]

The stats confirm that Revere is fully healed and hasn't lost a step. If he keeps it up into the season, who knows, he could make a run at a batting title (I know, I'm getting ahead of everything).

It was interesting that Ceasar played some 3rd base today. That might turn into a good alternative if Asche can't cut it and Franco not quite ready for the big time. Last year Henandez hit .289 and had a .344 OBP. in 34 games, 121 ABs.

 

[Cedrique]

Yeah, I read something about him practicing at ss too. With Galvis out he might get a little playing time. They just outrighted Frandsen to the minors. Maybe his spring stats were important since he is hitting .206 with no xtra base hits.. At least he parlayed that flukey 50 games in garbage time of 2012 into a couple million bucks.

 

[jvett77]

Ryno's weeding them out. It's good they dumped Frandsen. He was useful last year occasionally but still only hit .234. Guys like Hernandez and Gwynn can hit and will really help this team. I also favor Rupp's bat over Nieves even though we might get a wild throw from Rupp now and then. The difference could be a few games when Carlos is out.