Phillies

Morning Wood: More Pigs, Please

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jul 16th, 2011 · 10:08 AM EDT

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Photo (not current): Lehigh Valley Live

The Phillies once again won a game on the backs of the Iron Pigs. John Mayberry Jr. and Vance Worley left the way to the 7-2 victory.

Here's a fun stat for those of you searching for the next right-handed bat, a quest that could soon take on the characteristics of a hit FOX show, complete with Simon Cowell, Marti Wolever, and Ruben Amaro sitting a table, sipping Cokes and judging raw righties who are doing nearly anything they can but stopping just short of performing Jack Parkman's shimmy and dangling their wangs to impress the trio (run-on sentence?): John Mayberry Jr. has 24 RBI in 127 at-bats. That's only seven less than Jayson Richard Gowan Werth, who has 31 RBI in 321 at-bats. – giggles in corner - 

What's more, for those of you pale-skinned SABR nerds, Mayberry has a higher OBP, SLG, and OPS than RG Werth… albeit with a much smaller sample size. Maybe he can't keep this up for the long haul, but you see what a credible right-handed bat can do for the Phillies lineup: Drive in nine of the team's 21 runs in two games. Zoiks, Scoob!

Speaking of righties, Vance Worley continues to assert himself as the best six-inning pitcher in baseball. He's quickly discovered that dark place, which has previously claimed chubby men the likes of Adam Eaton, Kevin Millwood, and Joe Blanton. No, it's not the Center City Krispy Kreme. It's the sixth inning. That's where we can usually expect Worley to simultaneously approach the 100 pitch plateau and levels of uni wetness that make even Chris Wheeler a little uncomfortable. Plus, The Vanimal still doesn't have as much differentiation between his pitches as a guy like Cole Hamels does. But we'll take that from our fifth starter.

He talked about the strike zone, too:

Shane Victorino is scheduled to make a rehab start for Reading tonight in Trenton.