Ben Revere Sucks

Photo credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

I thoroughly enjoyed Glen Macnow’s take on Ben Revere in the Metro this week, under the headline Is Ben Revere the dumbest Phillie of all time?:

[After Revere was called out for not retouching a base upon retreat], Ryne Sandberg suggested Revere may have been ignorant that for the past 158 years, baseball has required runners heading backwards to retouch a base. “I don’t know that he knew he has to do that,” said the Fundamentals Manager. For his part, Revere insisted he knew the rule.

I’m inclined to agree with Sandberg on this one. After watching Revere for the past three seasons, I’ve concluded he’s the dumbest player I’ve ever seen in red pinstripes.

Macnow cited what two scouts told Kevin Cooney:

Scout One: “He’s at best a fourth outfielder that you could use as a potential pinch-runner. The problem there is that he has terrible baseball instincts and is an awful baserunner.”

Scout Two: “I’ll pass, thank you. He makes one mistake a night that could kill you.”

Those are the highlights of a succinct hit piece on Revere. You should read it.

In fact, just to confirm how misleading it can be to praise Revere over his typically decent batting average, I dove into the Baseball Reference computer of all things baseball and came up for air with this: Revere’s the only player since the beginning of 2013 (his time with the Phillies) with a minimum of 600 plate appearances to bat over .290 but have an on-base percentage under .330 and an OPS under .700. And among all players with a batting average over .290 during that same span, Revere, obviously, has the smallest delta between his average (.298) and OPS (.682), and it’s not even close. In other words: he’s the worst .298 hitter on the planet.

Good thing his bosses aren’t into that whole advanced statistics thing.