Overexposed Players and the Resulting Complications: Thoughts on the Phillies' Slump
The urge here is to bury the Phillies after they guaranteed themselves a losing series in Arizona against a Diamondbacks team that probably won’t win 60 games.
The Phillies are either playing like — or simply are — a lifeless and indifferent team that got caught overlooking what was supposed to be an inferior opponent.
Seven hits? In two games? Against a collection of pedestrian Diamondbacks pitchers that entered the week with the National League’s worst ERA?
I mean, what the actual hell?
Perhaps this series provides that last piece of needed evidence to formally indict this team’s collective character. Absent their eight-game win streak earlier this month that, ironically, feels like a desert mirage, the Phillies have long appeared to be a team that lacks some intangible winning trait.
Maybe it’s a killer instinct. Maybe it’s the intrinsic motivation required to perform at an acceptable level in front 7,968 mostly disinterested baseball fans. Maybe it’s both.
But, I’m not so sure this is entirely about a character flaw.
After all, the Phillies scoreboard watch. They are well aware the Braves have won 13 of their last 15 games. They are also aware they now find themselves with a similar division deficit to which they began the month.
If you have stayed up to watch this disaster unfold over the last two nights, you have seen guys missing belt-high 90 mph fastballs. You have seen advantageous hitter’s counts yield a number of feeble swings, followed by dejected walks back to the dugout.
There are a number of issues at play right now:
- Certain players are simply overexposed. With Alec Bohm struggling defensively, Ronald Torreyes has brought some much-needed defensive stability to third base while picking up a number of key hits. He’s been a godsend for the Phillies this season. But his modest offensive production at a corner infield spot doesn’t play in a lineup that lacks the needed thump elsewhere to compensate for it.
- Speaking of corner infield production, Brad Miller is a valuable role player who has provided a number of big hits this season, but he, too, has been overexposed. He’s hitting just .116 in August and .083 with a .310 OPS over his last eight games.
- The impact of Rhys Hoskins’ absence on the Phillies’ offense is obvious. And for all of Bohm’s struggles, he had been hitting .315 with a .797 OPS from June 1 through Aug. 8 — the end of the Mets series.
- The above issues are exacerbated with Andrew McCutchen still feeling his way back since returning from the injured list and Jean Segura going through a rare extended cold spell.
- Simply put, some guys are trying to do too much — either to compensate for their teammates’ struggles or break out of their own funks. No sequence better represents this idea than what happened with J.T. Realmuto at the plate during the top of the fourth inning last night. Realmuto worked a 3-0 count with Segura at second base and one away. He offered at a sinker located on the outer-half of the zone, bouncing weakly to third for the second out of the inning. The at-bat had an “if not me, then who the hell else is getting this run home?” vibe to it.
As embarrassing of a proposition as it is, the Phillies have an opportunity to salvage things this afternoon. They will have their best pitcher on the mound before heading to San Diego to face a slumping Padres team this weekend.
While the urge is to bury the Phillies, the reality is this — with the surging Braves recently pounding inferior opponents and headed to Baltimore to play a brutal Orioles team, the Phillies won’t need you or me to bury them if they don’t quickly get it together.
They will handle it themselves.