Pat Burrell and Chase Utley day night stats

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Some Phillies hitters like night and day at night and day
January 24 2007

Last season the Phillies scored 865 runs in 162 games, about 5.34 per game. Their offense plated 603 runs in 110 night games, about 5.48 per game, and 262 in their 52 day games, about 5.03 per game. Overall in the National League last season, seven of the 16 teams averaged more runs in their night games than their day games, and of those seven only two had a bigger difference in the average number of runs scored at day and night than the Phillies did.

	Day			Night
Team	G	R	R/G	G	R	R/G	Better
PHI	52	262	5.03	110	603	5.48	N +.45
FLA	46	235	5.11	116	523	4.51	D +.60
NYM	55	303	5.51	107	531	4.96	D +.55
ATL	48	251	5.23	114	598	5.25	N + .02
WAS	53	253	4.77	109	493	4.52	D +.25

CHI	83	374	4.51	79	342	4.33	D + .18
CIN	57	222	3.89	105	527	5.02	N +1.13
HOU	47	195	4.15	115	540	4.70	N + .55
MIL	55	248	4.51	107	482	4.50	D + .01
PIT	55	225	4.09	107	466	4.36	N + .27
STL	56	294	5.25	105	487	4.64	D + .61

AZ	49	228	4.65	113	545	4.82	N + .17
COL	43	225	5.23	119	588	4.94	D +.29
LA	49	264	5.39	113	556	4.92	D +.47
SD	54	265	4.91	108	466	4.31	D + .60
SF	61	275	4.51	100	471	4.71	N + .20

One of the interesting things about the list is that the three teams in the NL that hit the most home runs, the Braves, Reds and Phillies, were all among the teams that scored more runs per game in their night games than their days games. The split is most dramatic with the Reds, who were a different offensive team in the day than at night. In terms of average runs per game, the Reds were the third highest-scoring team in the NL in their night games and 16th of 16 in their day games. On the other hand, the Pirates, the team that hit the fewest home runs in the NL last season, also scored more runs on the average in their night games than they did in their day games.

Of the Phils five top home run hitters, four of the five hit for a higher OPS in night games than in day games. Curiously, the guy in the group who didn't was Ryan Howard. Howard was an absolute monster during the day last year. He posted an OPS of 1.179 in day games and 1.041 in night games. During his 180 at-bats during day games he hit 22 home runs and slugged an absurd .733.

If the Phillies scored more runs during night games than day games, one thing for sure is that there must be some important Phillies who hit better during the night than during the day. And there were.

Player	OPS Day	OPS Night
Utley	839	939
Rollins	756	836
Burrell	855	906
Victorino	610	841
Dellucci	771	990

Those five Phils were among the players on the team who were better at night than during the day last season. But is that a pattern for those players? For Victorino we don't know since he's seen so little time before '06. For Dellucci it certainly is not -- he was a better hitter at night in '06 after being a batter hitter during the day from '02-'05. Rollins has generally been better at night, but was better during the day in '05. Utley and Burrell are the odd ones -- both have been consistently better at night than during the day. Burrell has hit better at night in every year of his career and Utley has in every year except 2003, when he got just 134 at-bats.

Here are their career numbers:

Player	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Utley - Day	539	276	339	456	796
Utley - Night	1063	293	373	535	908

Burrell - Day	1135	242	345	447	792
Burrell - Night	2392	266	370	495	865

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