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Home moan
By egrissom | June 18, 2009
The Phillies continue to demonstrate their problems at home and it’s a quite a show. In the series with the Blue Jays they’ve struggled to score runs, but overall for the season their bigger problems have been with pitching.
The chart below compares the rate of runs allowed per nine inning for the 12 Phillies pitchers who have faced at least 25 hitters at home and on the road this season (nothing in this post includes results from last night’s game):
| R/9 Home | R/9 Away | R/9 at Home over R/9 Away |
|
| Eyre | 7.71 | 0.96 | 8.0 |
| JA Happ | 5.24 | 2.20 | 2.4 |
| Madson | 3.00 | 1.47 | 2.0 |
| Condrey | 4.26 | 2.40 | 1.8 |
| Blanton | 5.94 | 4.37 | 1.4 |
| Moyer | 6.82 | 5.40 | 1.3 |
| Durbin | 4.86 | 4.19 | 1.2 |
| Myers | 4.75 | 4.59 | 1.0 |
| Hamels | 4.42 | 4.85 | 0.9 |
| Park | 5.96 | 6.57 | 0.9 |
| Lidge | 7.43 | 8.53 | 0.9 |
| Taschner | 4.50 | 5.40 | 0.8 |
So, for example, Scott Eyre has allowed 7.71 runs per nine innings at home and 0.96 runs per nine innings on the road and has allowed about eight times the runs per nine innings at home that he has on the road. At the bottom of the list, Hamels, Park, Lidge and Taschner have all allowed runs at a lower rate at home this season than they have on the road.
How many hitters you face both at home and away is obviously important to the teams overall numbers. So, for example, it has hurt the Phillies numbers at home more that Blanton is allowing about 1.4 times as many runs per nine innings at home than it has that Condrey is allowing 1.8 times as many because Blanton throws more innings than Condrey.
As a team the Phillies have been worse at home in many areas. Here’s a look at the rate they’ve allowed runs, hits, walks, extra-base hits, home runs and struck batters out per nine innings at home and on the road:
| R/9 | H/9 | BB/9 | SO/9 | XBH/9 | HR/9 | |
| Home | 5.49 | 9.84 | 4.16 | 7.41 | 3.64 | 1.62 |
| Away | 4.27 | 8.85 | 3.02 | 6.86 | 3.12 | 1.31 |
| Home/Away | 1.29 | 1.11 | 1.38 | 1.08 | 1.17 | 1.24 |
So the Phillies pitchers are striking out more hitters at home, but they are also allowing more runs, hits, walks, extra-base hits and home runs. The areas where they have the most dramatic difference between what they are doing at home and on the road are in walks and home runs.
For the 12 Phillies pitchers who have faced at least 25 hitters both at home and on the road this season, here’s the percentage of batters at home they’ve faced who have homered or walked and the percentage of batters away they’ve faced who have homered or walked:
| Away | Home | |||
% HR |
% BB |
% HR |
% BB |
|
Madson |
0.0 |
2.9 |
0.0 |
12.9 |
Eyre |
0.0 |
11.4 |
7.4 |
18.5 |
Happ |
2.7 |
6.4 |
4.9 |
16.5 |
Condrey |
1.6 |
12.5 |
4.1 |
6.8 |
Blanton |
3.3 |
7.9 |
5.6 |
6.9 |
Durbin |
3.5 |
12.8 |
2.8 |
15.3 |
Park |
2.6 |
12.1 |
1.9 |
8.7 |
Myers |
7.9 |
6.5 |
4.4 |
8.1 |
Moyer |
3.4 |
4.1 |
6.0 |
6.6 |
Hamels |
3.1 |
3.9 |
4.3 |
5.5 |
Taschner |
6.7 |
13.3 |
0.0 |
15.8 |
Lidge |
6.6 |
11.5 |
4.8 |
11.1 |
All 12 of the pitchers can then be put into one of these four categories:
| Better at home in both categories | Better (or same) away in both categories |
| Park | Eyre |
| Lidge | Happ |
| Moyer | |
| Hamels | |
| Madson | |
| Higher % of batters have homered against him at home, but lower % of batters have walked | Higher % of batters have walked against him at home, but lower % of batters have homered |
| Condrey | Durbin |
| Blanton | Myers |
| Taschner |
Madson hasn’t allowed a home run all season either at home or away.
Update: The Phillies put Ibanez on the DL with a strained groin and called up Mayberry.
More update: Madson has allowed a home run now.
Topics: pitching |
June 18th, 2009 at 9:56 am
So the solution is to send the pitching staff on the road for the rest of the season?
June 18th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Not a bad idea. Hope the Phils give that one some thought. Things have gotten a little ugly. Kinda worried that Moyer, Bastardo and Happ might be too many pitchers who don’t have much chance to go more than six innings.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I know. It really looks like they need to make a deal in a hurry if they have any hope of having a bullpen at the end of the season.
The Ibanez thing hurts a lot. I guess you need to expect that though when you’re dealing with a 37 year old (and 38, and 39)
June 18th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Great analysis. I am sure pitching acquisitions are coming.
I linked to this article. Keep up the fine work.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I think they have to get someone soon. Everyone seems to be talking about an A-list guy. That would be great, but a C-list guy would help too.
Long way from the playoffs, but Hamels, Blanton, Moyer isn’t really the 1-2-3 you want in a short playoff series, especially if all three of them continue to struggle.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:55 am
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