Allowing home runs has been a huge problem for the Phillies this season.

As a team the Phillies allowed 160 home runs in 2008 — that’s .99 per game. They’ve allowed 107 already in 2009, which is about 1.46 per game. They’re on pace to allow 237 in 2009, which is 77 more than they allowed last year.

The 107 home runs they have allowed overall is the most for the league by a lot (nothing in this post includes results from yesterday). The Brewers and the Astros are tied for second in the NL in home runs allowed and they have both allowed just 91. The Phillies have also allowed more home runs than any team in the DH-loving American League.

The Phillies aren’t going to allow 237 home runs this year. If they did, though, it would be the most home runs allowed by a team in either league since the Rockies allowed 239 in 2001.

To allow that many home runs it helps to be bad in a lot of different areas and not just really bad in one. Compared to the other teams in the NL, the Phillies allow lots of homers by their starters, their relievers, at home and away.

Here’s the number of home runs per inning the Phillies starting pitchers have allowed this season compared to the other teams in the NL:

Team IP HR HR per IP Rank
LAD 422.3 35 .083 2
STL 460 39 .085 3
SF 444 46 .104 6
CHI 434.7 58 .133 11
ATL 439 35 .080 1
ARI 449.7 58 .129 10
COL 442 43 .097 4
PIT 442 45 .102 5
HOU 408 58 .142 13
CIN 437 67 .153 14
NYM 428 48 .112 7
FLA 432.7 50 .116 8
MIL 417 69 .165 15
WAS 411.3 50 .122 9
SD 405 56 .138 12
PHI 411.3 80 .194 16

So the starters are allowing .194 home runs per inning this season. The team whose starting pitchers have the second-worst rate of allowing home runs this season are the Brewers, but even Milwaukee’s starters have allowed just .165 home runs per inning.

And here are the relievers:

Team IP HR HR per IP Rank
MIL 238.3 22 .092 8
ATL 230 14 .061 1
CHI 207.3 22 .106 12
CIN 229 17 .074 2
HOU 248.7 33 .133 16
LAD 257 24 .093 9
WAS 237 20 .084 5
NYM 226.7 19 .084 4
PHI 245.3 27 .110 13
PIT 209.3 22 .105 11
STL 215.3 27 .125 15
SD 252 26 .103 10
SF 206 16 .078 3
COL 210 25 .119 14
FLA 253 22 .087 6
ARI 239.7 22 .092 7

A little better for the Phils, but still very bad. The relievers for Colorado, St Louis and Houston are the only ones who have allowed home runs at a higher rate than the Phillies.

They’re awful at preventing home runs at home:

Team IP HR HR per IP Rank
MIL 334 41 .123 11
ATL 363 21 .058 1
CHI 309 38 .123 12
CIN 316 41 .130 14
HOU 372 47 .126 13
LAD 354 24 .068 2
WAS 364.7 35 .096 7
NYM 360 36 .100 9
PHI 322 59 .183 16
PIT 315 25 .079 4
STL 360 33 .092 6
SD 345 31 .090 5
SF 328 25 .076 3
COL 288 29 .101 10
FLA 375 36 .096 8
ARI 397 56 .141 15

Worst in the league. A little better on the road, but not much:

Team IP HR HR per IP Rank
MIL 327 50 .153 15
ATL 312 28 .090 2
CHI 338.3 42 .124 12
CIN 356 43 .121 10
HOU 292 44 .151 14
LAD 331.7 35 .106 6
WAS 291 35 .120 9
NYM 301.7 31 .103 4
PHI 339.7 48 .141 13
PIT 341.3 42 .123 11
STL 322 33 .102 3
SD 320 51 .159 16
SF 328 37 .113 7
COL 372 39 .105 5
FLA 317 36 .114 8
ARI 296.7 24 .081 1

Houston, Milwaukee and San Diego have all allowed home runs at a higher rate on the road than the Phils.

The Phillies are bad at preventing home runs compared to the rest of the league in all four categories, but worse in some than others. The table below compares the home runs per inning the Phillies have allowed for the season to the average home runs per inning for the other 15 NL teams:

  Avg HR per
IP for other 15 NL Teams		 HR per IP
for PHI		 PHI/AVG
SP .117 .194 1.66
RP .096 .110 1.15
Home .100 .183 1.83
Away .118 .141 1.20

So, for example, the starting pitchers for the 15 NL teams that aren’t the Phillies have allowed .117 home runs per inning on the season. The Phillies starters have allowed .194. .194 over .117 is 1.66, so the Phillies starters have allowed home runs at 1.66 times the rate of the average of the other 15 teams in the league combined.

So they’re allowing a lot of home runs in all four situations, but especially when their starters are pitching and at home.

Bastardo to the DL and Escalona up.

This says Ibanez is unlikely to come back from the DL on Friday. It also says that Mayberry has played really well for the Phillies. He’s hitting .216 and on-basing .256.