Okay, maybe more than one thing phew.
Juan Pierre went 1-for-2 in yesterday’s game against Baltimore, raising his Spring Training batting average to .281. Thanks to five walks, which ties him for the team lead, Pierre is on-basing an impressive .378 so far.
That’s good news for Pierre, especially given that his role with the team would primarily be to try and get on base and more specifically to try and get on base against right-handed pitching.
It’s important to remember that Pierre has had years when he was a fantastic hitter against right-handed pitching. In 2001 he hit 337/383/435 against righties for the Rockies. In 2003 he played for the Fish and posted a 303/368/377 line against right-handed pitching. In 2004 it was 334/379/422.
The problem is, though, that most of his success against right-handed pitching came early in his career. Three of the last four years his numbers against righties are not good at all. In 2009, Pierre got 305 plate appearances against righties for the Dodgers and hit 304/347/389 against them. In the other three years, though, 2008, 2010 and 2011, Pierre has been pretty awful. In those three seasons combined, Pierre got 1,373 plate appearances against righties in which he hit just 264/308/318. Here’s what the numbers for Pierre against righties look like before and after the end of the 2005 season:
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| 2005-2011 | 3243 | 279 | 322 | 354 |
| Before 2005 | 2307 | 313 | 363 | 389 |
Against right-handed pitching, Pierre has hit for just about the same amount of power before and after the end of 2005. After 2005 his isolated power is .075 against righties and through the end of 2005 is was .076. His batting average is off about thirty points, though, and he has walked a lot less. Through the end of the 2005 season he had walked in about 6.7% of his plate appearances against righties. Since the end of 2005 he has walked in about 5.0%.
The Phillies beat Baltimore 4-1 yesterday.
Halladay started for the Phillies and went six innings, allowing a run on three hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five, dropping his spring ERA to 6.59. Papelbon, Stutes and Herndon followed Halladay and each threw a scoreless inning. Herndon struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save and push his ERA down to 2.25.
Galvis, Phillies second basemen of the present, hit leadoff for the Phils and played second. He went 1-for-5 with yet another triple, his second in two days. 273/300/477. He’s been really good so far. If you’re looking for predictions, though, if they set the over-under for his slugging percentage for the regular season at .477, take the under.
Martinez was 1-for-2 with a double, raising his average to .323. Speaking of taking the under, he’s now slugging .516 and on-basing .400. All of that’s going to matter a little less to the Phils in the short term given that Martinez’s right foot was broken yesterday when he was hit by a Jim Johnson pitch in the seventh inning. The linked article mentions Orlando Hudson and Maicer Izturis as players who might make sense for the Phils were they to try to bring in an infielder from outside the organization.
Sounds good to me.
Podsednik 1-for-1 to up his line to 389/463/528 in 36 at-bats. Pierre 1-for-2 with a single and hitting 281/378/281. Montanez started in left and went 0-for-4, but is still at 394/417/576 through 33 at-bats.
Pence (.292), Ruiz (.450) and Wigginton (.257) all were 2-for-3 for the Phils in the game.
Frandsen was 0-for-3 to drop his average to .156. He was reassigned after the game.
Pete Orr was 1-for-1 with an RBI in the game, upping his line to 290/361/367 in 31 at-bats. Hector Luna is hitting .281 after an 0-for-2 day. It would seem it would be tough for the Phillies to carry either of those players unless they think one of them can play short. Then again, if things continue at their current pace, those guys might be looking pretty good in about a week or so.
Erik Kratz homered in his only at-bat of the game for the Phils, upping his spring average to .353 (6-for-17).
The Phils don’t play today. That should help some. Toronto tomorrow afternoon.
This article on Utley’s knee problems doesn’t seem to be brimming with optimism that his return is imminent.
March 21st, 2012 on 10:13 am
Sadly, the Mets no longer have a reason to dump David Wright anymore either, now that they’re, you know, solvent.
I’m thinking the best we can hope for is a repeat of the 2010 Giants. Of course, that didn’t turn out too bad for them. We all have found memories of winning lots of games 10-7, but that’s not the only way to run a club.
March 21st, 2012 on 10:56 am
Yeah…if we could just figure out a way to get Halladay, Lee, and Hamels to give up negative runs, we’d be all set!
March 21st, 2012 on 11:33 am
I still think the best we can hope for is to trade for some major league players to play like two or three positions for the Phillies. I don’t think the game plan overall had the Phils paying $35 million for Utley and Howard to observe, but it might be time to update the game plan. John Mayberry, Freddy Galvis, Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco is really not an impressive infield.
March 21st, 2012 on 11:47 am
Eric, seems like they’re treating the luxury tax as a hard cap.. so I don’t think you’ll see any new major leaguers on the roster unless things look desperate at the deadline.
March 21st, 2012 on 1:05 pm
I don’ think they’re going to be able to do that. They made a mistake with Howard’s contract especially. It’s too many years just to wait for it to go away. Again, $35 million for Howard and Utley not to play. They’ve got a lot invested in the other guys, too, but they’re going to need some help now.
I don’t think it’s going to take long to demo that they really need a quality infielder, even if they don’t get one before the season starts. Of course I’m hoping for the best for Galvis, and Polanco, and Mayberry, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough.
March 21st, 2012 on 1:22 pm
If they collect insurance payments on Howard & Utley, I can see them spending some of that again. Ah, business…
Out of our projected opening day infield, the guy I have the least confidence in is Polanco. His ability to stay on the field is very much in question, and even when he is, his ISO power is in the neighborhood of .000. But Galvis has a great spring and Mayberry has a great 2011 to build on. Not that either of those guys are “proven”, but sometimes it’s the rising stars that win the championships, not the grizzled vets.
March 21st, 2012 on 1:56 pm
Offensively I think the Phillies are going to be below average at first and a disaster at third and at second early in the season. I hope Galvis is great, but if he is more productive offensively than Wilson Valdez and Valdez’s ilk, I’m going to be very happy and surprised.
March 21st, 2012 on 2:12 pm
My understanding is that they don’t have insurance on the Howard contract, and that the insurance for Utley’s contract only kicks in if he goes on the 60-day DL and then, payments would only kick in if he missed 90 days.
In short, it’s really hard to collect those payments so I wouldn’t plan on that.
March 21st, 2012 on 2:48 pm
I am wondering if the brain trust thinks it needs to make some big splash to keep the turnstiles spinning as well as win. We’ve been accustomed to excitement generated by the BIG signing. It costs money but it also pays the bills. I am not seeing a lot of excitement generators playing everyday right now. In fact, can anyone can think of anything good coming out of spring training so far towards which we can look with anticipation? I wonder if they will do something big just to get everyone’s attention, salary cap be hanged.
March 21st, 2012 on 3:29 pm
BTW, I hear Vic has said he will lead the league in triples this year. I like the attitude that goes with that.
March 21st, 2012 on 4:52 pm
Sounds good to me. Victorino has led the NL in triples in two of the past three seasons.
I think that Halladay, Lee and Hamels plus the best record in baseball means the Phillies keep filling up the stadium for a while, no matter how bad their offense gets.
March 21st, 2012 on 6:04 pm
In your “For What It’s Worth Department”: my SI just came in today. It’s the baseball issue. In the team ranking evaluations, the following comment was made as a “Modest Proposal”:
“The Phillies, who have seen their offense decline as their lineup has aged, have to commit to Brown as an everyday player, or put him on the market for a team that will.”
March 22nd, 2012 on 10:32 am
I think the question of what to do with Brown is a really hard one. I think it’s tough to put let him try to learn to play outfield on the job for the Phils in 2012, but at the same time they really need his bat. I do wonder if a team that wasn’t trying to win the World Series this year might be better prepared to give him time to improve his defense at the major league level. I’m pretty sure he’s going to hit.