After starting with a 7-2 record, the Philadelphia Phillies have been in a rough stretch during the past week. They lost both road series versus the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, going 2-4. They can put the rough stretch in the rearview mirror at home. Unfortunately, the Phillies dropped the first game of their seven-game homestand to the San Francisco Giants, 10-4.
ESPN’s David Schoenfield recently released his rankings of MLB teams according to how much fun they are to watch. He gives points based on six categories: star power, young talent, baserunning, defense, minutiae (fun factors that may make fans want to watch a specific team), and bonus points for anything else he wishes to reward.
Phillies fans not likely to agree with ESPN’s watchability ranking right now
ESPN ranks the Phillies No. 3 out of 30 clubs. The fan base would mainly disagree with the assessment based on the club’s bad recent run. Schoenfield gives the Phillies a perfect 10/10 for their star power but a below-average 3.5/10 for their young talent. They receive scores of 3/5, 2.5/5, and 5/5 for baserunning, defense, and minutiae, respectively.
The writer also gives five total bonus points: 1.5 for Bryce Harper’s Phanatic gear, a half of a point for Matt Strahm’s collection of baseball cards, and one point each for stories color commentator John Kruk “can’t” tell when Phillies broadcasts are on the air, Zack Wheeler’s splitter, and having the best uniforms in MLB, respectively.
Phillies fans are frustrated with the team at the present moment, despite the season being only nearly three weeks old. The offense is in a rough patch as they have hit .199 with runners in scoring position. They went a dismal 1-for-11 in the 10-4 loss to the Giants, according to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. This ranks 26th in the majors.
Manager Rob Thomson commented on why he believes Philadelphia is in a rut offensively during their 2-5 stretch.
“I think they’re trying to do too much, they’re getting pull-side happy,” Thomson said, per Zolecki. “A lot of ground balls. They have to get back to what we were doing early in the year — getting good pitches to hit, controlling the strike zone and using the entire field. They just need to relax. It’s going to happen. We’ve got a long way to go.”
The Phillies manager has a valid point in the timing of their struggles. It is early in the season. If a club exhibits inconsistency, it is better to do that now than in August and September. A year ago, the Phillies looked like one of the top clubs from the start of the season until July. They didn’t perform as well during the second half, and it resulted in their early playoff exit to the New York Mets in the NLDS.
The fans should be frustrated when the Phillies are not performing like a top team, referencing how watchable they are according to ESPN. However, as long as they don’t go on an extensive streak of losing more games than winning, the fan base doesn’t have to go into full-on panic mode at this point in the season.
