Phillies Nation

Chase Utley's 2012 on-base percentage was 89 points higher than his replacements.

How does Chase Utley do it?

For the second straight year in 2012, chronic knee pain kept him out for much of the first half of the season. But just like 2011, once Utley returned, he was good to go every day.

Utley returned in the Phillies 77th game, homered in his very first at-bat and proceeded to play 83 of the remaining 86 games, including 71 of the final 72.

He played at a high level, too. Utley hit .256, his lowest batting average since his rookie season, but had as many walks (43) as strikeouts. The result was a .365 on-base percentage. More impressive was the return of his power. Utley hit 11 homers to equal his 2011 total, but he did it in 92 fewer plate appearances.

Utley was obviously a huge upgrade over his first-half replacements. Freddy Galvis, Michael Martinez, Mike Fontenot and Pete Orr combined for a .670 OPS. Utley was at .793. Utley’s OBP was 89 points higher.

Among second basemen with at least 350 plate appearances, Utley led the NL in OBP. The only 2B in the league with a higher slugging percentage was Aaron Hill.

Defensively, Utley saved eight runs in 720.1 innings. Only second basemen Darwin Barney, Robinson Cano and Jamey Carroll saved runs at a higher rate.

On the basepaths, Utley was 11-for-12 in stolen base attempts to boost his career success rate to 89.6 percent, the highest in major-league history.

Utley is fielding grounders regularly this offseason and will try different methods to be better prepared for the start of next season. Based on how effective he was in the second half last year, there is a semblance of hope that he can re-capture the offensive magic he had from 2005-09

And even if he can’t, Utley has proven that the watered-down, 33-year-old version of himself is still one of the top second basemen in all of baseball.

GRADE: A-

Josh Lindblom has limited righties to a .191 batting average in two seasons.

The Phillies’ bullpen was a disaster in 2012, placing 21st in ERA (3.94) and 29th in eighth-inning ERA (4.89). The ‘pen blew 19 saves — 11 more than their 2011 total. And it lost 27 games after losing just 18 in 2011.

So it made sense that when the Phillies were set to unload Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence at the trade deadline, they would look for at least one young reliever who could come in to help a beleaguered unit. Victorino was dealt to the Dodgers for 25-year-old right-hander Josh Lindblom and 23-year-old starting pitching prospect Ethan Martin.

While Martin flourished at Reading, going 5-0 with a 3.18 ERA in seven starts, Lindblom didn’t have much success in a Phillies uniform. He had a 4.63 ERA for the Phillies, and while he struck out 27 batters in 23.1 innings, he also walked 17.

Lindblom has heat — his fastball ranges from 92-96 mph, but he has trouble keeping the ball in the park. He allowed 13 home runs in 71 innings this season, nine of which came on the first or second pitch of an at-bat. It’s a trend that makes you nervous going forward at Citizens Bank Park.

The 6-foot-4 Lindblom does have potential, though, and he’ll be cheap for a few more years since he has less than two years of major-league service time.

The Phils should use him as a righty specialist in 2013. Right-handed hitters are batting .191 with a .576 OPS off Lindblom in a career sample of 248 plate appearances. Lefties, though, are hitting .282/.396/.500.

Lindblom can still be a quality bullpen piece for the next two or three years if the home run trend changes, but he should not be the eighth-inning answer in 2013, whether it’s just him or a combination of he, Antonio Bastardo and possibly Phillippe Aumont. Lindblom’s propensity to hit the sweet spot of the bat and the control problems of Bastardo and Aumont would set the Phils up for another season of late meltdowns.

If the Phillies sign a veteran reliever with a track record of setup success — a Mike Adams, Ryan Madson or Brandon League — Lindblom can move into the complementary role he is better suited for at this point.

PHOTO: AP

Cliff Lee had perhaps the strangest season of any Phillie in 2012. He had a 3.16 ERA but went 6-9. He averaged 7.0 innings per starts but had no complete games. He had 7.39 times as many strikeouts as walks but wasn’t as dominant as he could have been because he allowed 26 home runs, nine more than his season average the previous three years.

Lee’s season really hammered down the absurdity of pitcher wins as an evaluative metric. He had fewer wins than relievers James Russell and Santiago Casilla.

Why? Well, because the Phillies gave him just 3.20 runs of support per game, fourth-lowest in all of baseball. Lee allowed 79 runs this season and the Phillies scored 75 runs with him in the game … meaning that as good as he was, the Phillies made the other pitcher look better.

Gio Gonzalez, who won 21 games, was given 148 runs of support, almost twice as many as Lee.

Phillies fans turned their back on Lee midway through the season. Most knew he was doing his job and keeping the Phils in games, but the fact that the team won just three of his first 13 games became frustrating.

It’s really all about timing. Lee’s worst stretch of the season came when the Phillies needed him most: at the end of May through the end of June, when Roy Halladay was on the DL.

In eight starts from May 20-June 29, Lee had a 5.68 ERA and the opposition hit .308 off him. The Phillies went 2-6.

But it was mostly smooth sailing for Lee in the second half. He had 88 strikeouts to just four walks over his final 12 starts, for a K/BB of 22-to-1 that I don’t think any of us have ever seen. His ERA over his last eight starts was 1.44.

One can’t even say “Lee figures to rebound in 2013,” because he already did rebound. His 2012 wasn’t as good as his 2011 (2.40 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, .229 opp. BA), but he should be worth his salary next season.

If there’s something Lee needs to work on, it’s the quality of his first pitches. He led all of baseball in strike percentage and first-pitch strike percentage, but when batters did make contact on his initial offering, they hit .376.

All in all, though? An excellent 2012 season that looked like less than it was because of a glaring lack of run support and a poorly timed cold spell.

Grade: A-

Read the rest of the 2012 Phillies Player Reviews here.

Another day, another odd Phillies-Yankees trade proposition.

In a Yankees offseason outlook for the New York Daily News, John Harper suggested that the Yanks trade Curtis Granderson to the Phillies for … Darin Ruf.

“Granderson makes a lot of sense for the Phillies, who desperately need power, as well as a center fielder, and they’re still very much in a win-now mode, trying to cash in before their high-priced starting rotation gets too old,” Harper writes.

As for Ruf? Harper had this to say:

“His bat could be valuable to the Yankees in a part-time role in 2013, if he proves ready, and eventually he could become a mainstay in the lineup.”

Let’s break it down… Continue reading Granderson-for-Ruf is a Pipe Dream

The Phillies expected a little more out of

Our 2012 player reviews continue today with our first bench player: Ty Wigginton.

Wigginton was traded to the Phillies from the Rockies on Nov. 20, 2011 for a player to be named later or cash. Colorado needed to shed some salary, and they eventually signed Michael Cuddyer to be a rich man’s Wigginton.

In Wigginton, the Phils acquired a righthanded bench bat who could play first base, third base and left field. He was due $4 million in 2012, but the Rockies paid half.

On the surface it was a shrewd move. Platoon Wigginton with a lefthanded hitting first baseman and you might get decent enough production to offset some of the loss of Ryan Howard for the first half of the season.

Things didn’t work out. And, at 35, Wigginton’s career may be a year or so away from completion.

He started 44 games for the Phillies at first base and 13 at third base. The 11-year vet didn’t give them as much offense as either side would have wanted — he hit .235/.314/.375 with 11 HR and 43 RBI.

Much of that offense came in four games against the Mets, in which Wigginton had four homers and 13 RBI.

He was a butcher at third base. Not that errors always tell the story, but Wigginton had eight in 48 innings at the hot corner. According to Fangraphs, he cost the Phillies 11.2 runs on defense. That was the primary determinant of a -0.7 WAR.

When Howard returned, Wigginton did little as a pinch-hitter. He was 9-for-44 with two extra-base hits and 13 strikeouts off the bench.

His hits weren’t too timely. With runners in scoring position, Wigginton hit .192.

Wigginton finished with a .689 OPS. Just a bit higher than 2007 Wes Helms (.665).

The move can’t really be criticized because the Phillies only paid $2 million for Wigginton’s services. Ruben Amaro Jr. could have further fortified his bench, but when he essentially purchased Wigginton, he didn’t know Chase Utley would miss 76 games to start the season. Had Amaro known that he’d be without his No. 3 and No.4 hitters , maybe he would have gone after a better backup corner infielder.

Ty Wigginton’s 2012 grade: D+

Carlos Ruiz set career-highs in 2012 in eight offensive categories.

Beginning today, we will examine the 2012 season of one Phillies player per day. First up is starting catcher Carlos Ruiz.

The Phillies’ 2012 season was filled with disappointment and unexpectedly poor production from key players. But despite a team-wide lack of consistency, Carlos Ruiz remained steady from April to September, hitting well no matter the situation or lineup context.

A foot injury limited Ruiz to just 114 games, but he hit .325/.394/.540 with 16 home runs and 68 RBI. Every one of those numbers was a career-high, as were his 56 runs scored, 32 doubles and 16 hit by pitches.

Many kept waiting for Ruiz to slow down and, while he did in the second half, he was still among the game’s most productive catchers. He hit .313 in April, .418 in May, .337 in June, .288 in July and .271 in September after missing most of August. His lowest monthly OPS was .808.

Most impressive was Ruiz’s production with runners in scoring position — he hit .368 with a .600 slugging percentage.

Among major-league catchers with at least 400 plate appearance, Ruiz was second in batting average and slugging percentage only to NL MVP front-runner Buster Posey. He was third in OBP, behind Posey and former batting champ Joe Mauer.

To top it all off, he was extremely valuable behind the plate. Phillies pitchers are always quick to praise Chooch after a strong start — whether it’s Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels or Cliff Lee — but he also provided defensive value when it came to stolen bases. Ruiz nailed 33 of 97 would-be base stealers for a caught stealing rate of 34 percent. Only four major-league catchers played as many innings as Chooch and had better success throwing out runners: Matt Wieters, Miguel Montero, Yadier Molina and Ryan Hanigan.

For years, I personally always thought Ruiz’s balance at the plate and batting stance made it look like he was going to launch any ball he connected with. In 2012, so many of those swings actually connected, leading to plenty of doubles in the left-centerfield gap or homers to a similar location.

Ruiz’s progression into a dominant offensive player has been one of the more positive, heartwarming developments of the last few Phillies seasons. This is a guy who went from undrafted international free agent infielder, to organizational catcher, to backup backstop, to solid defensive starting catcher, to big-time playoff performer, to well above-average offensive catcher.

Ruiz, who has a $5 million team option for 2013 that Ruben Amaro Jr. has already said the Phillies will pick up, was once just another catcher. I remember four years ago — when Ruiz was dwindling in the .240-.250 range after hitting .219 in 2008 — having a conversation with Eric about how Ruiz hadn’t grabbed the job by the throat. That Chris Coste was capable of providing just as much offense. That the Phillies needed to seriously look for external catching help. That all seems absurd these days.

Now, Chooch has cemented a legacy as one of the most storied players in franchise history, the type of guy fans will give a massive ovation to every time he makes an appearance at Citizens Bank Park for alumni day when his playing days are over. He might be the most likable player of this era of Phillies baseball.

He was certainly their best offensive performer in 2012.

GRADE: A+ … he was the best Phillie offensively and had a great year behind the plate. How could you go with any other grade?

The Phillies will have to wait about 15 more hours if they want their 10th straight winning season.

The Phils fell to the Nationals 4-2 in Game 161 of the 2012 season. Darin Ruf accounted for both runs with a pair of solo homers. He’s been a bright spot over the last week, hitting in eight straight games and slugging .774 with two doubles, a triple and two homers in his 11-game major-league career. Of the 7 runs the Phillies have scored in the past three games against the Nationals, Ruf has driven in all 7.

B.J. Rosenberg started for the Phillies and allowed just one run over four solid innings. Josh Lindblom was roughed up in the sixth, he allowed two runs on a solo homer, two other hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. The rest of the bullpen filled in the gaps with Antonio Bastardo giving up a Nats insurance run in the eighth.

Kevin Frandsen hit two doubles to raise his batting average to .337 from the lead-off spot tonight. For all of the warranted talk of Frandsen not being an everyday third baseman, he never slowed down over the final two months with the Phillies.

The season ends tomorrow afternoon as Cliff Lee (6-8, 3.12) takes on Edwin Jackson (9-11, 4.13) at 1:05 p.m.

Cole Hamels lasted just five innings but won his career-high 16th game.

Starting for the first time since being called up to the Phillies, Darin Ruf homered in his first at-bat for his first major-league hit and home run. He was completely ignored in the dugout by his teammates for the next 10 minutes in one of the funnier moments of the Phillies’ season, only being congratulated after the inning finally ended.

The Phils (78-76) won, 6-3, despite getting only five innings out of Cole Hamels.

Hamels needed 99 pitches to get through five laborious frames, but the reward was his career-high 16th win. Hamels improved to 16-6 with a 3.11 ERA.

The major blow for the Phillies was Carlos Ruiz‘ three-run homer, which gave the Phillies a comfortable 5-1 cushion in the third inning. Ruiz is hitting .327 with 16 homers and 65 RBI.

Domonic Brown crushed a ball to right field in the sixth for a solo shot, his fifth of the season. Brown is just 8-for-34 (.235) over his last 10 games, but three of the hits are home runs and one was a double.

The Phillies’ bullpen shut the Nationals down for four innings. Josh Lindblom pitched a scoreless sixth, Antonio Bastardo and Justin De Fratus combined for a 1-2-3 seventh and Phillippe Aumont tossed a perfect eighth. Jonathan Papelbon finished it off in the ninth, striking out two to pick up his 37th save. He has a 2.26 ERA.

The series continues Wednesday night with Kyle Kendrick against the infamous John Lannan, who is 2-12 with a 5.79 ERA in his career against the Phillies.

Roy Halladay has a 4.78 ERA in 13 starts since returning from the DL.

No Chase Utley for 76 games. No Ryan Howard for 84 games. Worst eighth-inning ERA in baseball for most of the season. Costly, poor defense from Placido Polanco’s replacements at third base.

It’s crazy to say, but through all of it, the Phillies would still be right in the wild-card race if they got just a bit more out of Roy Halladay.

Halladay has made 24 starts this season. The Phillies have absolutely no reason to send him out on the mound again, so he’ll hopefully finish the 2012 season with those 24 starts. Only 15 were quality starts.

The dominance just wasn’t there. In 2010, Halladay had 15 starts in which he gave up one or no runs. Last year, he had 13. This year? Try five.

There were seven games this season where Doc allowed four or more runs. If you reduce that to, say, four games, the Phillies are probably three wins better, and a mere game or two behind the second wild-card spot.

I’m not a big fan of “if this happened, then this would have happened” line of thinking that leads to statements like “if Halladay didn’t give up that first-inning homer the Phillies would have won, 2-1!” That standpoint takes for granted that Halladay would have been throwing different pitches in different situations if the first-inning homer never occurred.

So, yeah, maybe if Halladay pitched better the Phillies wouldn’t have been far enough out of the playoff race to sell at the deadline. Maybe they wouldn’t have played pressure-free baseball and thrived doing it.

But looking at the standings and his numbers as of Sept. 24, it really sinks in just how much Halladay’s mediocrity affected the Phillies this season. It was said the past two years that the one player the Phils couldn’t afford to lose was Doc.

This season, they didn’t just lose him for seven weeks with a lat strain. They lost him for five months after a brilliant April, when he transformed from the Ace of Aces to just another pitcher with a solid strikeout rate and a 4.00-plus ERA.

It’s sad. It’s unfortunate. It’s hard to believe that Halladay won’t always be what he was in 2010 and 2011. But the problems he’s dealing with – a tired shoulder, changes in his rotator cuff, less life on his cutter and sinker, less speed on his fastball – are legitimate issues that pop up at this point in a pitcher’s career.

It happened to Greg Maddux, a no-doubt Hall of Famer who had a 4.13 ERA over his last six seasons. It can happen to anybody.

The Phillies are hoping that this was just a blip on Halladay’s otherwise clean radar screen. That he comes back next year and doesn’t miss in the middle of the plate and allow so many early home runs. That he stops trying to nibble and maintains the brilliant walk rates of seasons past.

If not … well, it’s easy to imagine a team so heavily reliant on pitching playing the “What if?” game again next fall.

The Phillies’ bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster in 2012.

Just look at these numbers:

The unit is better with the addition of Josh Lindblom, but the ‘pen still lacks a true eighth-inning reliever or a specialist from either side.

Hopes were high for Antonio Bastardo, but the pitcher we saw for the first five months of 2011 is gone, probably never to return. Bastardo since Sept. 1, 2011 has a 6.39 ERA, a 1.51 WHIP and 28 walks in 43.2 innings. He can’t throw strike one… he’s done it to just 83 of the 158 batters he’s faced this year.

What is the Phillies’ answer here? Do they sign a reliever or two this winter? Do they stick with the young guns?

Solving bullpen problems isn’t easy. Teams throw money around every winter at relievers coming off good and sometimes lucky seasons. Other clubs hope their homegrown parts develop. The Phillies took both approaches this season, paying a ton of money to one man (Jonathan Papelbon) and keeping the rest of the pen inexpensive with youngsters.

It hasn’t worked.

A free agent after the season, Mike Adams from 2009-11 had a 1.42 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP.

Look at all the games given away by early-year setup men Chad Qualls and Bastardo. Now imagine if that role was occupied by Ryan Madson or Mike Adams.

Both are free agents this winter. Madson is recovering from Tommy John surgery that will prevent him from making a single appearance this season for the Reds. Adams hasn’t been completely untouchable in Texas as he was in San Diego, but he still has a 2.97 ERA and decent strikeout and walk numbers.

The Phillies have money to spend this off-season, thanks to the deadline trade of Hunter Pence. They can afford to give Adams a three-year deal in the $18-21 million range, and that just might be the best option.

Before the new-wavy baseball community jumps down my throat for the mere suggestion that actual money should be spent on an actual reliever, consider the following points…

An 8th-9th inning combination of Adams and Papelbon would instantly be one of three-best back ends of a bullpen in either league. Adams from 2009-11 had a 1.42 ERA, a 0.85 WHIP and 192 strikeouts to 45 walks in 177.2 innings.

If you sign Adams to that type of deal, you’d have $19-20 million committed to two relievers, but you wouldn’t need to spend money anywhere else in the ‘pen. You could move forward with Papelbon and Adams, then piece together the rest of the relief corps with Lindblom, Bastardo and choices from the Diekman-De Fratus-Schwimer-Stutes-Herndon group. Sign a lefty specialist for about $1 million and you’re set.

Yes, Adams is 34 years old. But he’s a relief pitcher. These guys age differently. The best years of Darren Oliver’s career came in his age 36-40 seasons. And Adams has significantly less wear-and-tear than most elite relievers – he made only 61 major-league appearances before turning 29.

You also have to look at this winter’s free-agent class. You can spend money on an upgrade in center field, but there is practically nothing to choose from at third base and nothing worth splurging on in a corner outfield position. Considering that the only real way to upgrade third base is through a trade, would you complain if the Phillies’ two biggest signings this winter were Michael Bourn and Adams?

As far as interest goes, we know the Phillies have wanted Adams in the past. They pursued him at the 2011 trade deadline before unloading four prospects for Pence.

After what we’ve seen this season, you simply cannot overlook the need to vastly improve this bullpen. And Ruben Amaro has to be proactive… you can’t waste another year with this core hoping that young, unproven relievers pitch well. Ordinarily, I would never condone spending $19-20 million on two relievers. But the Papelbon hole has already been dug, and the Phils still need more help.

If you don’t want to commit that much money to Adams, there’s still Madson. He’ll have to take a lesser deal coming off Tommy John surgery and is really in no position to demand a closing job. The problem is that the Phillies have bad blood with Madson’s camp, most notably Scott Boras, after their reported handshake agreement for a four-year, $44 million contract fell through last winter. Unless the Phillies’ offer far exceeds what he can find anywhere else, it’s hard to imagine a scorned Madson coming back.

The top of the Phillies’ roster is still excellent, and it puts them in position to compete in 2013 if certain holes are filled and bad luck turns back to middling or good luck.

But the market dictates which holes can be filled, and Amaro won’t be able to solve every problem this off-season.

You can solve center field and the bullpen, so those should be the two priorities. And if you’re going to bring in outside help, you might as well pay for the best option.

I’d commit that money to Mike Adams to hold all the leads the Phillies lost this year in the eighth inning. Would you?