Phillies' underachieving talent still is talent | David Murphy
Odubel Herreras and Maikel Francos abilities are worth waiting for them to develop.
HEY, KIDS, it's your Uncle Dave here with another important life lesson. You've probably heard that you can achieve anything if you just put your mind to it, that what really matters in any endeavor is hard work and focus and determination, that what you get out is what you put in. What you may not have heard is that all of those things are useless without talent.
Consider the Phillies. Deep down inside, there's a part of all of us that understands they are not a good baseball team. They do not have talent, and, as a result, they are 25 games under .500. But there's also a part of us that desperately needs to believe things can get better, that some sliver of their destiny is within their control.
Enter Odubel Herrera, whose recent undisciplined play earned him a spot on the bench Tuesday night in Seattle. The move by manager Pete Mackanin was perfectly reasonable. Herrera admitted to reporters that he sometimes loses focus, and that he needs to be better, and that doing things like running through stop signs and ignoring red lights can have a corrosive effect not just on the outcome of games, but on clubhouse morale. This kind of thing happens over the course of a 162-game season. The manager addresses the situation, the player responds one of two ways, and all of us get on with our lives.
When this sort of thing happens on a bad baseball team, though, we can often make much more out of the situation than it deserves. It's real easy to lose sight of the big picture amid the day-to-day slog of a season. When you are lost in a dense thicket of 162 trees, it can be hard to see the forest. Especially when it feels like all the birds are pooping on you.
But it is important to remember what really wins baseball games. And, likewise, what loses them. Talent, and lack thereof. For whatever reason, Herrera seems to be emerging as the person who will bear the cross for this year's collective sins. Last year, it was Cesar Hernandez. There was a long time when Jimmy Rollins enjoyed the honor. Yet Herrera also happens to be one of the few players on the roster who has the kind of talent that helps a team win games. True, he's spent much of this season attempting to make us forget that. But over his last 24 games entering Wednesday's win at Seattle, he was hitting .330/.356/.540. There are still too many strikeouts (21 in 100 at-bats), and too few walks (four), but he has at least given the Phillies some reason to think that, by the end of the season, he will be the player he's been through his first two big-league seasons.
With any luck, we'll look back in a couple of months and say to ourselves, "Hey, remember when Herrera had a sub-.700 OPS? Long season, ain't it?" Maybe we won't. The point remains, Herrera's future will be determined first and foremost by the results he produces at the plate. As was the case with Hernandez last year, you have to be on base in order to make base-running mistakes. And Herrera is one of the few players on this year's team who has a track record of doing so.
Same goes for Maikel Franco. He's been a way-below-average hitter for well over a year now. In 932 plate appearances from the the start of last season through Tuesday, he owned a .245/.299/.412 batting line that more than canceled out the 35 home runs he hit. Over his last 26 games, he had a .252/.313/.437 line that is roughly equivalent to the one he posted over the entirety of last season. Over his last 15 games, he had a .916 OPS, nine extra-base hits and eight walks in 67 plate appearances.
Is he in the midst of a turnaround? Who knows? Maybe something has clicked. Or maybe this one will end like the other mini-surges he's produced this season.
The walks combined with the extra-base power offer something to cling to. Before the Phillies' home series against Arizona a couple of weeks ago, Franco had drawn multiple walks in a game only once this season. On June 17 and 18, he drew two in back-to-back games against the Diamondbacks. Heading into Wednesday, Franco had walked in just 20 of his 72 games. This current stretch has seen him walk in six of 15 games, while tallying six of his season's 13 doubles and three of its 10 home runs. Nearly 40 percent of his extra-base hits came in a stretch that represents about 21 percent of his games.
One thing I do know: Franco has first-division power, and he has enough of a glove to stick at third base. The reality of the sport is that you wait on that kind of talent until a better option comes around. The Phillies seem to understand this. Mackanin knows a manager can only do so much. In the end, same goes for a player. Perfection is a great thing to strive for. Right now, though, the Phillies need talent, even if it is maddeningly unrefined.
@ByDavidMurphy