Finally, after weeks of terrible performance, Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel has benched shortstop Jimmy Rollins. Rollins, the so-called catalyst for the Phillies offense, sat out Thursday and Friday nights’ games in hopes to correct his ailments at the plate. The result for the Phillies: a 10-4 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays and 5-0 loss at the hands of the Blue Jays. J-Roll also sat out Saturday afternoon’s 10-0 blowout win over Jays as well.
Rollins, who set the NL on fire in his 2007 MVP season, is batting a frigid 0.211 and has an on base percentage only slightly warmer at 0.254. You don’t need to be a baseball statistician to know those are inexcusable numbers for a person batting first for a defending world champion, or for that matter, any lineup. This kind of output wouldn’t even fly in Washington, where the Nationals are an embarrassing 16 games out of first place and it isn’t even July.
Throughout the 2009 campaign, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has said that he is sticking by his player. Manuel has, however, dropped Jimmy to sixth in the batting order on several occasions already this season to take some of the pressure off of him. This experiment has worked, but just when everyone seems to think the struggling shortstop is okay and is put back in the top spot, another slump happens. When Jimmy returns from his benching, which is supposed to be in Sunday’s final game against the Blue Jays, maybe it is time for the Phillies manager to move Rollins towards the bottom of the lineup for more than just a couple of games.
The job of a leadoff man is to set the table for the rest of the lineup. Above all, batting first means that a hitter needs to get on base by any means necessary. Batting in the one-hole also requires patience and discipline. It entails taking a few pitches at the start of a game to let your teammates see just what the opposing pitcher has to offer. It also requires the hitter to make good contact, hit line drives, and, in the words of fictional manager Lou Brown to Willie Mays Hayes, “keep the ball on the ground.”
With that in mind, J-Roll is the antithesis of how a real leadoff hitter should perform. Ever since he first suited up in red pinstripes, Rollins has always had a poor approach to batting first in this lineup. Jimmy typically swings at the first pitch, which shows zero sign of patience or discipline. Consequently, he doesn’t walk much. His 16 walks are a disgrace for a leadoff hitter and are five walks fewer than the eighth hitter, catcher Carlos Ruiz. To compare Jimmy’s walks with his counterpart in this weekend’s series, Blue Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro, is not even fair. Scutaro has 49 walks and has an on base percentage of 0.393. Lastly, Jimmy is not making good contact either. His strikeouts double his walks, and his pop-ups are enough to make you want to choke him through the television or at least tell him to give you 20 push-ups.
Being a leadoff hitter also requires the player to steal bases. While this was one of the strong points for Rollins in the past, even that stat has fallen off this year. He only has 10 stolen bases out of 15 attempts. If you aren’t getting on base, then you can’t steal them.
Even with the struggling Rollins, the slumping Phillies, who are 2-8 in their last 10 games, are somehow miraculously still in first place. Granted their hold on the division and rival Mets is only by a half a game going into Saturday, they are still in the leaders’ circle. The Phillies, if they wish to repeat last year’s glory, are certainly going to need more production out of Rollins for the rest of the season, whether it is batting leadoff, in the sixth-hole, or maybe even lower.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.kliks.my/kamal/
Liked the article. But I dislike the fact that Rollins is underperforming this year. Actually, underperforming is too nice of a word to describe his performance. He better get going and so should Brad Lidge because the Phillies need them to help and produce for them or you could say Bye Bye to the playoffs/world series. (Not to mention the Phils staggering offense needs Rauuuuuuul back!)
ReplyDeletethis is really well done actually and raises a LOT of good points.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that they're keeping him as the lead-off? Just because it's where he's "always" been? I know you said they've switched him around a few times but why wouldn't they make that change more permanent?
also I'm wondering who you think would be a better lead-hitter? Maybe you could write another article about that...?
anyway, these are all good points and this is a well thought out and well researched contribution.
Last year Utley got hurt. The year befire, ti was somebody else. It's one thing if the player is hurt - but Rollins is really hurting the team. And still batting first, I wonder if team morale is being hurt too...
ReplyDeleteRollins actually ended up sitting out the entire series against the Blue Jays, in what manager Charlie Manuel is describing as sort of a "vacation." Although Toronto is beautiful this time of year, I am not sure a vacation like this is what Jimmy wanted, but right now it's not about Jimmy. Manuel did what was best for the Phillies.
ReplyDeleteI think the benching was a much-needed move, and I also think he shouldn't return to the leadoff spot when the Phillies resume action Tuesday against Atlanta. Shane Victorino is certainly capable of batting first, but if he's leading things off, then the Phils do not have a guy that can bat second.
The job of anyone batting second is to be able to move the leadoff runner, provided he gets on base. That means being able to lay down a bunt, or even just hit behind the runner. Also, your two-hole hitter typically should have speed as well to maybe steal some bases or go first-to-third.
If Victorino bats first, then who bats second? Werth is needed as a right-handed hitter to bat behind Howard and Ibanez. Utley is too talented to have his abilities wasted in sacrifice situations, and is way too valuable as the third batter in the lineup. Feliz is a good hitter, but he's not that fast on the bases. So, now the only person left to put in that situation would be Jimmy Rollins.
Rollins has said before that he is comfortable in the leadoff hole, and we all know that baseball players are creatures of comfort. The problem gets to be that, as a fan, I don't feel comfortable watching him bat first and continuing to go games without a hit.
So, a possible win-win solution to this could be to simply switch Rollins and Victorino in the lineup. The Phillies win by having more production out of their leadoff hitter, and Rollins wins by being able to stay near the top of the lineup. But, as previously stated in the original article, Manuel is sticking by his player, so Rollins will be batting first on Tuesday.
Very informative of what a lead-off hitter of a team should be. Unfortunately, we do NOT have one of them in Jimmy Rollins. Now if we can just get "Uncle Charlie" to realize this and actually have the cajonies to do something about the sad situation the Phillies are in right now, he likewise is hurting the team.
ReplyDeleteExcellent research, Dan.
After his struggles, I was completely in favor of dropping Jimmy to the bottom of the Phillies lineup, even though that is not what manager Charlie Manuel decided to do with his floundering shortstop. Instead, he benched him for four games.
ReplyDeleteRollins returned in last night's late-inning loss to Atlanta to go 0-for-5 in his debut back at the leadoff spot. Since Manuel did address the issue by sitting Jimmy for the last four games against the American League, he can't do anything more except stick by his player for the next week or maybe longer. If he does anything else with J-Roll too soon after this recent benching, Jimmy's confidence will get even more crushed than it already seems.