Rauuuuuuuulllll, Where Have You Gone?

Among the very few issues that the defending World Champions of Baseball face, including the absolute collapse of closer Brad Lidge and the still very large and looming question mark surrounding Pedro Martinez as the answer for the fifth spot in the rotation, the Phillies are also faced with the complete disappearance of the guy who virtually carried them offensively through the first half of the season. Among the very few issues that the defending World Champions of Baseball face, including the absolute collapse of closer Brad Lidge and the still very large and looming question mark surrounding Pedro Martinez as the answer for the fifth spot in the rotation, the Phillies are also faced with the complete disappearance of the guy who virtually carried them offensively through the first half of the season.

The fact that Raul Ibanez’s season is leveling off and his numbers are very quickly returning to something comparable to what he has done previously in his career shouldn’t really be much of a shock to anyone. The problem, though, is that because he was hitting so unbelievably well in the first half of the season, he has had to hit unbelievably badly to since then to come back to earth.

All may not be lost for Raul as we approach the final month of the season, however. At this moment, on August 28th he is batting .281 on the season. He hasn’t finished a season with an average as low as this since he batted .280 four years ago in 2005. While his power numbers may not see much more of a rise as the season winds down, it is very possible that his average will come up and with that, in a lineup like the Phillies have, only good things will happen.

With an offense such as the Philadelphia’s, where it sees stretches where it seems like an incredibly dominant force, it also sees stretches much like the recent one in Pittsburgh, where it just cannot seem to score runs. When a guy like Ibanez is struggling the way that he is it only makes the bad stretches seem worse. Whether it is because he is 37 years old or the possibility that there may be some lingering affects from the injury earlier this season, one thing is certain, if Ibanez is going through long stretches where he is barely hitting above the Mendoza line, it could make for a very frustrating September and October for the Phils’ offense.