What has been the case for the poor start? While the bullpen hasn't been especially sharp, and Cole Hamels turned in a less than perfect start on Monday, the main culprit has been the offense.
The team hasn't gotten many men on base, and they haven't done a good job of driving in the limited base runners they have had. Past Phillies teams might have compensated for the lack of base runners with power, but so far, the team has only hit one home run this season.
This week's featured Phillie will be the man who hit that lone home run.
Featured Phillie of the Week: Hunter Pence
Coming over from the Houston Astros at the trade deadline, Hunter Pence fit in perfectly with the 2011 Phillies. His quirky personality and oddball quotes helped him become popular with the fanbase, and his right handed power was a perfect compliment to the Phillies traditionally lefty heavy lineup.
Pence hit 11 homers as a member of the Phillies in 2011, and after his arrival, the team led the National League in runs scored.
Unfortunately, the two most powerful left handed hitters in the Phillies lineup - Ryan Howard and Chase Utley - are currently injured. Which means that Pence is no longer a complimentary piece for the Phillies lineup. He's now the cleanup hitter and considered to be the most dangerous hitter on the team.
While he has one more home run than the rest of the team, it is clear that if the 2012 Phillies are going to generate any offense, proven hitters like Pence are going to have to step it up.
Pence has never hit 30 home runs nor accumulated 100 RBIs in a single season. If he can't approach those levels in 2012, then the Phillies are likely going to continue to struggle to score.
Ghost of Phillies Past: Rico Brogna
The 1997 Phillies were similarly not blessed with much in the way of power hitters. Unlike the current team, the problem wasn't due to injuries. It was due to a lack of talent.
In the offseason, the Phillies had acquired Rico Brogna from the New York Mets to play first base. Brogna had been a promising young player for the Mets a few years earlier, but injuries had limited his production.
Brogna turned out to be a decent enough player. He was outstanding defensively at first base, and provided a little bit of power, hitting 20 home runs in 1997.
Unfortunately, a little bit of power wasn't what the Phillies needed. While 20 home runs might sound pretty good today, thanks to steroids, expansion, and smaller ballparks, 20 home runs wasn't all that impressive in the late 90s. It was an especially disappointing total for a first baseman batting in the middle of the order.
Brogna ultimately had a decent career for the Phillies before being traded away in 2000. He would have probably been fine as a complimentary piece in a lineup featuring several other more powerful hitters. But for the offensively challenged 1997 Phillies, he simply wasn't enough.
Random Phillies Image Found on the Web
From time to time, I'll go on Yahoo! (Yeah, that's right. Yahoo! is my default search provider. Deal with it, you Google fanatics) do an image search on Phillies and see what comes up. Most of the images are about what you'd expect. But in some of the higher numbered pages, you can sometimes find a real gem of an image.
Here's what I came up with this week:
It appears to be a car with a custom Phillies paint job. Pretty sweet.
Pennant Year Song of the Week
The Phillies have been National League champions in the years 1915, 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, and 2009. Each week, I will find a song that was released in one of those years and use it to describe the past week for the Phillies.
For those of you who were big fans of the 1915 music scene (and who isn't?), I have bad news: I probably won't be using too many songs from that year.
The first week of the season is all about dreaming. Every team is still in the running, and even the lowliest of squads can still have hopes of somehow being a contender.
In that spirit, this week's song is from 1950. It's I Can Dream, Can't I? by the Andrews Sisters:
Much like the 2012 Phillies still have dreams of winning another World Series, the Andrews sisters had dreams of eventually finding true love.
Final Analysis
Rico Brogna was one of the primary power sources for a Phillies team that finished in last place. This year's team has slightly higher expectations.
Until Howard and Utley return, Pence is going to have to help carry the offense. Is he up to the task of being a lineup centerpiece, or is he going to prove to be more like Brogna: A solid player who is really more of a complimentary piece?
The Phillies fate in 2012 may hinge on the answer.
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