Phils Coast Into Second Place

It seems hard to believe with the 3-7 road trip that the Phillies just came back from but it’s true. The Phillies are now in second place in the NL East, with a nice victory last night. Cliff Lee earned his 9th win of the year, and he said he wanted to be on a ‘winning team’, now the Phillies appear to be back up on the bright side of things with two wins in a row over the ailing Washington Nationals. The Phils now have a chance at a sweep tonight over the Nats, to start this homestand off really nicely.

Should there be a cause for excitement? Well not now anyway, as the Atlanta Braves have 7 game lead over the Phillies and Nationals now and a quick look at the Wild Card standings as of today would still have the Phillies finishing 7.5 GB from a Wild Card spot. It’s way too early to think playoffs, but that is a snapshot of where the Phils are in the thick of things. They aren’t still in any great position, but the wins have been a move in the right direction.

Commanding the East

The Phils have had an 18-9 record against the NL East this year, and that good news is offset by the not so good news of being 7-14 against the NL Central.  The Phillies are 5-5 against the NL West so far this season.

Werthy of Praise?

The return of the Nationals brought an old friend of the Phillies back to town in former Phils player, Jayson Werth. Werth received a round of boos from the fans, and it’s not all that undeserved from him seeing all of the things that he’s been saying about his old team and especially ‘the fans.’ He’s earned a tag usually reserved for players like Scott Rolen and some other players that just went out of their way to comment in such a way to earn them a distinction of persona non grata at the Phillies ballpark. 
Phillies fans have shelved the happier times with Werth on the team as a Phillie, and have put him in the ‘enemy’ status.
What has Werth done since leaving the Phillies? Here’s his stats so far with the Nats as he is in the third year of his $126 Million dollar contract and his stats with his last year with the Phillies in 2010:

Year Age Tm Lg G AB R 2B 3B HR RBI SO BA
2010 31 PHI NL 156 554 106 46 2 27 85 147 .296
2011 32 WSN NL 150 561 69 26 1 20 58 160 .232
2012 33 WSN NL 81 300 42 21 3 5 31 57 .300
2013 34 WSN NL 39 145 21 4 0 6 16 34 .262
11 Yrs 1045 3525 565 189 19 151 511 978 .267
162 Game Avg. 162 546 88 29 3 23 79 152 .267
PHI (4 yrs) 543 1798 320 99 9 95 300 495 .282
WSN (3 yrs) 270 1006 132 51 4 31 105 251 .256
LAD (2 yrs) 191 627 102 33 5 23 90 199 .247
TOR (2 yrs) 41 94 11 6 1 2 16 33 .234
NL (9 yrs) 1004 3431 554 183 18 149 495 945 .268
AL (2 yrs) 41 94 11 6 1 2 16 33 .234
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2013.
The chart says a lot of things, Werth had his best years in Philadelphia and he has a World Series ring to show for it. Injury has forced him to sit the bench at lot in Washington last year, he missed half the season, but his numbers have been nowhere as good as they were in Philadelphia. Werth got the same contract as Ryan Howard got the from the Phillies at $126M but Werth’s contract had six years on it, and Howard’s extension was for 5 years. These two contracts finished worst and second to worst in an article on the worst baseball contracts ever recently in the Huffington Post.

Here is the players that Werth matches up with as of now in his MLB career: thanks to Baseball-Reference

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