5 Phillies to blame for falling so far behind Braves in NL East standings

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The Philadelphia Phillies are battling to get back to .500. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves are one of the best teams in baseball and well ahead of them in the standings. The two teams faced off last weekend and split their four games. The good news is that the Phillies haven’t fallen further behind. The bad news is that they haven’t gained ground.

With a mountain ahead of them, the Phillies need a lot to get right for them and even more wrong for the Braves to catch their NL East foes. Five specific Phillies deserve a whole lot of blame for falling so far behind the Braves.

First, an honorable mention to just about everyone in the bullpen. How can we choose only one? While many of these bloated ERAs are the result of being incinerated in absolute bloodbath appearances, our faith in guys like Craig Kimbrel and Gregory Soto is limited. They deserve a lot of blame, just like those other five Phillies.

Kyle Schwarber is one of the weirdest baseball players around. Take last season for example. A .218 batting average and .323 OBP were good enough to keep him number one for much of the season. He led the league with 46 homers, but also hit more than anyone with 200K to his name.

Schwarbers’ 2023 season hasn’t been as productive. He has an identical OBP of .323 but only a batting average of .168 and a hitting percentage of .408. He’s gone deep 13 times, which is a reasonable expectation at this point in the year.

The Phillies need a lot more than the occasional long ball from Schwarber. Even with him hitting in a much more appropriate spot in the middle formation, he’s a limited ballplayer with one skill: smashing baseballs.

A change could be around the corner. Schwarber is a lifetime .258/.352/.607 hitter in June. Last season, after two straight months at bat below .200, he upped the juice and threw a .272/.385/.680 slant line with 12 home runs and 27 RBIs. The Phillies need a repeat.

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