There's been a lot of discussion over the last few days about how the Phillies are lucky to be where they are given the poor hitting of the middle of their lineup -- Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell.
I wondered if perhaps batting average might not be telling the whole story, so I dug a little deeper at the more valid statistics like on-base percentage and slugging percentage:
OBP SLG
Utley .222 .250
Howard .500 .000
Burrell .286 .000
Mph. Maybe batting average was right.
The Phillies can still win playoff games without the middle of the lineup hitting. However, to consistently win playoff games and advance, the Phillies are going to need more than the Two Little Engines that Could, Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins, can provide.
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Earlier this week, BS&S.com frequent reader/occasional contributor Mike Harmanos did some profiling in regards to what statistics are usually the trademarks of successful playoff teams. At the time, we really only discussed the Brewers/Phillies series, but below is the entire analysis that he did.
