Mac Attack, "Locked and Loaded" Edition: Reviewing the Phillies Lineup

Locked and loaded, voices screaming
"Let's go! Come on, do it, here we go!" - The Offspring, Hammerhead

The Philadelphia Phillies' lineup has not changed much since the postseason, other than the fond farewell to Pat "The Bat" Burrell and a jolly good welcome to Philadelphia for Raul Ibanez. If you think about it, the Phillies traded offensive stats. They traded 30 home runs, 90 RBI, and roughly 100 walks for a .290-.300 batting average, 200 hits, and 110 RBI.

We will be reviewing the 2008 lineup and previewing the projected 2009 defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies lineup and its projected offensive numbers.

So without anymore posturing, let's begin the Attack.

Reviewing 2008's lineup and bench, each spot varied in certain games and the batting order varied from game to game to spark the offense when it would start to slump.

1. Jimmy Rollins

2. Shane Victorino

3. Chase Utley

4. Ryan Howard

5. Pat Burrell

6. Jayson Werth

7. Pedro Feliz/Greg Dobbs

8. Carlos Ruiz/Chris Coste

9. Pitchers

Reviewing the players' 2008 season, from an offensive perspective only.

1. Jimmy Rollins The 2007 MVP had sort of an off season offensively. Benched twice, he hit .277 with 154 hits in 556 at-bats. In 2007, Rollins also saw a dip in his hits (154), RBI (59), and average (.277). He was injured at the beginning of the season, but he did have 47 stolen bases, though, and was caught stealing only three times. Rollins scored 76 runs last season as well.

2. Shane Victorino The Flyin' Hawaiian had a breakout season. Victorino hit .293 with 167 hits in 570 at-bats. Victorino, who smashed a grand slam off of C.C. Sabathia during game two of the NLDS, hit 14 home runs during the regular season. Victorino also stole 36 bases, drove in 58 runs, and scored 102 runs.

3. Chase Utley Chase got off to a rip-roaring start prior to the All-Star break. After the All-Star game, that same scorching bat practically fell silent. Chase knocked 33 home runs and batted .292 for the season, which isn't much off of his career average of .298. Last season, Chase drove in 104 runs and scored 113 runs while raking 177 hits.

4. Ryan Howard. The "Big Dog" got off to a slow start in March (and April... and May... and June), but picked up his slack and started to hit the ball. Despite hitting .251 and striking out 199 times, Howard managed to crush 48 home runs as well as driving in 146 runs and scoring 105 runs. Howard slapped 153 hits as well as stole a base. In the month of September alone, Howard hit .352 with 11 home runs, two triples, seven doubles, and drove in 32 runs.

5. Pat Burrell "Pat the Bat" got off to a blazing start, much like Utley did, and carried the team throughout Howard's slow start. Prior to the All-Star game, Burrell hit .275 with 23 home runs, 57 RBI, and slugged .575. After the All-Star break, though, he cooled down, much like Utley. After the All-Star break, Burrell hit .215, with 10 home runs and 29 RBI. During the 2008 season, Burrell was in the top 10 in walks with 102.

6. Jayson Werth Werth had a "breakout" season, if you could call it that. He hit .273 with 24 home runs, 20 stolen bases, and slugged .498. Werth was one the four Philadelphia Phillies hitters with 20-plus home runs (Utley 33, Howard 48, Burrell 33, Werth 24). Prior to the All-Star break, he hit .271 with 12 home runs and 36 RBI. After the All-Star break, he hit .275 with 12 home runs and 31 RBI.

7. Pedro Feliz Another Phillies hitter that got off to a hot start and cooled off, drastically, I might add. Prior to the All-Star break, Feliz hit .270 with 12 home runs and 45 RBI. After the All-Star break, it's a different story. After the All-Star break, Feliz hit .189 with two home runs and only 13 RBI. The 2008 season for Feliz: .249, 14 home runs and 58 RBI.

8. Carlos Ruiz Ruiz had an off season hitting, while only hitting .219 with four home runs and only 19 RBI. Ruiz came up clutch when it really mattered, especially in the playoffs. Prior the All-Star break, Ruiz hit .202 with two home runs and 20 RBI. After the All-Star break, Ruiz picked it up, hitting .244 with two home runs and 11 RBI. His 2008 postseason stats were a .261 batting average (.375 in the World Series alone), one home run and four RBI along with one stolen base.

9. Pitchers (Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Blanton, Kendrick) The Philadelphia Phillies pitchers last season hit .107 combined, with Cole Hamels leading in the average category with a steely .224. Next it was Kyle Kendrick batting .100, and so on. Big Boy Joe Blanton hit his first career home run during Game 4 of the World Series.

10: The Bench. The 2008 numbers for Chris Coste were .263 with nine home runs and 36 RBI. Greg Dobbs hit .301 with nine home runs, 40 RBI and three stolen bases. Eric Bruntlett hit .217 with two home runs, 15 RBI, and 15 stolen bases. Geoff Jenkins batted .249 with nine home runs, 29 RBI and one stolen base. Matt Stairs hit .252 for the season (.294 with the Phillies) with 13 home runs (two with the Phillies), 49 RBI (five RBI with the Phillies) and one stolen base. So Taguchi wound up at .220 with nine RBI and three stolen bases.

If you've got a match then we've got the gas
Let's start a fire and have ourselves a blast- Airbourne, Stand Up For Rock And Roll

The team totals for 2008 were this: .255 team average, 214 home runs, 762 RBI, 586 walks, 1,117 strikeouts, and 136 stolen bases. The Phillies led the majors with 214 home runs, and were second with 762 RBI. The team was 10th with a .255 batting average and seventh in strikeouts with 1,117.

Here's the 2009 Projected Numbers for the starting lineup, according to myself:

1. Jimmy Rollins — .285, 20 HR, 70 RBI, 49 SB

2. Sane Victorino — .291, 15 HR, 65 RBI, 45 SB

3. Chase Utley — .300, 25 HR, 80 RBI

4. Ryan Howard — .275, 53 HR, 152 RBI, 200 SO, 100 BB

5. Jayson Werth — .293, 30 HR, 29 HR, 75 RBI, 21 SB

6. Raul Ibanez — .310, 30 HR, 110 RBI

7. Pedro Feliz — .250, 15 HR, 50 RBI

8. Carlos Ruiz —  .275, 13 HR, 56 RBI

9. Cole Hamels — .230, 2 HR, 13 RBI

Bench players projected 2009 numbers:

10. Greg Dobbs — .310, 11 HR, 60 RBI

11. Matt Stairs — .263, 11 HR, 40 RBI

12. Eric Bruntlett — .250, 7 HR, 31 RBI

13. Chris Coste — .264, 10 HR, 41 RBI

14. Geoff Jenkins — .270, 11 HR, 30 RBI

Possible bench players prjected 2009 numbers:

15. Ronny Paulino — .267, 5 HR, 30 RBI

16. Lou Marson — .279, 11 HR, 25 RBI

17. Jason Donald — .281, 9 HR, 30 RBI

18. John Mayberry — .275, 11 HR, 20 RBI

Starting Pitchers projected 2009 hitting numbers:

19. Brett Myers — .175, 0 HR, 5 RBI

20. Jamie Moyer — .155, 1 HR, 7 RBI

21. Joe Blanton — .245, 4 HR, 15 RBI

22. Kyle Kendrick — .133, 0 HR, 3 RBI

Possible starting pitchers projected 2009 hitting numbers:

23. J.A. Happ — .133, 0 HR, 5 RBI

24. Chan Ho Park — .137, 0 HR, 5 RBI

25. Carlos Carrasco — .131, 0 HR, 2 RBI

Brian McCollum is a writer on philly phans 4 life, a blog written by three philly guys and a canadian. This article appears on phillyphans4life.blogspot.com