Offensive Struggles

I'm an avid sports radio fan and I love listening to Mike Missanelli on 97.5 The Fanatic. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to sports and very entertaining to listen to. I was listening to Missanelli the other day when he started talking about how the Phillies should trade for a bat to try and improve the offense. Personailly I think the Phils are fine and I think Mikey Miss is pushing the panic button to early when it comes to the offense.

I'm fully aware that the Phils are struggling at the plate and that they are in the midst of a season long 4 game losing streak.

But this is what the Phillies do year after year. They go through offensive slumps but they always seem to turn it on after the All-Star break and make a run. Take this fact into consideration: last year after 41 games the Phils were 26-15. The Phils went 6-15 in their next 21 games and at one point their record was 32-30. Yet the Phillies still managed to finish with the best record in baseball and more importantly they made it back to the NLCS for the third straight year.

This year after 41 games the Phils have an almost identical record at 25-16 and I don't see them going 6-15 in the next few weeks. At 25-16 they are still tops in the NL and they still have one of the best records in all of baseball.

In order to break out of this slump and not repeat last year's 6-15 run the Phils need a spark on offense. A possible cure to their offensive struggles could come in the form of Chase Utley. Utley is currently rehabing in Single-A Clearwter and could rejoin the big league club in the near future. Even though the Phils are currently in desperate need of another bat the Phillies are smart in not rushing his rehab. Speeding along Utley's rehab process just because the Phillies need him could have long term negative affects on Utley in the remainder of the season. Utley needs a proper rehabilitation period to fine tune his swing and get back into baseball shape especially considering he missed a good portion of Spring Training.

Domonic Brown could also help the offense but the Phillies should also give him a substantial amount of time to rehab.

Ultimately a baseball season if full of ups and downs and right now the Phillies are at an all time low. The important thing is for them to remain calm and focus on getting out of this slump one at bat at a time. They need to try and get into 2-0 and 3-0 counts and focus on playing small ball. The Phils need to fight for any runs they can get and scrap and claw their way out of this slump.

The Phillies will prevail, they always do. For now try to remain calm and try not to push the panic button just yet.