Taking a look at some under-the-radar developments for key Phillies position players with the first half in the books.
C Jorge Alfaro, Andrew Knapp
Alfaro has swung at a higher percentage of pitches this season than any player in the majors - 61.5 percent. The only other player who's swung at more than 59 percent of the pitches he's seen is Javier Baez.
Defensively, it's been an up-and-down season for the Phillies' catchers. They've combined to allow 12 passed balls, most in the National League. And the Phils have allowed 58 stolen bases, second most in the NL.
1B Carlos Santana
Santana's plate selection has been as advertised, with him entering the All-Star break with more walks than every player in the majors except Mike Trout and Bryce Harper.
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But Santana's also been helped out a bit by umpires. No player in the National League has had more pitches in the strike zone called balls than Santana (55). Some of it, obviously, has to do with his reputation. His exaggerated movements on inside pitches help, too.
2B Cesar Hernandez
Hernandez has a .380 on-base percentage out of the leadoff spot this season, tops in the National League and second in baseball behind only Mookie Betts (.452).
Hernandez hasn't been driving the ball a whole lot lately - his three-run triple Sunday was his only extra-base hit in July - but you know the singles and walks will always be there for him. Hernandez has spent just one day all season with an OBP lower than .367.
3B Maikel Franco
Do you realize that we're 95 games into the season and Franco has a higher OPS than Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Abreu, George Springer, Mike Moustakas, Santana, Trea Turner, Brian Dozier, Anthony Rizzo and Adam Jones?
SS Scott Kingery
There's a baseball cliche that when a player is in a slump, he's down 0-1 or 0-2 every time he comes to the plate.
If it seems like Kingery has spent much of the first half in a hole, it's because he has. He's gotten a first-pitch strike 66.5 percent of the time, the fifth-highest rate in the NL.
A major reason for that is Kingery's rate of swings at pitches outside the strike zone - 39.7 percent, also fifth highest in the NL.
LF Rhys Hoskins
You hear a lot about how much a plate appearance changes when you start 1-0 as opposed to 0-1. For Hoskins this season, it's made a world of difference.
When Hoskins starts 1-0, he has a .457 on-base percentage. When he starts 0-1, he has a .292 OBP. That OBP gap after 1-0 vs. 0-1 counts is 48 points higher than the league average gap.
So next time you see Hoskins begin an AB 1-0, flip a coin. Nearly half the time, he's getting on base.
CF Odubel Herrera
If you've watched Herrera over the years, you've likely noticed that he takes forever in between pitches, even in an age when MLB wants to speed up the game by eliminating dead time.
Well, Herrera does indeed have the slowest pace of any MLB hitter, taking 29.3 seconds on average in between pitches.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Hernandez, who rarely steps out of the box. Hernandez takes 21.0 seconds in between pitches, third fastest in the majors.
RF Nick Williams, Aaron Altherr
The interesting trend with these two is how much better Williams, a left-handed hitter, has been against left-handed pitching.
Williams has hit .265 with a .321 OBP against lefties and .243 with a .324 OBP vs. righties. For his career, he's hit .271 against each side.
Altherr, contrarily, has hit just .169 against lefties. In a larger sample, it stands to reason that Williams' numbers against same-handed pitching would come down. But to this point, the platoon aspect of the right-field tandem hasn't worked out as expected.
