Where has all the power the gone?

Long time passing 

Where has all the power gone?

Long time ago

Where has all the power gone?

Amaro has picked them every one

When will they ever learn?

Watching the game tonight against Ian Kennedy and the Diamondbacks, I thought the Phillies have been hitting the ball hard.  Unfortunately, it seemed as though every hard hit ball was hit directly at a Diamondback.  We must have some rotten luck.

"Well," I said to myself, "It is one thing to say we have rotten luck.  Why don't you go to Fangraphs and find some statistical support for your thought?"

I head over to Fangraphs, and here is what I find:

Team BABIP: .299

The Phillies are not the unluckiest team in the National League.  In fact, they are right in the middle of the National League.  Six teams have a higher BABIP, and we are tied with the Pirates for 7th. League average for BABIP in 2010 was .297.  According to Fangraphs, the average BABIP for hitters is between .290 and .310.  We are not especially lucky, nor are we especially unlucky. Obviously, my eyeballs are deceiving me (as they often do); we are not the unluckiest team in baseball.

So what is our problem?

POWER

Team ISO through 805 plate appearances, .119.  The only teams in the National League that have worse team ISO, the Padres and the Pirates. 

There is a caveat to this.  We cannot really draw any conclusions about specific players and their ISO numbers.  According to Fangraphs, it takes 550 plate appearances to draw any conclusions about an individual's ISO.  Obviously, no Phillies player is even close to having that many plate appearances.

However, the 805 cumulative plate appearances would be enough to get a sense of the team's power hitting ability.  I know I am in danger of using the fallacy of division here.  Certainly, the dependence on Wilson Valdez and a slumping Raul Ibanez could be dragging the ISO number down.  Potentially, the return of Chase Utley and an Ibanez hot streak could bring the team ISO number up. 

On the other hand, I don't think it is a positive sign that the Phillies are 14th in the league in ISO through the first 21 games.  I mean, we are down there with some truly putrid offenses, the Padres and Pirates.  Neither team has an established major league power hitter.  ESPN may have us ranked first in its Power Rankings, but we are not a power hitting team right now. 

With all the talk about high pitch counts, precarious bullpens, and low walk rates, I think it is time to talk about power, or lack thereof.