THESE GUYS MAKE PHILS GO: A.L. SPEED RUNNING AWAY FROM N.L.

There is no secret to Philadelphia’s offensive success. It’s painfully obvious to opposing pitchers as to who you have to try to slow down.  The Phils have three players in the top seven of the NL in runs scored—Raul Ibanez (44), Chase Utley (39) and Shane Victorino (38) and two of the top five RBI men in Ibanez (53) and Ryan Howard (46).  The defending champions are the only team to have more than one player listed among the leaders in what should be the most important categories—production.

It used to be that there was a significant difference between AL and NL baseball strategy.  With the AL having the designated hitter, perception has been that teams move station to station and employ the Earl Weaver strategy of waiting for the 3-run bomb, whereas the NL employed more of a running game and small-ball approach, less dependent on the long ball. 

Where are the wheels in the NL? 

Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford is literally running away with the MLB stolen base lead with 34. Along with C.C. in the AL, Jacoby Ellsbury of Boston is second with 22 and the Angels’ Chone Figgins has 20.  These three are all ahead of the top NL base thief, Michael Bourn of the Astros, who has just 18.  The next closest NL base-stealer is the Mets’ David Wright (13).  Just for good measure, let’s round out the AL’s top five with TB’s B.J. Upton (17) and Angels’ Bobby Abreu (15)—all better than the NL’s second-best.

These stats offer several talking points, one of which has to be the fact that catchers in the NL must sleep a lot better than their counter-parts in the AL.