JABO: In Defense of Brandon Phillips
“If you don’t get on base, then you suck. That’s basically what they’re saying.” So said Brandon Phillips to USA Today Sports on Tuesday, in a vehement defense of the way that he plays baseball. And to be sure, there are plenty of people who have said this (more or less). I cut my sabermetric teeth on Gary Huckabay and Joe Sheehan proclaiming that “OBP is life. Life is OBP.” But there are plenty of ways to skin a cat, and not focusing on on-base percentage has worked out just fine for Phillips. In fact, it’s worked out better for him than most players in baseball history.
In the FanGraphs glossary entry for on-base percentage, the rule of thumb for an average OBP is listed as .320. With a .319 career OBP, Phillips is basically right at that average mark. And that is a touch unfair to him. During his time in Cleveland, before he put it all together, he logged a paltry .246 OBP in 462 plate appearances. In his time in Cincy, his OBP has been .325, just a shade over average. He has had an OBP above league average in three of his nine seasons in Cincy. Last season, when he posted a paltry .306 OBP — his worst in his nine years in Cincy — it was still better than the average National League second baseman. Of the 11 NL second basemen who compiled at least 400 PA last season, Emilio Bonifacio, Kolten Wong, Aaron Hill and Jedd Gyorko all posted worse OBP’s than did Phillips. In other words, while Phillips isn’t the OBP messiah, he’s far from a pariah.
In fact, among his average or worse OBP peer group, Phillips is a top-20 player all time:
| Most Valuable Players by WAR, .319 Career OBP or less |
|---|
| Player | PA | OBP | WAR |
| Matt Williams | 7,595 | 0.317 | 44.8 |
| Willie Davis | 9,822 | 0.311 | 43.5 |
| Lance Parrish | 7,797 | 0.313 | 43.4 |
| Devon White | 8,080 | 0.319 | 41.8 |
| Alfonso Soriano | 8,395 | 0.319 | 39.7 |
| Hal Chase | 7,939 | 0.319 | 39.1 |
| Gary Gaetti | 9,817 | 0.308 | 39.0 |
| Tim Wallach | 8,908 | 0.316 | 37.6 |
| Lee May | 8,219 | 0.313 | 35.7 |
| Bert Campaneris | 9,625 | 0.311 | 32.5 |
| Frank White | 8,468 | 0.293 | 31.0 |
| Bob Boone | 8,148 | 0.315 | 30.4 |
| Benito Santiago | 7,516 | 0.307 | 28.7 |
| Ezra Sutton | 5,536 | 0.316 | 28.2 |
| Terry Pendleton | 7,637 | 0.316 | 28.2 |
| John Ward | 8,084 | 0.314 | 28.1 |
| Rick Dempsey | 5,407 | 0.319 | 27.8 |
| Brandon Phillips | 6,154 | 0.319 | 27.1 |
| J.J. Hardy | 5,166 | 0.312 | 26.7 |
| Marquis Grissom | 8,959 | 0.318 | 26.4 |
Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.
I think people aren’t criticizing for Brandon Phillips for not changing his approach because it has worked for him. They are criticizing his ignorance about baseball and value. It is essentially similar to a Nobel Prize winning Biologist saying global warming doesn’t exist. You can be really good at what you do, but when you start saying others that are experts in different area are wrong, it is utter ignorance.
No, it’s more like Usain Bolt saying wind isn’t a factor in race results. Yeah, he’s wrong, but why were you expecting him to be right?
Why did you have to bring race into it? 😉
Anyone who actively chooses ignorance in the face of mountains of evidence deserves to be mocked mercilessly.