I mean, I'm not a masochist lol. But baseball is a "game of failure." That's the expression, but you could also say disappointment if you think it's dark. What I enjoy are the rhythms off a long baseball season where no inning or game or week or month is all-or-nothing like in football, and where the baseball gods can be both cruel and kind.
The Phillies are currently 8th in MLB in batting average with RISP, the thing we repeatedly lament them being bad it that they actually aren't bad at. That's a .269 average. The best team, the Cubs, is .301. Over 10 games that difference isn't even noticeable but either way fans of both teams are watching failure 70-73% of the time.
They are also fourth with RISP with an .801 OPS which is downright fantastic. The thing about three true outcomes baseball is two of them are good. And the fourth outcome is still another thing that leads to outs 70% of the time (normal BABIP also being around .300). What this team is desperately lacking is power. They are sixth in BA and 4th in OBP overall, but 20th in SLG and 17th in HRs. And none of Turner, JT, Bohm or Nick are capable of being the team's third slugger (Nick remains the best but an unreliable option, while there's at least hope for Bohm getting back to his RBI ways based on his May).
But it's true that winning baseball and entertaining baseball aren't always the same thing. And I agree with DCSman, it's not just the vaccination, but I really don't have a favorite player on this team. Ranger would be closest. It's a collection of white bro-ey superstars and underwhelming youngerish players. Stott the best of the latter.
