Brandon Phillips did nearly the exact same thing for 11 straight seasons with the Reds while also playing Gold Glove second base.

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  2. I saw an interview with him on the MLB Network one time where he said, “I’m not a power hitter, I’m a hitter with power.”

    That always stuck with me. Not sure why.

  5. I think he should be in the hall, or at least a long look. 

    The defense alone should get him in the conversation. 

    Maybe a couple other 2B should get in before him, but he was a special player

  6. Went through a number of online arguments with people trying to say he was better than Chase Utley. He’s not but I’ll always respect him

  7. Surely you can see that in no way were those seasons “nearly the exact same.” 

    BA fluctuating between .261 and .300, home runs between 8 and 30, OPS between .678 and .816, steals between 2 and 32, RBI between 51 and 103. 

    He was a hell of a ball player, yeah. 

  8. Good player but “nearly the exact same thing” is not how most people would interpret those stats.

  9. That early 30/30 year set expectations higher than they should have been. Really solid player, would have loved to have him on my team

  17. Crazy that an OPS of 816 in 2007 was only good for OPS+ of 105. Pretty sure a 105 in 2025 is around .740.

  18. He was better than Biggio just didn’t have the longevity. Also Biggio was ass in the postseason (hit 50 points lower than regular season)

  21. I miss him.

    I’m no statistician. Is 2013’s bump in SOs and RBIs + drop in AVG and OBP significant?

  22. Phillips had a falling out with Eric Wedge in Cleveland and was unceremoniously shipped for pitcher Jeff Stevens who never played a game for Cleveland – he was traded to the cubs for mark DeRosa who put up 1.3 WAR in 71 games before being shipped to saint louis for Chris Perez.

    Perez saved 123 games from Cleveland from 2010-2013 and was a 2-time all star.

    He also had weed (illegal at the time) shipped to his home under his dog’s name.

    Bottom line is wedge was canned after the 2008 season and this was a bad trade for Cleveland.

  23. Still remember his Twitter bio – “Your favorite athlete’s favorite athlete.” Played the game with swagger and backed it up season after season

  24. I’m actually surprised about how low those ops+ numbers are. Crazy that he was below average offensively much more than he was above it.

  25. Was also traded to Cleveland (along with Grady Sizemore, Lee Stevens, and Cliff Lee) for Bartolo Colon (and Tim Drew)!

    But yes, Phillips was a consistently very good/great player. Excellent defensive second baseman.

  26. Was he the last player to have a 100 RBI season with less than 20 HRs? Thats a wild stat

  27. Theres a reason he was my favorite Red. Him and Votto locked down the right side of the infield for a decade.

  30. I feel like the Reds should have had more success recently, there has been consistent talent moving through Cincy this entire century

  33. Coached against him in hs. What a player.
    When he would pitch, he had a filthy slider and threw a knuckleball. Kid could throw 1,000 mph, but nooooo

  35. I think this highlights the weakness of OPS+ as a metric.

    By OPS+, he is slightly below league average. There is not a manager who wouldn’t welcome that sort of production from his second baseman.

    As a baseball fan, I would love this guy on my team.

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