Throughout his career, Brandon Phillips has batted everywhere from leadoff to clean up and in between. While this is rare, it is not completely unheard of, but what is unheard of is Phillips' ability to adjust his hitting style to whatever role his is currently filling. Phillips began this season as the number 2 hole hitter for the Reds but was moved to cleanup after Ryan Ludwick went down with an injury and has stayed that way until a few days ago. From his first day as the cleanup hitter this season, Phillips has had one goal in mind: 100 RBIs and he is rapidly approaching that goal and will easily drive in over 100 runs this season. Why is this amazing? Phillips is not only on pace to break his personal high in RBI and top his goal of 100, but he is also in the race to lead the ENTIRE NATIONAL LEAGUE in RBI and has dominated all other second basemen in the category.
Let's take a look at this in comparison to the entire National League first, where he only trails Paul Goldschmidt and Allan Craig in RBI. Traditionally in baseball, the main run producing positions are first and third base and the outfield positions, so for a second basemen to be in the running for the RBI crown is not only rare, but extremely rare. Phillips would be the first second baseman to win the RBI title since 2001 when Bret Boone won it for the AL, but even more impressive is that he would be the first NL second baseman with the most RBI since Rogers Hornsby in 1925. That is 88 years.
Getting away from just comparing to second baseman makes Phillips' season, in terms of strictly RBI, even more impressive when you look at his RBI numbers compared to some names that you expect to be huge run producers. 14 more RBI than Adrian Gonzalez, 24 more RBI than Matt Holliday, 25 more RBI than Carlos Beltran and Carlos Gonzalez, 29 more RBI than Buster Posey and 41 more RBI than David Wright.
Phillips has improved his game this season when it comes to run producing in a couple of key areas. He is currently tied for 2nd in MLB with 8 sacrifice flies and is batting .355 with runner in scoring position. As part of that .355 average with runners in scoring position, Phillips is hitting .647 (11-17) with the bases loaded with 24 RBI in those situations. It is clear that he is focused on driving in runs and making that the main focus of his job, a job in which he is succeeding.
When Phillips has been asked to be a run producer in his career, he has been able to step up and produce as you would hope, but never to this level. In two previous season, Phillips has driven in over 90 runs with his career high being the 98 that he drove in during the 2009 campaign. With about a month to go in the season, Phillips only needs 4 more RBI to set a new career high. It seems pretty safe to say that he will set a new career high and will meet his preseason goal of topping 100 RBIs for the season.
Phillips has helped the Reds win by batting leadoff, second, third, and cleanup throughout the years. With each of those positions comes different duties, and Phillips seems to be one of the rare players that can adjust to any situation and position in the lineup. He is "The Chameleon Hitter".
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