2018 Phillies: Statistical Signals and Noises

The 2018 Phillies season included a number of unusual statistical nuggets, some of which were indicators of meaningful trends in the development of the game, of the Phillies team, or at least of individual players.

Other stats are really just interesting noise, and are the equivalent of the infinite monkey theorem [insert joke about the Phillies defense here] — whenever a team participates in over 12,000 plate appearances, invariably some oddities will pop up.

(For a more comprehensive statistical review of the ‘18 Phils, check out Phillies Stat Notes: Analyzing The Collapse.)

Before we jump in, a reminder that always feels unnecessary but somehow is often needed: pointing out that a player or…