Ben Revere Slowly, But Surely Improving

Let's forget about the depression over no moves being made at the deadline for a minute and focus on a player that could, perhaps, be hitting his stride. We all know the issues Ben Revere has. He can't hit for power, is impatient at the plate and takes bad routes to the ball. If you look closely at his numbers now though, you may start to see Revere is turning things around not only in the field, but with the bat as well. 

Normally, when we see Revere break the wrong way for a ball, we cringe. Why shouldn't we? He has shown in the past he is more than capable of botching an easy play. Recently, Revere has improved in that aspect, making some spectacular catches over the past few weeks, showing that he does have the talent to be a big-league center fielder.

Here, Revere robs Lucas Duda of a homer…

Revere also robbed Curtis Granderson of a bloop hit with a sliding grab…

In this next catch, Revere shows that he still has some issues reading the ball, but has plenty of speed to make the play…

The last clip here shows his closing speed again. Positioned in dead center, Revere adjusts to the ball hit to left center and shows his athletisicm with a nice diving catch.

While his arm still needs some work, there is no doubting the raw talent that Revere has in center. He covers a lot of ground and is beginning to show that he can consistently read plays and make the catches that need to be made.

The Phillies center fielder is also heating up at the plate. Over his last 30 games Ben Revere ranks 1st in the NL in hits & batting average & 2nd in stolen bases.

As a leadoff man and a speedster, your duty is to get on base and score runs, steal bases, etc. Since dipping his OBP to a dysmal .281 in mid-May, Revere has done a much better job at getting on base. On May 22nd, Revere's OBP sat at .281. Since then, he has raised it to .326 and has especially heated things up in July. Ben has multi-hit games in six out of the last nine contests and has scored five runs in the process.

Last night in the blowout win against Washington, Revere went 4-for-6 with two runs scored and an RBI. Revere is only 26 and still has plenty of time to improve his skills, and on this team, he will be given the time to try. Ben is slashing .359/.379/.402 in July and has scored 13 runs, which is more than he had scored in any other month this season. 

Now sporting an average of .306, Revere finds himself slotted 5th in the National League in batting average, behind Tulowitzki, Puig, Matt Adams and Justin Morneau. Revere places 13th in Major League Baseball in average. He is 4th in MLB with 30 stolen bases.

Brandon Apter, Publishing Editor for Philliedelphia.com