Lou Marson & Jason Donald Olympic bronze medalists
double bobble head.
Sellers enjoying second-half surge
Tony Zonca
Phillies third baseman Neil Sellers is one of those blue-collar players you just love to have as a teammate. There is nothing fancy about the guy. He plays hard. He plays to win. He is the consummate gym rat.
To put it another way, Neil Sellers is not a guy you’re going to run into at a Cezanne exhibit.
The 26-year-old Kentuckian tends to get lost among his gold-studded teammates – the Marsons, Donalds, Golsons and Harmans – but he’s actually right there with that prospect-laden group.
Check it out: He’s batting a respectable .272, with a team-high (and career-best) 18 home runs. He’s knocked in 69 runs and ripped 24 doubles (both a close second to Jeremy Slayden).
And he’s been solid, if not spectacular, defensively. Oh, he will make the spectacular play now and then, to be sure, but the word for Sellers is solid, always solid.
But not at first this year. The Phillies plucked him last offseason in the
Minor League Rule 5 draft out of the Houston organization. The fifth-year pro came in with a .292 career batting average and Double-A experience.
And fell flatly on his rugged face. He got out of the box an awful 4-for-24, proceeded to bat .239 in April, .218 in May, and nobody was singing his praises.
“We talked about it all season long,” manager P.J. Forbes said. “When he was hitting .240 Frank (Cacciatore, hitting coach) and I said this guy is too good to be hitting .240. I see him being a .290, 20-homer, 90-RBI guy.”
As the weather got hot, so did Sellers. In June and July he combined to hit .313 with 13 jacks, 43 RBIs and a slugging percentage just under .600.
But why the slow start?
“Being with a different organization, you want to get off to a strong start,” he said, “and show them the type of player you are. That didn’t happen and then you start to press and try to do more than you’re capable of doing. You start trying to go 5-for-4, and you get that mentality that you’ve got to get a hit every at-bat. I wanted to show the organization, the staff, my teammates the kind of player I was and that I could help the team.”
So what turned things around?
“I kind of got to the point where I was like, ‘This is a game, have fun and just go out and play like you’re a little kid playing Wiffle ball in the back yard,’ ” he remembered. “This is a game where you’ve got to be able to deal with failure, and if you can’t you’re not going to succeed. And when you don’t succeed in one game, you let it go into two games, a week, a month. The last three years I’ve been a strong starter; this year it just didn’t happen.
“There are times when you have to realize you’re playing the game you love and doing it for a living. You’ve got to realize there are a lot worse places you can be.”
It’s been a curious season for Sellers in a lot of ways. For one, he came into the season with 22 home runs in 362 at-bats. Now he has an organization-best 18 in 390 trips. Where did the power surge come from?
“That’s tough to explain,” he said. “I really dedicated myself this off year in the weight room, and I probably took a lot more swings than ever. I think with experience you learn how to hit with power, and be able to hit with some average, too.”
Sellers also is at a loss for why, as a right-handed batter, he is hitting some 20 points better against right-handed pitchers than lefties, and that he is a much better hitter on the road than at home.
“I love hitting here,” he said almost apologetically. “That one is tough to explain. Sometimes I do get a little amped up when you get the home fans cheering for you, and you definitely want to produce. I think that’s when you start to overswing and try to do too much.”
According to Forbes, inconsistency has been Sellers’ worst enemy this see-saw season. In fact, after those two hot months, he has gone 5-for-23 in August. Forbes believes he knows why.
“Right now, and it’s just my opinion, I think he sees that 20 (home run) mark,” said Forbes, who will recommend re-signing Sellers. “(But) do you want to hit .280 with 18 and 80 (RBIs), or do you want to hit .260 with 20 and 70? The game is about producing runs. I heard something on Baseball Tonight: You drive in more runs with singles and doubles than you do with home runs over the course of a season. If I need to drop that line on him I will. This guy can be a run-producer.”
Sellers is a battler, no doubt. You have to be when you’re a 32-round pick and hardly the biggest or fastest guy around.
“I try to make sure I am an all-around baseball player,” he said in describing his hard-nosed style of play. “I just strive to do everything the best I can. That’s kind of the way I’ve played the game my whole life. And I hate to lose. I’m a competitor and I’m going to leave it all out there and do all I can to help the team win.”
