Offense remains Phillies' biggest issue

WHEN ASKED recently to identify the Phillies' biggest area of concern as the 2015 season got underway, team president Pat Gillick immediately pointed to the dearth of position player prospects within the farm system.

The Phillies were able to address a similar lack of pitching depth at the upper levels of their system this winter, through trades, but they didn't add any hitters of any significance to their minor league teams. Rule 5 pick Odubel Herrera, the one hitter they did acquire, began the season in the starting lineup of the big-league team.

If (or, when) the Phillies do strike a deal that sends Cole Hamels to a contender within the next 4 months, you can place a strong bet that the return is heavy on bats, and not arms. Gillick prefers bats that are closer to the big leagues, simply because there's less risk of projecting a 21-year-old prospect in Double A as there is in a 18-year-old in the Gulf Coast League.

After watching the major league opener unfold on Monday at Citizens Bank Park, you can assume that just about everyone else in the organization would back Gillick's preference.

The Coles Hamels-Red Sox drama - the two were linked all winter in the ever-churning trade rumor mill - was an easy story line of the day, particularly when Boston untouchable Mookie Betts hit a first-pitch home run off the Phillies' lefthander in the third inning of the one-sided Sox win. But Hamels has a habit of getting knocked around in early April.

More troubling on Monday was an offense that had one hit and all of three baserunners in the first six innings of the season en route to an 8-0 defeat. Even veteran leadoff hitter Ben Revere had trouble coming up with a decent excuse for the lackluster effort on Opening Day.

"It was kind of tough with the shadows and everything, seeing a little bit," Revere said of a game that got underway at 3:08 p.m. "But I can't really say nothing because [the Red Sox] saw [the ball] good."

With a starting outfield that combined for a grand total of nine home runs last season, manager Ryne Sandberg and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. have emphasized speed and athleticism in putting together the 2015 lineup. And so Revere and Herrera, a pair of singles hitters who combined for 65 walks in 1,171 plate appearances last season, are two of the three regular outfielders, while righthanded power bat Darin Ruf inexplicably wallows away on the bench.

Sandberg says he manages his lineup "day-to-day," but it's difficult to see him abandoning the Revere-Herrera left-centerfield duo he went with for the final 2 weeks of spring training.

"We have to get guys - especially me and Herrera - on base," Revere said of how the team could gain some offensive consistency. "Then we can start causing havoc. It's just one game, I'm not too worried about it."

It was one game of a full slate of 162.

But it was also a game that appeared to be more representative of the team than last year's season opener, when the Phillies scored 14 runs in a wild win in Arlington, Texas. Those 14 runs ended up being the season's high-watermark for the offense, which would score double-digit runs just five more times.

The 2014 Phillies were shut out 15 times, just like the 2013 team. In each of those seasons, the offense wasn't blanked for the first time until April 16, the 14th game in each of those seasons.

In 2015, shutout No. 1 came on Day 1.

"I think it's tough to score runs if you don't even get anyone on first [base], so we'll start there," Cody Asche said after Monday's loss.

Without putting too much emphasis on one game, this appears to be a situation of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you've got). There's the aforementioned top-of-the-lineup duo, followed by the three over-35-year-olds in the middle, followed by the still-developing big-league bats in the lower third.

"In general, there's a big emphasis on guys doing the little things," Asche said of the approach the offense has to have this season. "There's not six of us in the lineup that's going to hit 30 homers. So we're going to have to move runners at times, we're going to have to hit-and-run at times. But like I said, we have to work on getting on first [base] first."

It was just one game, but here's a very real possibility: The Phillies could score fewer than 620 runs for three straight years for the first time since 1970-72.

Chad Billingsley is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment at Triple A Lehigh Valley on Friday.

The 30-year-old Billingsley, who has been limited to two starts since 2012 after undergoing a pair of elbow surgeries, is in line to jump into the rotation later this month. The Phillies need a fifth starter this weekend (likely on Sunday, with Cole Hamels going on his fifth day on Saturday), but could only need that still-unidentified spot starter twice if Billingsley is ready to go when the Phillies begin their second homestand of the season against Miami the week of April 20.

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese