Who’s ready for another weekly blog series?  I was insanely jealous of my very talented co-host, Mr. Ryan Conway, for his weekly Weekend Rips series, so I decided it was time for me to bear down, and totally copy him.  It’s time for Over The Hump!

Over The Hump will be a weekly post on Hump Day (Wednesday for all the unintelligent people out there) about a player who has stunk for the past week, and is looking to get over the hump for some redemption.  It can be multiple players who need to figure it out, it can be one player who has been abysmal, and there will most certainly be some repeats.  Here are my picks this week for Over The Hump.

Alec Bohm

There are many Phillies’ players that could EASILY make this weeks post.  Simply put: they all suck right now. Originally, I was going to put Bryce Harper in here.  But it has since been confirmed that he has been playing hurt and now has landed himself on the 10-Day Injured List, so I think it’s time we shift our attention to someone who has been healthy and been playing horrendously this season thus far.

Alec Bohm has either completely lost it, or is the most unlucky baseball player I have ever seen in my life.  I’m not going to go near his defense, because that is not what the Phillies are expecting him to exceed at, and I don’t see him playing third base in the future, especially if the DH position comes back for next year. The Phillies need to get some type of production from Bohm, who slashed .338/.400/.481 with a .881 OPS in 2020. Bohm is striking out way more than he did last season and way more than anyone thought he would this season.

According to FanGraphs, Bohm is seeing fastballs on 58.5 percent of his pitches this season, which is good for ninth-highest in baseball. It’s a seven percent increase from last year as well. Last season, Bohm hit .337 with a .500 slugging percentage against fastballs. This season, he’s just .200 with a .318 slugging percentage. His whiff rate has skyrocketed this year to 24.1 percent, nearly six percent higher than last season. In the strike zone, Bohm is only hitting fastballs at a .209 average this year compared to .364 last season.

Alec Bohm is a good hitter.  Anyone who watches baseball knows that.  He has one of the highest hard hit ball percentages in the MLB (50.4%).  Alec Bohm will be looking for redemption in the rest of the series against the Marlins, and I have all the faith that he will heat up , and get over the hump.

The Phillies won last night 2-0 against the Marlins and will send Aaron Nola the mound tonight.

Ben Simmons

This is going to get some people’s panties in a twist, especially my co-workers here at The Liberty Line. Even if I sound like that miserable old man, Howard Eskin complaining about Ben Simmons while covering a completely different sport, I simply don’t care.  I have some serious concerns about Ben Simmons, especially if the Sixers make the run deep into the NBA playoffs like we all think they will.  A 6-15-15 stat line is nothing to sniff at, but Ben Simmons’ 6 points against one of the worst defensive teams in the league should not be overlooked just because he had 15 boards and 15 assists. 

He left 6 more easy points on the board going 0-6 from the free throw line.  This is going to be a major problem deep in the playoffs, especially late in games.  It’s pathetic that Doc Rivers has to take Simmons out of a tight game with seconds to go, simply because the other team will foul him and send him to the line to brick some free throws.  Being aggressive and charging at the hoop full speed does no one any good if you can’t make the free throws to finish the job. It’s simply ridiculous for this to be a problem for an NBA player.  He is going to need to figure it out and get over the hump soon so that he is ready to produce against the real teams in the playoffs. 

The Sixers are back in action against the Wizards tonight for game two. Check out the game preview here.

Hit me up on Twitter for suggestions as to who goes into next week’s edition of Over The Hump.  

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Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY