By: Brandon Apter, contributor 
The Phillies are 9-3 this season in one-run games after going 9-69 in those situations last season. The 2016 record strongly reflects the pitching performances that the Phils have gotten, but their offense continues to struggle. The team has scored 90 runs this year, good for a tie for third-worst in baseball and are hitting just .226 combined, which ranks 28th, only ahead of Tampa Bay and Atlanta. While we knew that the team would struggle offensively, Maikel Franco's recent struggles are more concerning than the team as a whole.
Franco was the guy coming into the 2016 season that seemed to be one of the lone power threats in the lineup, but since April 23rd, he's been anything but that. After leaving the series with the Brewers hitting .299, Franco's average has sunk to .243. During that weekend of April 22 and 23, Franco went 6-for-9 at the plate with three homers, seven RBI's, three runs scored and no strikeouts. Since then, he's tallied just five hits in 36 at-bats, striking out six times, good for a .139 average. What exactly is up with Franco at the plate though? Well, he's swinging a lot more early in the count then he has before.
By looking at Franco and a guy like Odubel Herrera at the plate with the naked eye, it looks like one guy is completely relaxed and patient and the other has the weight of the team on his shoulders, trying to hit the ball over the fence with each swing. You can guess who is who. Although Franco will strike out much more than he walks, the rate at which he's swinging right now is a bit troubling, especially at the first pitch.
Last season, Franco swung at 26.3 percent of the first pitches he saw and this season, he's being much more aggressive early in the count, swinging at 37.2 percent of first pitches in 113 plate appearances. His teammate, Herrera, has gone from swinging at over 33 percent of first pitches to just 21 percent, which has resulting in seeing 12 3-0 counts thus far to Franco's three. Swinging at the first pitch gives the pitchers the advantage in the at-bat 99 times out of 100, so Franco needs to be less aggressive and more patient to work better counts. This is not to say that Franco should look to walk as much as a guy like Herrera has, but putting himself in more favorable counts will play to his ability to drive the ball for extra bases.
As Franco continues to struggle, Phillies skipper Pete Mackanin has opted to put Andres Blanco in the game late, despite Franco being a superior defender. Whether or not this becomes a habit remains to be seen, but a few days off might be good for the 23-year-old slugger. He'll sit in favor of Blanco during today's matinee in St. Louis.
