Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips isn’t talking to the Cincinnati media, but he’s willing to talk to the national media and willing to talk to the national media about why he’s not talking to the Cincinnati media.
Case in point, this Phillips quote to Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com:
I don’t have nothing to say to those cats. They know what the deal is. They just talk about how I was falling off and declining. How the [expletive] am I declining? I had 100 ... ribbies last year. And I did that with one ... hand. And I won a Gold Glove? So how the [expletive] am I declining? Come on, man.
Phillips noting that he played through an injury for much of last season is certainly valid, but it’s really not all that difficult to see why those pesky local media members think he’s been declining:
YEAR AVG OBP SLG OPS
2011 .300 .353 .457 .810
2012 .281 .321 .429 .750
2013 .261 .310 .396 .706
Unless, of course, you judge a hitter strictly on his RBI totals, which Phillips apparently does. In that case he’s [expletive] better than ever!
