Sabermetrics news: The Phillies have been falling apart

The loss of Jordan Hicks to TJ; new BP leaderboards; the Phillies in free-fall

FanGraphs | Dan Szymborski: Jordan Hicks unfortunately fell victim to the UCL bug, and he’s likely to miss all of 2019, and most of 2020, due to Tommy John surgery. The biggest predictor of the injury is fastballs thrown, and he throws a lot of them, so it’s not a total surprise, but it’s still very disappointing for the Cardinals to lose their closer. The good news is that recovery has been better as of late, and he is still incredibly young at just 24.

Baseball Prospectus | Ken Guillemette: BP has introduced a new feature on their stats page: leaderboards! You can now sort by hitting, pitching, or catching defense across your favorite BP metrics; check it out.

The Ringer | Michael Baumann: The Phillies made a splash and signed Bryce Harper and looked to be a contender for the NL East, and June has nearly tanked their changes. There was the Odúbel Herrera domestic violence arrest, Maikel Franco’s total offensive collapse, and Andrew McCutchen’s torn ACL that have really put this playoff contender a few steps back.