Reds' Phillips: 'Geeks' are messing up baseball

Though Brandon Phillips shares a clubhouse with a dude who's walked more often than any other player in baseball over the last half-decade, the resolute second baseman still isn't a proponent of on-base percentage.

"I don't do that MLB Network on-base percentage (stuff),'' Phillips told Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports. "I think that's messing up baseball. I think people now are just worried about getting paid, and worrying about on-base percentage, instead of just winning the game."

Phillips' aversion to on-base percentage - a metric widely considered to be a stronger barometer of offensive productivity than batting average - appears to stem from a broader antipathy towards advanced statistics, in general.

"That's the new thing now. I feel like all of these stats and all of these geeks upstairs, they're messing up baseball, they're just changing the game," said Phillips. "It's all about on-base percentage. If you don't get on base, then you suck. That's basically what they're saying. People don't care about RBI or scoring runs, it's all about getting on base.

"Why we changing the game after all of this time? If we all just took our walks, nobody would be scoring runs. Nobody would be driving anybody in or getting anybody over. How you going to play the game like that. People don't look at doing the things the right way, and doing things to help your team win."

Phillips, who's heading into his 10th season with the Cincinnati Reds, has watched his on-base percentage slip considerably in recent years, due largely to his reluctance to take walks. The 33-year-old has walked in just five percent of his plate appearances over the last three seasons - he owns the 23rd-lowest walk rate among baseball's 223 qualified hitters since 2012 - and boasts a meager .313 OBP over that span.

"I remember back in the day you hit .230, you suck. Nowadays, you hit .230, with a .400 on-base percentage, you're one of the best players in the game. That's amazing. I've never seen (stuff) like that. Times have changed. It's totally different now."

Joey Votto, incidentally, has played with Phillips in Cincinnati since 2007, and boasts a career .417 OBP with a robust 15 percent walk rate over eight seasons in the majors.