Phillies ‘aren’t going to score a lot of runs’ says Ruben Amaro Jr.

The fall from perennial contender to cellar-dweller has been precipitous for the Philadelphia Phillies.

After being the class of the National League for a half-decade, they’ve suffered through losing seasons each of the past two years. These comments from general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. certainly don’t inspire any reason to expect it’s going to get better this season. Amaro told MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki he isn’t overly optimistic about his team’s offensive abilities:

“We’re not going to score a lot of runs. We’ve been saying that. We’ll have to scratch them. We’re not going to scare anybody with our power, but that doesn’t mean we can’t score runs. We’re going to have to manufacture them. We’re going to have to do it with our legs. We’re going to have to do it with our brains and aggressiveness.”

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A look at Philadelphia’s spring training stats confirms Amaro’s assertion. Phillies hitters have combined for a .597 OPS in 17 Grapefruit League games and they weren’t much better during the 2014 season.

Ryan Howard is the team’s only true power threat, but he’s far from the player he was in his prime and there’s no guarantee he’ll be in Philadelphia long-term. According to the latest report, the Phillies are willing to eat the majority of what’s left of his sizeable contract to ship Howard out of town.

Thrown in Cliff Lee’s most recent elbow injury and the Cole Hamels trade rumors and you can see why Philadelphia is a popular pick to finish with the worst record in baseball.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr