I don’t know what else to say except for this: .324 OBP. geezus. that makes my face hurt.

But pitching again, as Cole couldn’t hold it down.

Howard takes a lot of blame and he shouldn’t. Have any of you been to a home game? Its in South Philadelphia mind you, where its a little difficult for us to “blend” in. Aside from the snide comments and stares, its just not a comfortable place for a black man to watch a baseball game.

The last game I attended was when I saw Ken Griffey Jr play, so I wore my NY Giants Willie Mays jersey and cap, and I caught a lot of wreck for a team and player that do not play anymore. Any where else I would have been left alone or respected, but not in my own town.

Of course you can say it wasn’t all racial. You could say that about anything.

ANY racism is bullshit. Whites don’t have to deal with that on a mass scale.

and as far as the home run thing…. can we find out how many of those home runs were hit on the road as opposed to Citizens Bank Park?

623 strikeouts is amazing. I didn’t realize it was that high, but yet and still, this is a town that turns on its stars prematurely just for kicks.

He hit 58 homers in this era. I can only think of two players since Maris who’ve hit as many and haven’t been accused of juicing (Griffey).

It kills me when Whites say situations are not racially motivated.

For every Roger Clemens I can name you 25 Blacks who have been scrutinized way more over the course of time.

We’re talking about Philly here not some town where race relations have been chilllllll.

“Although, Mizz, I am not hoping you are implying that the Phillies should just give him whatever he wants because he’s a black superstar.”

That’s the most ludicrous statement you’ve ever said here.

Why the hell would I say that?

Do you think I run this blog just to give Blacks who are unworthy undeserved shine?

Ryan Howard is one of the main reasons why this team is even in the hunt.

Why wasn’t Howard invited to the home run derby?

If Howard were white he would be absolutely revered even if his average was .199.

Talk his strikeouts all you want but isn’t he leading the MAJORS in homers and 2nd in rbi’s?

Does that count for something?

You mean those numbers…

Yeah they ran Dick Allen out of town. I will never be a Phillies fan because of some of the stories my father told me of how they treated Allen.

Okori you know me well enough to know your above statement is not what the hell I am trying to say.

Don’t do that.

So you name two cats (the jury is still out on how long Jimmy Rollins will last here) to say what?

There is no way in hell a big ass town like Philly should have just the Black players named.

I remember when they signed Danny Tartabull and the town made it a big thing. Dude was injured when they signed him.

They haven’t brought in a Black superstar since.

We’re not talking about the Twins or the Devil Rays.
This franchise goes waaaaay back.

Howard is one of only four players in MLB history to strike out at least 180 times in one season, twice (2007 and 2006; Bobby Bonds, Adam Dunn, and Jim Thome are the others). Reginald Martinez Jackson is the all-time career strikeout leader with 2,597. Reggie averaged 0.92 strikeouts per game over his long career. In his relatively brief career, Howard averages 1.29 strikeouts per game!!! He is one of the least efficient power hitters of all-time. Howard’s career strikeout:home run ratio is a whopping 3.94:1. A-Rod’s is 2.94:1, and Pujols checks in at 1.61:1. For efficiency’s sake, Howard is not all that valuable.

Here’s further proof: Someone on here mentioned Howard’s home run total at this point in his career and how no one else, except maybe Babe Ruth, was even close. Well, here are some striking numbers: Let’s take Howard’s career at 508 games so far, and let’s stack it up with some other prolific power hitters after their 508th games. We’ll start with Ruth, but we have to understand that he played many of his first few seasons in Boston as a pitcher/outfielder, but that’s not Ryan Howard’s fault, so we’ll measure Ruth from the beginning just to be consistent. In his first 508 games, Ruth swatted 103 home runs and struck out 204 times. That’s 103/204, HR/SO. How about Willie Mays? 126/216. Hank Aaron: 88/193. Barry Bonds: 76/322. Ken Griffey Jr.: 72/279. Mark McGwire: 125/385. Mickey Mantle: 84/382. That’s an average, for those seven pre-eminent sluggers of 96.3 HRs and 270 SOs in their first 508 games. How does Ryan Howard stack up? In 508 games, Ryan has hit 158 home runs (terrific!), but he has struck out 623 times……….. 623!!!!!!

As a Yankee fan, I used to think it would be good for the Yankees to trade for Howard, maybe package an aging Mussina (before this season’s resurgance) and a young arm and a young bat for Howard, believing Yankee Stadium’s short right field porch was tailor-made for Howard, but I think his penchant for strikeouts doesn’t make him an effective 5-hole shield for A-Rod. Teams would walk A-Rod and take their chances trying to strike out Howard, and they’d do it a lot of the time. (And you can’t bat Howard third; Abreu is too good a 3-hole hitter, as I think Cano will be one day… maybe.)

I’m sure when the Phillies sit down to negotiate with Howard, they’re going to throw those strikeout numbers in the face of Howard’s agent, and that’s not racially motivated; that’s statistically sound. Howard, when he’s hot, might be a dangerous force of baseball nature, and a game-winning slugger; but when he’s not hot, he costs his team a lot in terms of run potential. Winning an MVP was great, but look at this list of past MVP winners — Zoilo Versalles, Boog Powell, Jeff Burroughs, Ken Caminiti, Jason Giambi, Mo Vaughn — and it’s easy to see that a single MVP award doesn’t make a guy an all-time great player.

Anyway, that’s my two cents…..

Howard in August:

2007: 7 HR, 24 RBI, .266 AVG.

2006: 14 HR, 41 RBI, .348 AVG.

2005: 5 HR, 16 RBI, .307 AVG.

2004: Was not called up until Sept.

Where is the drop off?

I understand the booing part, I honestly do.

What I don’t see is how 0-25 when you bat 4-5 times a game is that bad of a slump? It looks bad when you’re hitting .250 and your batting average dips below .240, but when you’re hitting over .300 and you’re 0-25 and you’re still over .300 or close to .300 it’s not that noticeable of a difference. Baseball players all go through slumps, and I would not be surprised to see Howard break out in August like he has done in years past.

Mizzo,

Just because you hit homeruns at a fantastic pace does not mean you’re all world super special baseball player. I listed players who hit homeruns, Thome, Cecil, McGriff, all at a pace of Howard’s current pace.

He’s a good kid from what I see on TV, but slugging first basemen have always been replaceable. There’s always that fat kid on the baseball team who can barely play the field but boy can he hit the cover off the ball, so you put him at first base.

I’ll give Howard $14m a year and call it a day. If he wants to hold out for more, go and earn a gold glove and then we’ll talk. Until then, he’s just a hacker who is almost 29 years old who has 157 career homeruns.

I mean… a .324 OBP is horrible. just horrible. I can’t even type that without wincing. and boney is right: .832 OPS from a first baseman is… not great either. Ryan might have reached the ceiling of his talent, and if that’s true, i’d trade him for friggin pitching (Cole Hamels is Jesus but even Jesus had apostles.)

if you had the choice between Ryan Howard and say… Derrek Lee who would you take?

if it’s stark in favor of home then it’s a real clear answer that maybe he is a slight bit the product of Citizens Bank Park.

This is something one host tried last week: If you could keep one player long-term, one short term and trade one who would it be? Your choices are Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. What do you do?