It appears as if our reigning National League MVP is our weakest player. Our $900,000 baby is not holding up his end of the bargain. The new face of Major League Baseball is getting a lot of time to watch his friends run around the bases... To date, Ryan Howard is the weakest of our eight everyday position player starters. His .213 average is nearly 70 points lower than our next worst starter.
Howard has to uncross his bats, to take off the hex... but I'm sure he knows that.
All in all, that's pretty impressive.
Granted, Chase Utley's 5 for 5 game tonight raised his average nearly 50 points, but it is still encouraging to look at our 7 starters without an MVP trophy and smile at their current averages.
Rollins - .295
Victorino - .282
Utley - .296
Burrell - .344
Helms - .290
Rowand - .365
Ruiz - .296
That kind of production is going to score some runs. It doesn't matter if we're hitting singles, doubles or homeruns, this offense is going to score runs.
This offense has finally woken up and is no longer relying on Jimmy Rollins to provide the pop. Burrell is still hitting. Rowand has a 13 game hitting streak. Utley has finally woken up, and Helms, Victorino and Ruiz are doing there jobs very well.
Now if we can just wake up our sleeping giant, Ryan Howard, we'll be in good shape and we'll be tough to beat. At this point though Ryan Howard is the least of our worries. He seems to be hitting a homerun now and then (he hit his 3rd tonight), he's still getting on base via the walk and is still finding ways to drive in runs... he's got 12 to date.
On another note....
Another strong outing by a Phillies starter. Lieber pitched well tonight. 6 innings (that's half a dozen, Jon), 2ER, 5Ks, 0 BBs and a victory.
Tomorrow night is Cole Hamels. This guy is a stud. Hamels is coming off a 15K performance and has pitched solid in every outing. His opponent, Shawn Hill has not let up more than 2 earned runs in any of his 4 previous starts. It should be a great game tomorrow. Two young arms. I'm looking forward to a pitcher's duel.
Skeeter at Driven to Center believes we'll continue our winning ways and end April at 13-12... it is definitely doable.
2 comments:
The beast within the mammoth Ryan Howard can only be contained for so long, and it's ready to be released.
I have no doubt that Howard will break out, and soon. His home run last night was very encouraging!
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