The Sports Idiot » Ryan Howard

Victorino Gets Tossed From Center?

thesportsidiot — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:22:04 +0000

In a bizarre move, Shane Victorino was ejected from yesterday’s game between the Florida Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies. It was Victorino’s first ejection as a Major League player, and the first time I have ever seen a player get thrown out for arguing balls and strikes while playing in the outfield. Victorino’s actions went on to hurt his team, as defensive guru Jason Werth came in and replaced him in center. Werth promptly made not one, but two errors.

This story is pretty funny from a few different angles. When reading the story, it makes it sound like Victorino came barreling in at full speed to get to home plate umpire Ed Rapuano. Victorino even says he “never ran so fast from center field to home plate”. He also “violently shoved catcher Paul Bako”, according to David Gurian-Peck of MLB.com. Upon watching the video, however, Victorino jogged in from center, and I really hope that is not the fastest he can run (here at The Sports Idiot we have it on good authority that Victorino can run really, really fast). Violently shoved Bako? Really? I think violent may mean something different to Gurian-Peck than it does to me.

Then there are the dismissals of Victorino by Rapuano altogether. Granted, Victorino should not have responded to the pitch like he did (see Jimmy Rollins’ reaction in the video?), but there is no way he should have been ejected for it. The real dismissal comes when Victorino finishes his 100 yard dash to get in Rapuano’s face, however. It looks like he may have gotten half a sentence in before being corralled by Bako (how did he recover from such a blatant act of violence so quickly? Steroids?) and Ryan Howard, and then having Rapuano just turn and walk away. When looking at it from a distance it sure makes Victorino look silly. Anyway, watch the video and form your own opinion.

Ryan Howard/Cole Hamels K Watch

thesportsidiot — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:57:19 +0000

You may have noticed that all season long there has been a poll asking who will rack up more Ks this season, Ryan Howard or Cole Hamels. Just a quick update for you:

Howard: 111
Hamels: 90

While certain Philly fans will see this as “more Philly bashing” from me, it really is not. I find it a fascinating question, but yet one that holds no bearing on anything. My stance on strikeouts, which are wasted at-bats (for the most part) but no worse than grounding out of popping out (when you do not advance any runners), has evolved into one of annoyed acceptance at this point.

Looks Like Ryan Howard is Indeed Worth $18million

thesportsidiot — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:59:12 +0000

On Sunday Ryan Howard signed a $54 million contract “extension” with the Phillies. Howard will bring home $15 million in 2009, $19 million in 2010, and $20 million in 2011. Do the math and you will see that it equates to $18 million per year. Todd Zolecki of MLB.com has a good breakdown of the deal, which is also incentive laden.

This move surprises me, because I am not really sure if it helps the Phillies. Sure, they could have gone to arbitration and risked paying Howard the $18 million that he was looking for in 2009. I do not think that Howard was going to win that case, so I think the Phillies have done themselves a disservice here. Why sign Howard to this “extension” which only bought out his arbitration years? It did nothing to secure Howard long term, as he will still be a free agent after the 2011 season. The argument is that the Phillies could have saved money if he won all three arbitration hearings, which I just do not see as being realistic in the current economic envioronment. Now Howard will be able to look for a pay increase from the $20 million he will make in 2011 when he looks for a long term deal before the 2012 campaign.

The good news here is that this preempts me from continuing to compare Howard to other top tier one baggers, as I compared him to Adam Dunn last week. It should be noted that Dunn is shopping himself as an outfielder and not a first baseman.

Is Ryan Howard Worth $18mil?

thesportsidiot — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:43:01 +0000

Ryan Howard submitted a figure of $18mil for his arbitration number. The Phillies submitted $14mil, which is still $4mil more than Howard’s record $10mil he won in arbitration last year. The question, though, is whether or not Howard is worth the $18mil he is asking for. More after the jump.

The first thing that comes to mind when this topic is explored is where does Howard stack up against the other top tier one baggers in the Majors. Maury Brown of bizofbaseball.com does a great job of comparing Howard to Pujols, while ESPN The Magazine’s Matt Meyers had a great comparison of Howard to Adam Dunn. Since Meyers’ article is an Insider one, I will refrain from going too deep into his details.

The other guys who pop into my head are Prince Fielder and Mark Teixeira. We will have to compare them to Howard later this weekend, but I wanted to get this ball rolling with Pujols and Dunn. Because this could be a large entry, I’m going to break it up and start with Dunn.

One of the things that Meyers looks at is both players’ adjusted OPS. Adjusted OPS tried to balance out park factors and leagues, to give a more accurate comparison of the players’ abilities in the batters box. In adjusted OPS, a number of 100 is considered average. Here are the numbers that Meyers put up for Howard: 167 in ‘06, 144 in ‘07, and 124 in ‘08. As you can see, his numbers are declining at a pretty steady rate.

Lets compare those numbers to Dunn’s, who hit 114 in ‘06, 136 in ‘07, and 129 in ‘08. Dunn has been pretty consistent, and is also the only player in baseball to send at least 40 balls over the wall in the past five MLB seasons.

Dunn’s numbers matter because he made $13mil in ‘08, and is currently unemployed and having to drop his asking price for ‘09. Shit, Dunn may have to settle for a one year deal making as little as $8mil in ‘09. Meanwhile, Howard will get at least $14mil for ‘09. Both players are defensive liabilities, but at least Dunn can play a corner outfield spot in addition to first base. Howard, not so much, as it’s first base or DH for this “well-rounded” ball player. Both players are virtual windmills at the plate, and both hit for terrible averages.

The thing Howard has over Dunn is his ridiculous RBI rate. Meyers brings a great stat to the table, however, which shows that Howard was first in the Majors in RBI opportunities over the past three seasons, while Dunn was 37th.

So the question, in regards to Howard/Dunn, is whether or not Howard is worth $5mil more than Dunn was paid last year. When you take into account that Dunn is facing a huge pay cut right now, it makes Howard’s figure a little more hard to swallow. In case you are wondering about their age comparisons, Dunn is 10 days younger than Howard. Since I am planning on this being a multi-entry debate, and I want to be as fair as possible to Howard, I will refrain from making up my mind just yet.