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But do those guys know Jared?
By egrissom | March 9, 2010
Lots of people talking about this great article about how many curve balls Ryan Howard saw last year. Milt Thompson says that given how many breaking balls Howard sees he should be able to walk 150 times in a season. That may be a little optimistic, but it does seem like Howard should be drawing more walks. Howard has been in the top three in all of baseball in home runs for each of the past four seasons. Here’s how his rate of walks compares to the other top home run hitters from either league in 2009:
| Player | PA | HR | BB | % of PA BB |
| A Pujols | 700 | 47 | 115 | 16.4 |
| P Fielder | 719 | 46 | 110 | 15.3 |
| R Howard | 703 | 45 | 75 | 10.7 |
| M Reynolds | 662 | 44 | 76 | 11.5 |
| A Gonzalez | 681 | 40 | 119 | 17.5 |
| C Pena | 570 | 39 | 87 | 15.3 |
| M Teixeira | 707 | 39 | 81 | 11.5 |
| A Dunn | 668 | 38 | 116 | 17.4 |
| J Werth | 676 | 36 | 91 | 13.5 |
| A Hill | 734 | 36 | 42 | 5.7 |
| J Bay | 638 | 36 | 94 | 14.7 |
The group of players walked in about 14.9% of their plate appearances in 2009 on average. Howard walked in about 10.7% of his. The only player on the list who drew walks less often was Aaron Hill.
The Yankees beat the Phils 7-5 yesterday in a game that featured Jose Contreras allowing six runs on six hits and three walks over 1 2/3 innings. Kendrick pitched very well before that, throwing three scoreless innings. Scott Mathieson struck out two in his inning, but allowed a run on a single and a double. Mayberry went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and Rollins was also 2-for-4 with a solo shot.
It sure seemed like Moyer was a heavy favorite to win the fifth starter job. I still think he is, but it’s great to see Kendrick pitching so well.
Halladay will pitch in tonight’s game against the Yankees. Victorino, who has missed time with a sore shoulder, is expected to play.
Charlie Manuel tops Gene Mauch and Dallas Green in this poll on best manager in Phillies history. I concur.
Topics: Ryan Howard |
March 9th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Paul Hagen had an entire article yesterday in the Daily News claiming that Manuel is the best Phillies manager ever. His methods were somewhat more subjective than your analysis here in Nov ‘08.
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20100308_Paul_Hagen__Manuel_arguably_best_Phillies_manager_of_all_time.html
March 9th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
I thought it was an interesting article. I think Charlie takes it now with three playoff appearances in a row and a World Series win. I was really frustrated with the way he managed in the World Series in 2009, but it’s hard to knock him for losing when the Yankees were just better overall. The Phillies have been pretty fantastic recently and he deserves a lot of the credit.
I got your email on this subject a while back, BTW. When I tried to respond my message got sent back. I will try to come up with a post with a new comparison of Manuel, Green and Mauch sometime soon.