Ryan Howard

[Ben Grimm]

Back in the day I often compared Ryan to Cecil Fielder. Big body type, slow afoot and needs help to improve at the ML level.

He startled me early on with his opposite field hits - many of them being for extra bases.

But now, he's back to my original projection of comparisons with Cecil. He may rake next year and look like the Ryan of old, but of course those possibilities are seeming more rare with each day passing. As it stands now, he's basically an all or nothing hitter who's marginally acceptable as a NL first baseman.

I really wouldn't care - much like I don't with Mayberry - except Ryan makes massive money. Like it or not, when you get paid, you're under the microscope. So far, there is nothing I've seen that makes me think he'll be any better than Cecil.

[Ben Grimm]

Let me add on to this. For the Phillies to succeed, Ryan has to - it's a must. Likewise for Utley, Jimmy and whatever else can help.

I hate to write Ryan off, but he had a massive injury last year, and watching him play should lead everybody to wonder. Ryan's a great face for the franchise - especially one that was so late in brining in african-americans.... I want this to work out soooooo bad, but I'm not sure it will.

[jalbright]

I would expect that with a chance to practice, Howard would return to something close to 2011. That's not bad production, but not worth the money he'll be getting. All those months without being able to hit because of the achilles adds up to a ton of rust. He needs to rehab more and face more pitchers, painful as it can be to watch right now.

[Ben Grimm]

That is true. Ryan has mostly been a slow-starter, so this was to be somewhat expected. And he did say he's only at 80-85%.

[philliesfiend55]

Howard's never going to relive the glory year of 2006, but hopefully the more time goes by, the more he recovers from that terrible injury of October 2011 and his leg will strengthen, allowing him a better base to push off when he hits. Much like a pitcher recovering from Tommy John surgery, he probably won't be at full strength for two or three years after his injury and surgery. I think in A YEAR OR TWO he might have the kind of season where he'll be picked to the N.L. all-star team as a reserve first baseman. I don't know if he will ever return to superstar status, however.