Ryan Howard

[Jake Patterson]

What's going on with his swing?

[Bryton]

I just think his timing is way off. Having a real hard time with the off speed stuff, then when he gets the fast ball, just can't seem to size it up. Confidence is low, you can see it.

[Jake Patterson]

Tied Willy Wilson for number of strike outs in a World Series.

[RKKay]

I don't think that's unusual for him. As he usually challenge for the league lead in strikeouts annually?

[Nick Rocket]

Not unusual. But perturbing (sp?). Yes he strikes out at a high pace, but IMO, he is one of the more clutch hitters in the league. Last years WS stats hold true to this. He was 6-21 overall against the Rays, but 9 of his 15 outs were K's. You take the good with the bad, usually its more good than bad. But, as Bryton said, seems a little off. Not necessarily a timing thing, but you can see the shot of his eyes in the dugout. The little head shake when he looks up in the air. He's mad as can be at himself, so its throwin his concentration off.

Just my $.02

[csh19792001]

Originally Posted by Nick Rocket

Not unusual. But perturbing (sp?). Yes he strikes out at a high pace, but IMO, he is one of the more clutch hitters in the league. Last years WS stats hold true to this. He was 6-21 overall against the Rays, but 9 of his 15 outs were K's. You take the good with the bad, usually its more good than bad. But, as Bryton said, seems a little off. Not necessarily a timing thing, but you can see the shot of his eyes in the dugout. The little head shake when he looks up in the air. He's mad as can be at himself, so its throwin his concentration off.

Just my $.02

Why can't he hit left handed pitching? .220 career hitter with a K every 3 at bats. Pretty pathetic for someone of his purported talent.

I've never seen someone so incredibly hyped/touted who is also so easily pitched to and neutralized (and owned, at that). Look at what Mets relief pitcher Feliciano has done to him in such a short span of time.

[dominik]

He is a great power hitter, but he has a huge, very long roundhouse swing.

He also struggeled last year in the POs. I think it's a consequence of the better PO pitchers taking advantage of his long swing. Those pitchers are so good that the know what pitch howard can hit with his swing and which not.

[scorekeeper]

Originally Posted by dominik

He is a great power hitter, but he has a huge, very long roundhouse swing.

He also struggeled last year in the POs. I think it's a consequence of the better PO pitchers taking advantage of his long swing. Those pitchers are so good that the know what pitch howard can hit with his swing and which not.

Here’s an article on him from 10/19. I can’t believe that the same Ryan Howard people are now running down so badly.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news...nest-hour.html

[dominik]

Originally Posted by scorekeeper

Here’s an article on him from 10/19. I can’t believe that the same Ryan Howard people are now running down so badly.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news...nest-hour.html

He hit .269 last post season.

[DunninLA]

Yes, I also noticed his swing is loopy. and that his timing is off. I haven't really studied his swing frame by frame but something is just slow about it.

In contrast, Utley's swing is so FAST. He seems to hold his hands/shoulders back under tremendous tension until the last second as his hips have already opened a lot, then the shoulders and the bat come whipping around the corner very quickly.

[dominik]

I don't think Ryans swing is slow. He generates tremendous batspeed and absolutely kills the ball everytime he gets a good piece of it.

It's just very long and loopy.

[scorekeeper]

Originally Posted by dominik

He hit .269 last post season.

And if he was hitting .300, someone would say, “Yeah, but his BARISP is only .150”.

Funny thing about baseball. No matter what you’ve done, fickle fans always want to know what you’ve done lately. To me, he certainly could have done better during the WS, but I sure don’t care. Without him during the regular season, I don’t think they make the playoffs. And without him in the playoffs, I don’t know if they’d be playing in the WS.

I don’t particularly like the guy because he K’s way to much for my liking, but there’s little doubt he’s earned his $$$$$$ this season. And what stinks is, if he hits a game winning bomb in either game 6 or 7, he’ll be everyone’s hero, and maybe even the WS MVP.

[dominik]

No need to pick a fight. I didn|t argue that Ryan is a great hitter, but he is somewhat limited in the same way that for example ichiro is limited.

But they are still world class because they are that outstanding in their game.

Recognizing this is in no way disrispectfull against ryan, shaq oneal was also limited but one of the most dominant players ever. We should get back to ryans swing, maybe one could put up a clip from him.

[PhilliesPhan22]

He's not getting strikes to hit and he is swinging at balls out of the zone.

[scorekeeper]

Originally Posted by dominik

No need to pick a fight. I didn|t argue that Ryan is a great hitter, but he is somewhat limited in the same way that for example ichiro is limited.

But they are still world class because they are that outstanding in their game.

Recognizing this is in no way disrispectfull against ryan, shaq oneal was also limited but one of the most dominant players ever. We should get back to ryans swing, maybe one could put up a clip from him.

I wasn’t trying to pick a fight. I was just pointing out that it doesn’t matter what any professional player does. Someone will always be ready to pounce and tear them apart, and there will always be outers that defend them.

Which swing do you want posted? A crappy one or a good one? I suspect you want a crappy one so you and others can point to it and claim to have found the reason for his failure to hit well.

[scorekeeper]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan22

He's not getting strikes to hit and he is swinging at balls out of the zone.

That’ll be a fairly easy theory to test, if the PITCHf/x data for the post season hits the database. Here’s a graph of Jiminez for the Rockies against Howard. Hopefully, later on we’ll be able to see Sabathia, Petite, and the rest of the Yankees against him too.

http://baseball.bornbybits.com/php/c...brz=-100&l_b=0

[dominik]

Originally Posted by scorekeeper

I wasn’t trying to pick a fight. I was just pointing out that it doesn’t matter what any professional player does. Someone will always be ready to pounce and tear them apart, and there will always be outers that defend them.

Which swing do you want posted? A crappy one or a good one? I suspect you want a crappy one so you and others can point to it and claim to have found the reason for his failure to hit well.

Of course a good one.

[scorekeeper]

Originally Posted by dominik

Of course a good one.

What would a good swing show anyone? I thought you wanted to try to figure out what his problem was. But actually its immaterial because the only way to really tell squat, is to look at them all, along with the corresponding information about pitch type, location, count, etc..

[scorekeeper]

As you can see by reading the article, Ryan Howard is in good shape compared to Teixeira. http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...+Baseball+News

But when I read it, I got flashbacks to Bull Durham, where Crash says:

You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: "We gotta play it one day at a time."


Surely, if they ever remake it, this will be the cliché Crash tells Luke to write down.

"They're really pitching him really tough," catcher Jorge Posada said before the team worked out at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. "They are pitching him tough, tight on him, and then throwing breaking balls and off-speed stuff away."

Good Clancy on Rollerskates! Are we supposed to believe the AL pitchers have been throwing cockshots to Teixeira all these years? No wonder the guy produces like he does!

And if not that one, sure this one!

"Unfortunately during this playoffs it's been tough to get into a rhythm," Teixeira said. "When you're in a rhythm during the season, you're going to fail seven out of 10 times. When you're not in a rhythm, you're going to fail a lot more than that and unfortunately for me, that's kind of been the case right now."

I guess when you get $22.5M guaranteed for 8 years, your self definition of what a “LOT” means can get a bit skewed. Right now in the postseason he’s failing exactly 1.2 more times out of 10. Doesn’t seem like a LOT to me, but then again, I’m not signing his checks.

Do ya suppose Mark's gettin' tutored by Yogi?

[dominik]

Ok got it no need to discuss howards swing.

[2zwudz]

My OPINION is he is a very good regular season hitter but the deeper they went into the series I think the pitching got alot better than during the season. I think the better hitters tend to surface to the top when facing better pitching and the average hitters tend to struggle more. Just my OPINION.

Mark

[songtitle]

He's got all winter to work on it now.

Ryan, call me.

[korp]

Originally Posted by RKKay

I don't think that's unusual for him. As he usually challenge for the league lead in strikeouts annually?

Yup ... I would expect 1/8 from him with a lot of those hits being extra bases.

[scorekeeper]

Originally Posted by 2zwudz

My OPINION is he is a very good regular season hitter but the deeper they went into the series I think the pitching got alot better than during the season. I think the better hitters tend to surface to the top when facing better pitching and the average hitters tend to struggle more. Just my OPINION.

Why do you think the pitching suddenly gets better in the playoffs than it does during the regular season? This isn’t like youth tournaments or the LLWS, CRWS, or MLB AS game that are made up of all stars! The pitchers on either WS staff range from some of the best in the league to some of the worst.

If you look closely, I think you’ll see that there are guys on those lists that prove that either your OPINION is in error, or that person was really dogging it during the regular season where the pitching wasn’t as good. A perfect example is Ricky Ledee . A career .243 hitter bats .600 in the ’93 WS. You say that proves he's a "BETTER HITTER" because of that. To me, that proves the theory that even a blind pig …

http://www.baseball-reference.com/po..._batting.shtml

[2zwudz]

Scorekeeper

Why do I think the pitching gets better.....because it does. Thats a big reason why THAT team is there, because of their good pitching. There are other reasons but we don't see any team win a World Series that doesn't have good pitching. Good pitching means hitters struggle more than usual and Ryan Howard struggled with good pitching. My OPINION does differ from yours as far as comparing big league pitching to LLWS, CRWS or MLB AS games. I feel at all levels its very similar...good pitching gives you a better chance to win ball games and better hitters will overcome good pitching.

Mark