Rockinghorse wrote:Curious how his miss rate on pitches IN the strike zone compares to others. Looks kinda bad

Ryan Howard 1b
5 years/$125M (2012-16), plus 2017 option

5 years/$125M (2012-16), plus 2017 option
signed extension with Philadelphia 4/26/10
12:$20M, 13:$20M, 14:$25M, 15:$25M, 16:$25M, 17:$23M club option ($10M buyout)
award bonuses: $25,000 for All Star. $0.1M for MVP ($75,000 for second in vote, $50,000 for third)
perks: right to purchase 8 season tickets for Philadelphia home games
most favored nation no-trade protection (excluding contracts later acquired through trade or assignment) (may block deals to 21 clubs each season, matching no-trade protection extended to Cliff Lee)

14:$25M, 15:$25M, 16:$25M, 17:$23M club option ($10M buyout)

14:$25M, 15:$25M, 16:$25M, 17:$23M club option ($10M buyout)

14:$25M, 15:$25M, 16:$25M, 17:$23M club option ($10M buyout)

14:$25M, 15:$25M, 16:$25M, 17:$23M club option ($10M buyout)

JFLNYC wrote:So other than not being able to hit anything high or anything low, he's good to go.

On another note:

These aren't Charlie and Ruben's Phillies anymore

bleh wrote:35% miss when it's down and in, why doesn't he just drop the bat head on it?

rolex wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:So other than not being able to hit anything high or anything low, he's good to go.

On another note:

These aren't Charlie and Ruben's Phillies anymore

Decent article but it didn't acknowledge one important thing: Charlie was not Amaro's hire. Amaro came on board after Manuel and Gillick had set the tone for the team with the power hitters. Then, for some reason, as stated in the column, (PEDs?) the Phillies changed to a pitching first team. IMO, Amaro has wanted to change the direction of the team but was unable to do it because of contracts already handed out, and Manuel's preference for hard hitting players, usually veterans. With some of those contracts coming off of the books so that resources can be reallocated, we'll see what Amaro can do.
The Tigers seem to be in the place where the Phillies were two seasons ago with their wanting to go with arms over bats. Hence the trade of Fielder in order to free up the money to re-sign Scherzer. It looks like that is the formula for success in this era of non PED baseball. Now if the Tigers had a BP......

SK790 wrote:

rolex wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:So other than not being able to hit anything high or anything low, he's good to go.

On another note:

These aren't Charlie and Ruben's Phillies anymore

Decent article but it didn't acknowledge one important thing: Charlie was not Amaro's hire. Amaro came on board after Manuel and Gillick had set the tone for the team with the power hitters. Then, for some reason, as stated in the column, (PEDs?) the Phillies changed to a pitching first team. IMO, Amaro has wanted to change the direction of the team but was unable to do it because of contracts already handed out, and Manuel's preference for hard hitting players, usually veterans. With some of those contracts coming off of the books so that resources can be reallocated, we'll see what Amaro can do.
The Tigers seem to be in the place where the Phillies were two seasons ago with their wanting to go with arms over bats. Hence the trade of Fielder in order to free up the money to re-sign Scherzer. It looks like that is the formula for success in this era of non PED baseball. Now if the Tigers had a BP......

they went after pitching aggressively because they didn't expect the hitting to absolutely fall off a cliff. it's why most of us are frustrated that they doubled down on pitching when it looked like it was going to be real good for years to come. i don't see how anyone can really fault them for the overall strategy. their error was giving massive contracts to old, declining players, plain and simple.

Trent Steele wrote:

bleh wrote:

Rockinghorse wrote:Curious how his miss rate on pitches IN the strike zone compares to others. Looks kinda bad

78% Z-contact. 38th out of 42 first basemen with 300 PA last year:
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?p ... sort=7%2cd

Of those 42 only Chris Carter was worst at out of zone contact.

SK790 wrote:the point is that i keep hearing about how "doubling down" on pitching was a mistake and we should have got batttttttttsssss, but all i heard from 2005-2008 is that we didn't have the pitching to win in the playoffs. there is no hard and fast rule on how to build a good baseball team.

D2S wrote:

Trent Steele wrote:

I'd like to see a whiff/per swing/per pitch.

I don't care if Howard wiffs on 25 of 25 pitches somewhere out of the zone if he sees 100 pitches there and doesn't swing at 75 of them.

rolex wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:So other than not being able to hit anything high or anything low, he's good to go.

On another note:

These aren't Charlie and Ruben's Phillies anymore

Decent article but it didn't acknowledge one important thing: Charlie was not Amaro's hire. Amaro came on board after Manuel and Gillick had set the tone for the team with the power hitters. Then, for some reason, as stated in the column, (PEDs?) the Phillies changed to a pitching first team. IMO, Amaro has wanted to change the direction of the team but was unable to do it because of contracts already handed out, and Manuel's preference for hard hitting players, usually veterans. With some of those contracts coming off of the books so that resources can be reallocated, we'll see what Amaro can do.
The Tigers seem to be in the place where the Phillies were two seasons ago with their wanting to go with arms over bats. Hence the trade of Fielder in order to free up the money to re-sign Scherzer. It looks like that is the formula for success in this era of non PED baseball. Now if the Tigers had a BP......

Steaks wrote:Baseball sources say the Phillies have been very active in proposing trades. Hamels is an untouchable. So is Lee, but check back in July.

SK790 wrote:the point is that i keep hearing about how "doubling down" on pitching was a mistake and we should have got batttttttttsssss, but all i heard from 2005-2008 is that we didn't have the pitching to win in the playoffs. there is no hard and fast rule on how to build a good baseball team.