Bill McNeal wrote:9.5 out of the WC and an elimination number of 21.
Owners of the longest current winning streak in the majors at 4
And 7-3 in their last 10, also currently the best in the majors (tied with a few others)

Bill McNeal wrote:It's all lining up for Franco to come up and lead us to the promised land

Bill McNeal wrote:It's all lining up for Franco to come up and lead us to the promised land

The front office's hope, according to sources familiar with the situation, is that an American League team will take a chance on Howard if he reaches plateaus such as 25 home runs and 100 RBIs. (He is on pace for 23 homers with 99 RBIs.) Howard, who turns 35 in November, is owed $60 million after this season. While the team held internal discussions about releasing Howard, according to CSNPhilly.com, that is viewed as a last resort. Ownership is not keen on the stigma of such a move.
Both general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. and Sandberg have denied that the front office exerted pressure to keep Howard in the lineup. But team executives believe a benched Howard cripples their chances of flipping him this winter.

Howard, at the time of his three-game benching, was batting .224 with a .682 OPS. He had a .236 average and .732 OPS in 125 plate appearances since then, before Friday. His season slugging percentage has improved from .377 to .382, still an 83-point drop from last season. That .382 mark ranked 109th out of 151 qualified hitters and 18th out of 20 first basemen.



....

A player who bats cleanup as frequently as Howard is bound to accumulate RBIs. Howard is on pace for 608 plate appearances from the No. 4 spot. There were 316 batters from 1914 to 2013 with at least 600 plate appearances in one season as a cleanup hitter, and 273 of them (86.4 percent) collected 90 or more RBIs.

Just two of those 316 players had a lower OPS as a cleanup hitter than Howard's current .696.

Squire wrote:It's cute that the Phillies think there is a single Other team out there that still uses the 1970's metrics that they use to evaluate players. Or maybe tragic.

Monkeyboy wrote:well, if they are willing to pay 57 million of the remaining 60 he's owed, maybe someone would take him as a guy off the bench.

It's possible.

Maybe.

I'd like to see him go if for no other reason than I don't want the fans to completely turn on him. It's not his fault they were willing to give him all that money and I really doubt he thought, "I'm going to suck really bad, so I hope I can sign a huge contract before it happens." He also has a reputation as a good teammate and he's not a lazy ass that let himself go.

ReadingPhilly wrote:him sucking at baseball is on him though.

ReadingPhilly wrote:him sucking at baseball is on him though.