“Hopefully there’s no riots taking place back in Philly.”
That is the sentence that Ryan Howard uttered after the April 26th 2010 contract extension that would pay Ryan Howard $125M for his services through 2017. Almost to the day since signing that contract, Howard hasn’t been the same player that we’ve seen as the Phillies rose into one of their best ever runs in the history of the team.
A lot of the good things that went into the Phillies making the decision to keep Howard essentially for the rest of his career, are now just a distant memory. Howard would start to get hot as the summer started to take shape. So far, that hasn’t happened this year with Ryan Howard or in previous years, and it’s really been a disappointing year all around from him.
Is Ryan Howard done as a baseball player? No, he’s not done, but something has happened to this slugger and you can see it right on his face when he swings lazily at some change-ups and just returns to the bench. He’s now in a 0-20 slump, and just appears that he’s lost his zest for the game sometimes.
Howard appeared to be destined towards greatness, but that path has been detoured now, as what we’ve been seeing lately may be the start of a long time of ‘hard times’ not only for Ryan Howard as a player, but the Phillies in general. Howard is the guy the Phillies expect to be trailblazing the Phillies to greatness, and so far he has led them into a deep muddy mire.
Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | 24 | PHI | NL | 19 | 39 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
2005 | 25 | PHI | NL | 88 | 312 | 52 | 90 | 17 | 2 | 22 | 63 |
2006 | 26 | PHI | NL | 159 | 581 | 104 | 182 | 25 | 1 | 58 | 149 |
2007 | 27 | PHI | NL | 144 | 529 | 94 | 142 | 26 | 0 | 47 | 136 |
2008 | 28 | PHI | NL | 162 | 610 | 105 | 153 | 26 | 4 | 48 | 146 |
2009 | 29 | PHI | NL | 160 | 616 | 105 | 172 | 37 | 4 | 45 | 141 |
2010 | 30 | PHI | NL | 143 | 550 | 87 | 152 | 23 | 5 | 31 | 108 |
2011 | 31 | PHI | NL | 152 | 557 | 81 | 141 | 30 | 1 | 33 | 116 |
2012 | 32 | PHI | NL | 71 | 260 | 28 | 57 | 11 | 0 | 14 | 56 |
2013 | 33 | PHI | NL | 76 | 273 | 31 | 72 | 20 | 2 | 10 | 41 |
10 Yrs | 1174 | 4327 | 692 | 1172 | 220 | 19 | 310 | 961 | |||
162 Game Avg. | 162 | 597 | 95 | 162 | 30 | 3 | 43 | 133 |