August 11, 2005
Thome's Season Over
Jim Thome's elbow needs surgery, and he'll miss the rest of the season. Ryan Howard isn't a superstar at first base for the Phillies, but he's an improvement over the injured slugger who lost his power.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:38 AM
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Injuries
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re: ryan howard
hey, he's only a rookie, but last night in LA, with the game tied 5-5 in the 9th, with the bases loaded, Howard blasted a grand slam home run off a first pitch fastball deep into the right field stands in the la night to dust the Dodgers 9-5.
On the night? 5 RBIs and a grand slam.
Howard is now slugging very close to .500 with 8 HRs and an .850 OPS and 27 RBIs in just 150 ABs.
That translates into @ 32 HRs and over 100 RBS in more than 600 ABs, so that's outstanding 1B production.
Also, he's a 25 year old rookie, so he has room to peak out at ages 26, 27 and 28.
If it were my ball club, I'd dump the declinding Thome who's 35 and keep the ascending Howard.
By the way, the Phillies are now just 1 1/2 games out of the wild card and now have four proven sluggers, Chase Utley (also effectively a rookie), Ryan Howard, Bobby Abreu and the rescuscitated Pat Burrell, all of whome except for Abreu are under the age of 30. That gives the Phillies a core of sluggers that is young, mostly lefthanded and with years to go under their belt and only room to improve.
Suddenly this team is young and has time on its side, to quote the Stones.
--Arthur John Kyriazis