GaryMrMets
06-28-2004, 02:50 PM
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/9029284.htm
Posted on Mon, Jun. 28, 2004
Bill Conlin | First, Phils need a spot for Howard
THE PITCH was riding away from him toward the outer half. The big, lefthanded slugger waited on it, then, trusting his massive hands the way a concert pianist trusts his, he swung the bat.
The sound of bat on ball was that pure pistol-shot crack where even a blind man knows a baseball has been struck hard on the sweet spot by an uncommonly strong athlete. The baseball
exploded toward left-center, appearing to the centerfielder like a high, sliced fly as he broke confidently back and to his right. Then he stopped and shrugged at the leftfielder. The baseball kept climbing and carrying and easily left the ballpark.
It was the kind of launch Jim Thome has us accustomed to seeing on a basis so regular this season that he easily should eclipse Mike Schmidt's club-record 48 homers.
But on the same Saturday that Thome went opposite-field into the back rows atop Fenway Park's Green Monster for No. 26, the 6-4 giant of a lefthanded hitter whose swing looked so much like that of the varsity first baseman was Ryan Howard. Howard plays first base for the Reading Phillies. He is an understudy about to receive more than
casual notice.
That homer was No. 25 for the 24-year-old slugger who last season missed the Florida State League Triple Crown by seven RBI while playing for a weak Clearwater club that put few runners on base in front of him.
In his next at-bat against the same Harrisburg Senators lefthander, Howard bombed No. 26. And he won the game, 5-4, with a 10th-inning double, driving in all the runs for his team and raising his minor league-leading RBI total to 71. The day ended with Howard and Thome tied for the most homers by anybody playing organized baseball.
But wait...This gets better. In a 12-11, extra-innings loss to Harrisburg yesterday, Howard flogged Nos. 27 and 28, driving in five more runs, raising his average to .307 and his RBI total to a giddy 76. With nearly half a season to go, he is only five homers behind Greg Luzinski's Reading Phillies record of 33, just six behind the franchise record and 13 shy of the Eastern League record of 41 shared by Cherry Hill's Rick Lancellotti, the real-life Crash Davis.
It was Howard's third two-homer show in his last four games. He left the Expos' Harrisburg affiliate in ruins with the 14-RBI destructo.
Now, the tough part...
What are Ed Wade, Mike
Arbuckle and the Phillies'
college of applied sockology
planning to do about what is
certain to become a huge dilemma? Suddenly, they have the
hottest slugging prospect in
major league baseball on their hands. I don't think a guy on pace to hit 53 homers with an insane RBI total can be dismissed any longer as the pot-sweetener in whatever deal - if any - Wade makes to fill his club's aching needs - all of which were on painful display in Fenway yesterday. Nor is there a lot of patience time to park Howard in the
minors. He turns 25 in the fall.
The rub is that he's a first baseman, period, same as Beau James, who is pounding toward his finest season. Ryan says he played some outfield in high school, but even if he did, so what? Wade has his ducks in a row, or so he says, for years down the line. Everybody playing a key position appears to be as permanent as the figures in Madame Tussauds museum of wax notables.
You know I'm always happy to help Ed and his merry men, and they are always extremely appreciative when I do so. So I'll pass along what Pat Burrell told me during his rookie year after it
became obvious Scott Rolen was going to force a trade. I asked bench coach Gary Varsho, who managed Pat in the minors, if he thought the slugger could play third base, where he was an All-American during his fabulous University of Miami career. Varsho replied, "I think he could. He's got good hands and a powerful arm.'' Burrell was hardly non-committal. "If they asked me,'' he said, "I'd switch back to third. That was my position all through college, but obviously with Scott here, they had to find another
position for me.''
You might have noticed that Burrell has become a first-class
major league leftfielder, sure of glove and powerful of arm, with an accuracy that fits the profile of a third baseman.
A power bat is a terrible thing to waste and this organization has signed and developed only four hitters with realized 35-to-40 home-run potential in the past half century. The short list begins with Richie Allen and ends with Burrell. Luzinski and Mike Schmidt were in between. The current ownership group has produced only Burrell, who hit 37 homers in 2002 and might or might not be recovering from last season's epic meltdown. He has had a lousy June.
This ownership has established a well-earned reputation during its 22 seasons - 15 of them losing - for holding forks when it is raining soup. Best players in the world coming out of the Caribbean? Good, let's shut down our Latin scouting. Moving into an upholstered phone booth? Good, let's sign as many singles-hitting centerfielders as we can. Need to add a .500
pitcher for $20 million? Good, let's use our blue-chip catching prospect to get him.
While they decide what to do about this 6-4 slugger who has been visibly improved by Charlie Manuel, Wade's hitting coach without portfolio, I hope somebody from the old regime -
Dallas Green is the last man standing - reminds them Luzinski was signed as a first baseman, that Bob Boone was a rangeless third baseman, that Keith Moreland was a slow third baseman/outfielder at Texas.
Nothing in baseball is cut in stone. There should be no absolutes when word comes crackling out of the Eastern League that Ryan Howard's second home run Thursday night went 480 feet and he is leaving a tape-measure trail wherever he plays. Somebody has to start work on a game plan to make Ryan Howard happen here when it is his time. His minor league plate appearances stir the same buzz and heightened sense of anticipation as those of Jim Thome.
Imagine the electricity in the Money Pit the first time Abreu, Thome, Burrell and Ryan Howard go back-to-back-to-back-to back...
Posted on Mon, Jun. 28, 2004
Bill Conlin | First, Phils need a spot for Howard
THE PITCH was riding away from him toward the outer half. The big, lefthanded slugger waited on it, then, trusting his massive hands the way a concert pianist trusts his, he swung the bat.
The sound of bat on ball was that pure pistol-shot crack where even a blind man knows a baseball has been struck hard on the sweet spot by an uncommonly strong athlete. The baseball
exploded toward left-center, appearing to the centerfielder like a high, sliced fly as he broke confidently back and to his right. Then he stopped and shrugged at the leftfielder. The baseball kept climbing and carrying and easily left the ballpark.
It was the kind of launch Jim Thome has us accustomed to seeing on a basis so regular this season that he easily should eclipse Mike Schmidt's club-record 48 homers.
But on the same Saturday that Thome went opposite-field into the back rows atop Fenway Park's Green Monster for No. 26, the 6-4 giant of a lefthanded hitter whose swing looked so much like that of the varsity first baseman was Ryan Howard. Howard plays first base for the Reading Phillies. He is an understudy about to receive more than
casual notice.
That homer was No. 25 for the 24-year-old slugger who last season missed the Florida State League Triple Crown by seven RBI while playing for a weak Clearwater club that put few runners on base in front of him.
In his next at-bat against the same Harrisburg Senators lefthander, Howard bombed No. 26. And he won the game, 5-4, with a 10th-inning double, driving in all the runs for his team and raising his minor league-leading RBI total to 71. The day ended with Howard and Thome tied for the most homers by anybody playing organized baseball.
But wait...This gets better. In a 12-11, extra-innings loss to Harrisburg yesterday, Howard flogged Nos. 27 and 28, driving in five more runs, raising his average to .307 and his RBI total to a giddy 76. With nearly half a season to go, he is only five homers behind Greg Luzinski's Reading Phillies record of 33, just six behind the franchise record and 13 shy of the Eastern League record of 41 shared by Cherry Hill's Rick Lancellotti, the real-life Crash Davis.
It was Howard's third two-homer show in his last four games. He left the Expos' Harrisburg affiliate in ruins with the 14-RBI destructo.
Now, the tough part...
What are Ed Wade, Mike
Arbuckle and the Phillies'
college of applied sockology
planning to do about what is
certain to become a huge dilemma? Suddenly, they have the
hottest slugging prospect in
major league baseball on their hands. I don't think a guy on pace to hit 53 homers with an insane RBI total can be dismissed any longer as the pot-sweetener in whatever deal - if any - Wade makes to fill his club's aching needs - all of which were on painful display in Fenway yesterday. Nor is there a lot of patience time to park Howard in the
minors. He turns 25 in the fall.
The rub is that he's a first baseman, period, same as Beau James, who is pounding toward his finest season. Ryan says he played some outfield in high school, but even if he did, so what? Wade has his ducks in a row, or so he says, for years down the line. Everybody playing a key position appears to be as permanent as the figures in Madame Tussauds museum of wax notables.
You know I'm always happy to help Ed and his merry men, and they are always extremely appreciative when I do so. So I'll pass along what Pat Burrell told me during his rookie year after it
became obvious Scott Rolen was going to force a trade. I asked bench coach Gary Varsho, who managed Pat in the minors, if he thought the slugger could play third base, where he was an All-American during his fabulous University of Miami career. Varsho replied, "I think he could. He's got good hands and a powerful arm.'' Burrell was hardly non-committal. "If they asked me,'' he said, "I'd switch back to third. That was my position all through college, but obviously with Scott here, they had to find another
position for me.''
You might have noticed that Burrell has become a first-class
major league leftfielder, sure of glove and powerful of arm, with an accuracy that fits the profile of a third baseman.
A power bat is a terrible thing to waste and this organization has signed and developed only four hitters with realized 35-to-40 home-run potential in the past half century. The short list begins with Richie Allen and ends with Burrell. Luzinski and Mike Schmidt were in between. The current ownership group has produced only Burrell, who hit 37 homers in 2002 and might or might not be recovering from last season's epic meltdown. He has had a lousy June.
This ownership has established a well-earned reputation during its 22 seasons - 15 of them losing - for holding forks when it is raining soup. Best players in the world coming out of the Caribbean? Good, let's shut down our Latin scouting. Moving into an upholstered phone booth? Good, let's sign as many singles-hitting centerfielders as we can. Need to add a .500
pitcher for $20 million? Good, let's use our blue-chip catching prospect to get him.
While they decide what to do about this 6-4 slugger who has been visibly improved by Charlie Manuel, Wade's hitting coach without portfolio, I hope somebody from the old regime -
Dallas Green is the last man standing - reminds them Luzinski was signed as a first baseman, that Bob Boone was a rangeless third baseman, that Keith Moreland was a slow third baseman/outfielder at Texas.
Nothing in baseball is cut in stone. There should be no absolutes when word comes crackling out of the Eastern League that Ryan Howard's second home run Thursday night went 480 feet and he is leaving a tape-measure trail wherever he plays. Somebody has to start work on a game plan to make Ryan Howard happen here when it is his time. His minor league plate appearances stir the same buzz and heightened sense of anticipation as those of Jim Thome.
Imagine the electricity in the Money Pit the first time Abreu, Thome, Burrell and Ryan Howard go back-to-back-to-back-to back...