Party Rock Was In The House Last Night; Unfortunately, So Was Cole Hamels

You can file this under the "You Can't Make This Up If You Tried" Department. Cole Hamels, often ridiculed for various reasons, decided to help his good pal Shane Victorino and the Shane Victorino Foundation Fashion Show last night. Now charity is all well and good, but when it leads to this, I, uh, you know forget it. This is just too damn funny. It's like Cole Hamels is trolling us now.



Cole Hamels has about as much fluidity as solid concrete.

Also, is it just me or do Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard's moves remind you of the infamous Big Dick Johnson? Okay, maybe not. At least Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard kept all their clothes on. If only we could say the same about Hunter Pence and Kyle Nakazawa of the Philadelphia Union.

Further Dispelling The Myth That Ryan Howard Is The Phillies NLCS "Goat"

(Originally posted at The Good Phight)

I understand this post is going to be preaching to the choir for the most part, but the insanity of some reactions by both fans and media have compelled me to break down Ryan Howard's post-season performance. He is not the reason they lost, and if you do think he is, then you have not seen any of the numbers of the post-season. People will be quick to point to RBIs as the reason Howard is the goat, because, what kind of clean-up hitter has 0 RBIs in a 6 game post-season series? But if you know anything about RBIs, you know that it is a meaningless stat in judging whether or not a player is good or not.

If one is going to determine how good a player performed in a post-season series, the last place you should look is RBIs (something that will be painfully obvious in a short while, if it isn't already). Let's look at the important offensive percentages for each the Phillies in the 2010 NLCS, excluding pitchers. Important: I know the sample size is a 6-game series, but I am not using this to say that Player X is better/more valuable than Player Y overall. The sole purpose of this post is to dispel the myth that Ryan Howard's $125MM bat "disappeared" during the NLCS.

While not the best stat there is, batting average is at least better than RBIs, so we'll start with this one and move on to more complex and more telling metrics, such as OPS, as we go on.

Batting average in the 2010 NLCS

Ryan Howard: .318
Jimmy Rollins: .261
Placido Polanco: .250
Jayson Werth: .222
Phillies Team Average: .216
Raul Ibanez: .211
Sahne Victorino: .208
Chase Utley: .182
Ben Francisco: .167
Carlos Ruiz: .167

On-Base Percentage in the 2010 NLCS

Ryan Howard: .400
Jayson Werth: .375
Placido Polanco: .360
Chase Utley: .333
Jimmy Rollins: .320
Carlos Ruiz: .318
Phillies Team Average: .314
Sahen Victorino: .296
Raul Ibanez: .250
Ben Francisco: .167

Slugging percentage

Jayson Werth: .611
Ryan Howard: .500
Placido Polanco: .350
Carlos Ruiz: .333
Phillies Team Average: .321
Jimmy Rollins: .304
Raul Ibanez: .263
Shane Victorino: .250
Chase Utley: .227
Ben Francisco: .167

OPS

Jayson Werth: .986
Ryan Howard: .900
Placido Polanco: .710
Carlos Ruiz: .652
Phillies Team Average: .635
Jimmy Rollins: .624
Chase Ultey: .561
Shane Victorino: .546
Raul Ibanez: .513
Ben Francisco: .333

The fact that people want to lay the blame on someone who led the team in on-base percentage, was 2nd in number of bases/AB, and 2nd in OPS is completely senseless. People want to find a goat, and because Ryan Howard got the big contract extension, he is the easy target when he is not hitting grand slams in every at-bat. Now, these more telling numbers aside, people will still point to the RBIs as to why Howard was not "clutch," and why he "lost his bat in the playoffs," and on and so forth. So why the discrepancy? Here is where it comes from.

Number of doubles hit in the NLCS

Ryan Howard: 4
Placido Polanco: 2
Raul Ibanez: 1
Shane Victorino: 1
Chase Utley: 1
Jimmy Rollins: 1
Jayson Werth: 1
Everyone else: 0

Ryan Howard hit 4 doubles in the NLCS and still has 0 RBIs. He was mashing the ball with the best of them in this series and yet he still had 0 RBIs. The factors that influenced that are all things beyond Ryan Howard's control. He has no control over the number of people on base and where they are located each AB. Nor does he have any control over whether or not any runner on 1st can score with the double. He can't just put a turbo boost into Jimmy Rollins to make him run like The Flash so he can beat the throw from Edgar Renteria to give the Phillies more runs in Game 6 of the NLCS. Ryan Howard had more hits than any Phillie in the NLCS. The fact Howard had 0 RBIs is a matter of circumstance and luck, not a reflection of "how bad he is," "the disappearance of his bat," or his "lack of clutchness," never mind that a hitter being "clutch" is a ridiculous and absurd notion to begin with.

If you want to be mad and blame someone? Blame the team as a whole. You win as a team and you lose as a team, and whether people like it or not, the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies lost as a team in the NLCS. As much as people in the media and some fans like to have a goat they can be angry at, there is no goat here to be had, and that goat damn sure is not the guy who was one of team's best players in the NLCS. A .635 OPS will do a team in, not the guy leading the team in hits, doubles, batting average, on-base percentage, and 2nd on the team in slugging percentage and OPS.

Roy Halladay Is Awesome

There are several reasons why I like Roy Halladay other than the fact that he is an amazing pitcher. For starters, he is as hard a worker as any pitcher out there. Also, he is a humble guy and a class act the likes of which you do not find every day in major American professional sports. Case and point, Roy Halladay has decided to thank all of his teammates who helped make the perfect game on May 29, 2010 possible. From the Twitter account of Delaware County Times beat writer Ryan Lawrence.

That is simply awesome. I just hope he remembers to send one to Juan Castro.....

Update: Per Ryan Lawrence, Juan Castro will get a watch, as will essentially everyone was a part of the Phillies team that day, whether they physically played in the game or not (i.e. bullpen pitchers and bench players are getting watches as well). Also, per Matt Gelb, Milt Thompson is receiving one as well. For a little more about Roy's presenting of the watches, here is an article from Gelb's blog, The Phillies Zone

The righthander purchased around 60 Baume & Mercier watches to commemorate his perfect game May 29. He gave out the watches as gifts to everyone in the clubhouse — all of the players who were on the active roster then, the entire coaching staff, all clubhouse personnel (including bat boy Rob DiClementi), training and video staff as well as public relations officials.

The watches were enclosed in brown boxes with an inscription on the front: “We did it together. Thanks, Roy Halladay.”

“Unbelievable,” Raul Ibanez said as he opened his. “Wow.”

It’s not unusual for a pitcher to reward his teammates for a milestone like a perfect game. Halladay went beyond that.

Each watch was engraved on the back with the date of the game and the linescore. Every watch was personalized, the person’s name engraved on the back of their watch.

“That’s awesome,” Ryan Howard said, as he inspected the thick instruction manual that came with every watch.

[...]

A little more than an hour before first pitch, the players sat at their lockers, finagling with the watches. Halladay, from the corner of the room, watched and smiled.

Brad Lidge shook his head in disbelief. He wasn’t even in Miami the night Halladay threw the perfect game. Instead, he was pitching in a rehab game 100 miles north in Port St. Luice, Fla.

Like I said above, simply awesome.

And You Thought The Winter Classic At Fenway Was The Only Time Baseball Would Meet Hockey This Year

To all those that thought the Philadelphia Flyers were playing the Bruins in the Conference Semifinals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, all I can says is what on earth were you thinking? Clearly you did not get the memo. Meet the Bruins real opponent per everybody's favorite prop betting site, bodog.com.

Roy Halladay will be manning the pipes, while Chase Utley and Jayson Werth lead a dangerous and powerful offensive attack with Ryan Howard the power forward getting in front of the net and snapping goals in from the point left and right. Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton are flatout beasts in the defensive zone.

The Bruins ain't got nothing on these Phillies. They've already won a World Series and now they are bound and determined to win the Stanley Cup!

Wait....what? This is just a bodog typo????? You mean Howard, Utley, Rollins, and Hamels are not seeking to add a Stanley Cup in addition to their World Series rings? Oh damn.

(Hat tip to Broad Street Hockey)

BREAKING: Phillies extend Ryan Howard!

Okay, so maybe it's not so breaking now, but thus is what happens when you decide to take a nap.

Anyways, as you can tell by the headline, the Philadelphia Phillies extended Ryan Howard! It's a 5-year/$125 million extension with both positives and negatives.

First the positives, RYAN HOWARD IS GOING TO BE A PHILLIE UNTIL AT LEAST 2017 UNLESS SOMETHING HAPPENS AND HE GETS TRADED IN 2016 SO THEY CAN GET VALUE FOR HIM!

Not to mention that he is Ryan Howard, his numbers have still been on the improving side each year, and oh yeah, he's Ryan motherfuckin' Howard, bitches. Howard has been a force since joining the Phillies and now he can only be a force for the Phillies and never a force against the Phillies. Yes folks, that's a good thing. Being on the other side of a former player kicking the complete crud out of you sucks beyond belief. Trust me, I'm a Philly fan. Ruslan Fedotanko alone has provided me more pain than most ex-players do to their former teams in a whole lifetime.

Now I love Ryan Howard, but if you live in a fantasy world where all things Ryan Howard and Phillies are great and Ruben Amaro, Jr. is a genius who can do no wrong and extending Ryan Howard is the best thing ever, I suggest you stop reading this now because what I am about to say may not make you very happy.

There are reasons to have reservations about this.

Ryan Howard is a physical specimen, I am not concerned about how he will age in 7 years. But I am concerned about the future of the rest of the Phillies.

Will the Phillies still be able to extend Werth and Rollins? MLB is filled with power first basemen who can hit 25 to 30 HRs each year. Sure Howard is in the upper-tier of those and his defense is constantly improving, but the Werths of the league and the Rollinss of the league are much more difficult to find. While Domonic Brown is projected to be a complete beast coming out of the minors, there is no guarantee with minor league prospects. Why make Howard the priority and why do it now when there are rarer, more valuable players on this team than Ryan Howard.

Having Howard is great and I love the guy (though truth be told, I'd do that Howard for Pujols trade in a heartbeat), but the question of why now sure comes into play. He's in the middle of a slump no less and it is a random day at the start of the 2010 baseball season. Why is this happening now and not in the off-season? Wouldn't Amaro and the Phillies be better off seeing how Howard progressed at least through this season and maybe even into next season before re-signing him? I can tell you right now they would have. Now I am not saying he is the next David Ortiz, but really, Howard is not a free agent until 2012, waiting and still getting keeping your guy is not the worst move in the world.

And what happens when Jayson Werth goes? The right-handed hitting presence in the middle of the order disappears instantly. Truth be told, if the Phillies could only extend one, either Ryan Howard or Jayson Werth, the better person to extend would be Werth. A power hitting 1st baseman is replaceable, the awesome beard, defense, and right-handed hitting ability in a line-up of lefties is not. You ask about Domonic Brown again? Dom Brown is yet another leftie.

Is re-signing Howard a bad thing, you ask, after reading this? No, it is not. As much as I just touted Werth, the Phillies will get more if they let him walk than they will if they let Howard walk and outfield is the deepest part of the Phillies farm whereas our only real 1B prospect is 19 and playing in the Gulf Coast League. I just hope the Phillies know what they are doing in terms of Werth and/or Werth's replacement and/or righties in the middle of the line up and that Ryan Howard does not become Philadelphia's next Danny Briere in a few years.

Ryan Howard Might Want To Choose His Words More Carefully When Speaking Of His Off-Seaon Work With Barry Bonds

Oh Ryan Howard. It really is great that you worked with Barry Bonds in the off-season, it really is. Steroids aside, the guy does know the game of baseball and if ever there was a guy you can turn to advice on how to be a power hitter, Barry is the guy. But please, Ryan, do watch your words when you talk about your off-seson training with him. From Phillies beat writer Todd Zolecki's blog, The Zo Zone.

In case you missed it, Barry Bonds shared some interesting information with reporters yesterday in San Francisco:

He worked with Ryan Howard this offseason.

That's interesting for a couple reasons:

1) No matter what your opinion of Bonds is, whether or not you think his statistics are legitimate or not (most don't), he was an excellent hitter with an incredible approach at the plate.

2) Howard is hitting .357 (10 for 28) with three doubles, one triple, three home runs and 10 RBIs through six games. He has struck out just four times. Howard had struck in 32.4 percent of his at-bats in his career, but has struck out in just 14.3 percent of his at-bats this year. It's just six games, but I know Howard wants to be more selective at the plate because he will see a steady diet of breaking balls.

"We worked. We talked. We did a little bit of everything," Howard said. "I'm trying to learn from him."

Like I said, it is awesome that Howard worked with Bonds and I think his improved numbers this April in comparison to Aprils past illustrates that, but his wording makes me wonder what exactly they did together. A little bit of everything? Yeah, um, the last thing we need is Ryan Howard appearing in front of Congress.

Another Day, Another Revelation That A Phillie Is Dating A Semi-Famous Person

Damn! Them Phillies know how to score! First Cole Hamels marries Survivor's Heidi Strobel, next Kyle Kendrick proposes to current Survivor hero Stephenie LaGrossa, and now, comes the news that Ryan Howard may have a little something-something going on with a Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader. They were spotted in Miami during the week of the Super Bowl together. Her name is Krystle. Here's the rest of her bio from the man who broke the story, meech.one of The Fightins.

Krystle is a West Chester University graduate who teaches 2nd grade elementary school and jet sets to Miami on the weekends with her guy friend, Ryan Howard. According to her profile on Eagles.com, Krystle describes herself as a passionate, dedicated, loyal, and adventurous person who loves reading, and spending time with family and friends.

And her favorite superhero is Cat Woman.

That’s pretty much it.

Exciting stuff!

Wait, a minute? Let's forget the fact that all of mainstream Philly media is finally crediting Meech and The Fightins for breaking a story a and let's focus on the real story here. Cherish the sight as for this poor Eagles cheerleader, playing Oingo-Boingo with Ryan Howard in a hotel room is the only she'll ever get to be a part of a Super Bowl.

CSN Philly Has Difficulties Differentiating Between Ryan Howard's Twin Brother And Leonard Weaver

For those late to the party, on the same day that Roy Halladay officially joined the Phillies, a little thing known as the Sixers hosting LeBron, Shaq and the Cavs was occuring. And if you're the Doc, then what better way to spend your official night at the Phillie watching the Sixers completely collapse at the end when leading one of the best teams in the NBA.

However, Halladay was not the only Philly sports player at the game. There was a whole pantheon of players there including Ryan Howard (with his twin brother Corey) of the Phillies, DeSean Jackson and Leonard Weaver of the Eagles, and Mike Richards and Ray Emery of the Flyers along with semi-useless Flyers Dan Carcillo and Riley Cote.

During the game, the camera crews decided to pan to Ryan Howard and his brother, and while they correctly identified the Phillies slugger, they had a problem with or 2 with his brother.

Fail.

And before someone says something, I never said that Ryan and Corey were identical twins, they are fraternal and while there is a tad of a resemblance with Church Van, that is definitely Corey Howard. Besides, why one earth would Ryan Howard be sitting next to a recently acquainted Eagles fullback from Seattle in Leonard Weaver who he's probably never met before this year when he could be with his brother who was also at the game?

So so random.

Happy Rocktober, Everybody!!!

WOW! What a roller coaster ride of a baseball game! After leading 2-1 for a good part of the game, the Colorado Rockies rallied in the bottom of the 8th inning to take a 2-run lead and at that point, my heart just sunk. For if a Game 5 is forced, we lose Hamels for the start of the potential NLCS series, thus making our Game 1 starter of that series either Happ or Blanton or Pedro and Hamels would not be able to go until much later in the series. Oh, and yeah, if Colorado hangs on, they have all of the momentum coming back to Philly. And with a sinker ball pitcher in Aaron Cook on the mound, a style of pitching that the Phillies have struggled with this year, there is no way we win that game.

But then, the Phillies staged a rally that will be remembered for a long time in Philadelphia and perhaps an even longer time in Denver. With 2 outs and 2 strikes on him, Chase Utley did a masterful job of working the walk to join Shane Victorino on base. Then Howard came up, and faced with a 1-2 count, this happened.



That double evened things up! But wait, the Phillies were not done yet. Jayson Werth was at the plate and then the even more improable happened. Jayson Werth singled to score Ryan Howard from 2nd to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead

Into the bottom of the 9th, instead of relying on their closer, Manual got smart and did what the Rockies did not do and play the match-ups (if the Rockies were playing match-ups, they would have never let Huston Street pitch against Howard)), instead they brought in Scott Eyre to face the lefty-laden line-up of the Rockies that was due up. Only once they got to Tulo, did Brad Lidge come in and despite the fact that there were runners on base, Brad Lidge struck out Troy Tulowitzki to end the inning, game, and NLDS series.



Simply an amazing comeback. It may just be the NLDS and the Phillies may have much higher expectations than surviving a series with the Rockies, but anytime you get a playoff win like that, it is going to excite the city and excite the town and give the Phillies all of the momentum they could ask for heading into the a re-match of the 2008 NLCS in the 2009 NLCS.

The series starts on this Thursday. I will have the full and complete LCS schedule up for you all tomorrow.

For all videos at MLB.com where they are in high quality, including the Werth single that I can't find at the moment, click here.

"Wear it! Wear it! Suck on it."

From Victorino's "Fuck yeah" that caught a Fox microphone in the World Series to Matt Stairs' declaration that there is no better feeling then getting your ass hammered by guys, the Phillies always seem to find a way to make post-game headlines with vulgarities and sexual references. Well, my friends, last night was no different. Watch now as Chris Wheeler interviews Ryan Howard and Ryan does not seem to take Wheels' cue that they are on the air.



Well then! I did not need to know that Howard enjoys that kind of stuff, but good for him, nonetheless. Oh, and why couldn't that be Sarge down there instead of Wheels getting champagne in his eyes? That's the only thing that could have made that night better.

Ryan Howard implores you to wear it; suck on it (The Fightins)

Ryan Howard Is A History Making Beast

For all the critics that Howard has about his plethora of strikeouts, the guy sure can smack around a baseball and he now has the numbers and the company to prove it. Check out these numbers from compiled by CSN Philly's John Finger in his blog, Finger Food

Friday night’s pair of homers made Howard the first Phillie ever to bash 40 in four different seasons. And not only did Howard hit his 40th homer for the fourth season, but he did it with panache.

For Howard it’s 40 homers AND 120 RBIs in four straight seasons. Not only hasn’t a Phillie ever pulled off such a feat, but very few Major Leaguers have accomplished it. In fact, Howard became just the fourth member of the club on Friday night at Turner Field.

The Big Piece joins Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey Jr. and Sammy Sosa as the only sluggers in Major League Baseball history to slug 40 homers and drive in at least 120 RBIs in four straight seasons. That’s it.

But get this, only one other hitter accomplished the 40-120 trick in more than four straight seasons and that was The Sultan of Swat himself. The Babe did it in seven straight.

Here’s the amazing stat for Howard – in 717 career games, he has 620 RBIs. That comes to an average of 140 RBIs per 162 games, which is the career high of Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Jim Rice.

And that’s Howard’s average.

There’s more to consider, too. Howard doesn’t turn 30 until November 19, he never drove in more than 149 RBIs in a season which points to his uncanny consistency. However, the numbers that really stand out are the splits from August, September (and October) from the Big Piece.

Check this out: 91 of Howard’s 217 career homers have come in the last two months of the season. Additionally, 254 of his 620 career RBIs have come in the last months, too. That means Howard feasts on pitching late in the season when the games take on added significance.

Wow, whether you are a Phillies fan or not, you have to respect what Ryan Howard has been able to do to baseball. His weakness may be that he strikes out a lot, but as long as he keeps getting that kind of production, I'll take those strikeouts any day of the week. If he can keep this up throughout the rest of his career, there is no doubt in my mind that Ryan Howard will end up in Cooperstown right next to The Babe, himself.

Ryan Howard Has A New Contract

I must say, this has been one of the busiest days I've ever had as a blogger. This story came about yesterday afternoon, but with the live blog last night, my classes this morning and early afternoon, and all the other bizarre headlines that have been breaking today, I have not got around to this at all. Therefore, it is doubtless that I am not telling you anything here that you don't already know, but Ryan Howard has signed a contract extension with the Phillies! Really. It's true.

Howard will earn $15 million in 2009, $19 million in 2010 and $20 million in 2011. He also has a clause in his contract that would require the Phillies to pay him $1 million if they trade him before Nov. 1, 2010.

Then there are the incentives, which could really send Howard's paycheck into orbit. His base salary would increase by $1 million in 2010 and 2011 if he was named MVP in the preceding season and he would get a $1 million bonus if he wins the MVP Award in 2011. If he finishes second in any year, he'll get a $500,000 bonus. A World Series MVP gets Howard $100,000, NLCS MVP $50,000, Gold Glove $50,000, Silver Slugger for $100,000, and $50,000 for an All-Star selection.

“We're very pleased to have avoided the arbitration process, not just for this year, but also for the next two,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said in a statement released by the team. “Ryan is clearly one of the top power hitters and run producers in the major leagues and is a very important part of our championship club.”

And the constant headache of Ryan Howard arbitrations every year has finally ended. The Phillies are a young, home-grown team that has kept their core intact this off-season, with the only major loss being that of Pat Burrell, which should not have been a surprise to anyone. If I remember correctly, the person that the Phillies got to essentially replace him, Raul Ibanez, had a higher batting percentage last year than any of the Phillies. They've definitley made the right moves thus far (getting Ibanez, locking up Hamels and Howard, etc.), let's hope it translates into another World Series title!