Quote:
Originally Posted by endgame
But obviously there's mental game going on while he's in the process of execution that he's losing. IMHO, he's overthinking, overly conscious of a bad streak (has he even had one before?) and "pressing" as they say in the baseball world, or so I hear it called. If he relaxes, he'll come around. But it'll take Rollins to do the same. A home run can make a big difference IF there's a guy on base! Oh well, just trying to ask in my own wordy way, why's Howard getting the free pass? Maybe what he needs is a little get-on-his-case from somewhere to pull it out. Kid gloves obviously aren't cutting it.
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Well to answer your question yes Ryan Howard is a walking cold and hot streak that's just the type of player he is. Sure he will get you 40+ home runs a year but it's going to be filled with giant peaks and valleys along the way not to mention a ton of strike-outs. It's mirrored by his performance in the playoffs over the past 2 years. Last year he was in a huge slump the first two series and then broke out in the world series, this year the opposite holds true. It's not so much he's pressing or choking etc, that's just Ryan Howard.
I also don't think it's fair for the NY Times to compare Howard to A-Rod. Sure they both are among the top hitters in the league, but Howard isn't being paid 200+ millions dollars or held in regard as the best player of his era as A-Rod is. Because of all that A-Rod should have higher expectations, that's just the way it works.
Howard's job is to hit bombs not for average. Now granted while Howard has been awful the reason why the phillies lost the world series can be solely put on Rollins and Victorino at the top of the line-up. Utley and Werth have 6 homers between them, all of them being solo because these guys just can not get on base right now if their lives depended on it. Victorino especially, he's really looked like a high schooler up there with some of his abs. If those guys were able to get on and make those homers turn into 2 and 3 run blasts then the series would be 2-2 or even 3-1 right now in their favor. I honestly feel bad for Werth and Utley. They've carried this team so far and deserve a lot of credit.