"The fact that Ryan Howard has 75 RBIs right now is a testament to pitcher's ignorance. Pitchers continue to pitch to Howard because they think they can strike him out. If he stops striking out, they're going to stop pitching to him."
I wish they would have put this quote in "They Said It," but that spot was already taken, deservedly, by Derek Dooley's gem of a quote, "The best athletic director I ever worked for was at Louisiana Tech." I realize he is no longer employed by the university, but didn't Mike Hamilton hire Dooley for his current position? Ouch.
But anyway, I've listened to Mitch Williams one time on MLB on Fox, and was extremely amused about how incredulous he was after Homer Bailey threw a 2 strike "fastball" to Derek Lowe that led to a run scoring double, harping on how he needed to throw a slider for about an inning and half. Fact is, Bailey did throw a slider, and he hung it, which led to a run scoring double. The easiest way to tell what pitch was thrown is either look at the radar gun afterwards, or actually watch the replay on your monitor. As a former pitcher, it should be easy to spot for him, but I got to laugh at his expense for an inning and a half, which made me happy.
The point Williams is trying to make is that pitchers were really dumb (before acquiring Hunter Pence) to keep pitching to Howard because of there being a lot of weak hitters hitting behind him. The fact that Howard strikes out a lot is, according to Williams, dupes pitchers into pitching to him enabling him to use his elite RBI skills to drive in those runs that Philadelphia desperately needs.
RBI skills. Ryan Howard is really working hard over in that dugout making sure that Victorino (.384 OBP) and Utley (.379 OBP) are on base so he can drive them in with a hit, groundout, flyball, whatever. Jeff Francouer drove in 103 runs once when he made outs in over 70% of his plate appearances. A hitter that didn't make outs that often would have undoubtedly driven in even more than the 103 that Francouer did that season. Ryan Howard doesn't make outs as prodigiously as Francouer, but his .338 OBP this year represents that he indeed can be retired with runners on base, which is why pitchers pitch to him. From 2006-2009, Howard drove in at least 136 runs a season. Some of that has to do with his power. The majority of it has to do with on base machine Chase Utley hitting directly in front of him. A lot easier to drive in runs when somebody is always on base. But lets make sure that dullards like Mitch Williams continue to spew ignorance about how an elite hitter can be deduced by their RBI totals. Howard is a good hitter, mainly because of his plus plus power, but far from a great one.
Pitchers pitch to Ryan Howard because he has holes in his swing and he can be pitched to. Why walk or pitch around a guy that can be retired? Outs are too valuable to be putting extra baserunners on to avoid an elite RBI guy. Elite RBI guys are only made by the men hitting in front of them. There are times to walk Ryan Howard to pitch to a worse hitter. However, why continually avoid a hitter with a .350 wOBA and a .338 OBP? Outs are too valuable, and giving up an extra baserunners isn't worth it in order to avoid a slightly above average hitting first baseman.
Oh and one last thing. How much money is owed to a first baseman hitting .250/.338/.482, is 31 years old, a terrible fielder, below average base runner, and has produced 1.1 fWAR this year, after 1.3 fWAR all of last year? 5 years, 125 million dollars. Sorry Phillies, I couldn't resist.
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