I only am pointing this out because you seemingly think it is fine to dismiss arguments if you assume that person lives in their parents basement. You realize how much of a completely ridiculous this makes you sound like…yes? You are faced again and again with the statistics showing that Ryan Howard comes up to the plate, yet you continue to ignore and have to attempt weak, petty insults to justify your completely wrong-headed statements.

Yes, this is extremely irritating because it represents the worst of people who write things on the internet. The people who feel they can hold an outlandish opinion and resort to petty insults when challenged about it. Dude, *it’s fine to admit you are wrong*! It happens to all of us. But you attend to defend your argument by hurling out weak insults, you come off sounding like a whiny child.”

3 words for you:

Her-bal Tea

Of course, if anyone has paid attention knows that an OPS of .693 is about what you would expect from a glove-first SS….I guess he was just complaining that you didn’t mention that it was the worst platoon split for 1B or something.

“Yes, Howard hits well with men on base. But that is one facet. Without men on base, Howard doesn’t hit well (.331 OBP for his career).”

Ryan Howard does in fact hit better with men on. This is an asset, but an overvalued on. At bats with no one on base are also important, just *not as*.

First off, I last lived with my parents when I went off to attend college when I was 18…about 12 years ago.

I only am pointing this out because you seemingly think it is fine to dismiss arguments if you assume that person lives in their parents basement. You realize how much of a completely ridiculous this makes you sound like…yes? You are faced again and again with the statistics showing that Ryan Howard comes up to the plate, yet you continue to ignore and have to attempt weak, petty insults to justify your completely wrong-headed statements.

Yes, this is extremely irritating because it represents the worst of people who write things on the internet. The people who feel they can hold an outlandish opinion and resort to petty insults when challenged about it. Dude, *it’s fine to admit you are wrong*! It happens to all of us. But you attend to defend your argument by hurling out weak insults, you come off sounding like a whiny child.

Howard seems to have finished appropriately high in RBI for the number of men he had on base. Further, that is a pretty good list of players so is your point that he is driving in runs as he should?

I am by no means a Howard fan and hate his contract. I have said that since day 1 and he continues to fail to adjust to pitching even though they have clearly adjusted to him,. That being said, the Nats have made a similar mistake with Mr. Werth. What kind of value are they getting for 20 million a year? Be careful with all the chest thumping before you win anything. Reference the Phils in their 4 Aces preseason. Baseball games happen on the field and are not all about dorks breaking down stats.

Let me ammend my previous – move out of you parents basement and drink some Herbal Tea, you seem stressed

But to answer your question….. If indeed it is possible for an entire sport to do such a thing (lie/tell truth), I believe baseball was telling the truth when I watched the Phillies.

Though I will stand by my point that of all the many knocks you could take on the guy, RBI’s is a bizarre one to pick

There. Easy.

All the Cliff Lees

So, statistical evidence *put directly in front of your face* that shows Ryan Howard came up with runners at base more often than virtually everyone else in the NL does not suffice for you?

This is an extraordinary bit of willful ignorance on your part. The data is right there, not two posts above yours. Yet you choose to completely ignore it because the Phillies overall are not a good offensive team.

So, my questions for you?

Do you believe Baseball is lying? Do you think their data is fake?

Move out of your parents basement and watch a game some time.

Yes, Ryan Howard had a lot of runners on base in front of him. I’ll use 2011 only because he was healthy and it’s easier to make a direct comparison instead of using ratios:

# of runners on base/runners in scoring position for Top 10 in RBI in 2011:

Matt Kemp: 347/200
Prince Fielder: 334/222
Ryan Howard: 328/204
Ryan Braun: 291/171
Troy Tulowitzki: 308/187
Joey Votto: 320/189
Albert Pujol: 297/162
Hunter Pence: 318/188

Should I go on? pm two players came up with more men on base (both of whom beat him in RBI) and only one beat him with number of runners in scoring position.

Baseballreference is your friend. Try looking before you comment.

OPS is not one numbers. It’s a quick and dirty way to gauge a player’s offensive output. It combines on base percentage and slugging, the latter of which is a conglomeration of their ability to hit for extra bases. It I cited…say….triples, you would have a point.

I’m not one to normally put any importance to the thumbs up/down feature, but when the ratio is 1-39, maybe, *just maybe*, you are the one who is being completely ridiculous.

The Phillies were 18th in MLB in OBP last year, the Angels were 5th. The year before the Phillies were 11th and the Cardinals wee 3rd. Yet the past 2 years Howard had more RBI’s per AB then Pujols did

Low ERA – all because of the Fielding

Yep. That’s a pretty good one. Works the other way, too. And pitcher “wins” falls into this category. These are what are known as “equivalencies”.

Let’s compare two players, shall we:

From 2006-2009 Ryan Howard knoked in 572 runs
From 2006-2009 Albert Pujols knocked in 491

Wowza…81 more runs. Would you rather have Howard at the plate with runners on that Pujols?

Well, probably Pujols, since he hit 40 points higher in those situations, knocked in a higher percentage of runners *and* took a ton more walks.

RBIs are extremely dependent on those you have around you and where you hit in the battering order…for god’s sake, Orlando Cabrera drove in 96 one year.

Yes, Howard hits well with men on base. But that is one facet. Without men on base, Howard doesn’t hit well (.331 OBP for his career). This is something really important that people ignore when talking about how great a guy is with runners on base. Not making an out matters. Howard knocks in runs, but with no one on base, he sure doesn’t provide much of a chance for anyone to knock him in. This why stats like RBI and RISP can be overvalued.