Lights Out Lidge
Got this photo sent to The Phillies Zone from loyal reader Joe D.
Lights Out Lidge
Todd Zolecki
Thanks to loyal Phillies Zone reader Joe D. for sending this along ...
Comments (30)
It's good to see that our first baseman, the Dave Kingman of the 21st Century, is up to a .204 average with 75 strike outs. He'll be setting records that will never be broken.— sdlmedford- Just think about all the fun he'll have getting back to .265 though.— mjb
- Amazing what people are willing to stomach - he "gets his numbers" in the last 2 weeks, and a day-to-day pretty awful first 2 months gets totally forgotten. MJB, imagine if he actually played an entire season.— John in LA
- Yes, records that will never be broken, like most home runs by a Philadelphia Phillie in a season, best at bat to HR ratio in Phillies history, etc. I forget how many times Dave Kingman was in the top 5 in MVP voting. Howard has done it twice in two full seasons. Was Kingman really that good? John in LA, great point about people having short memories. Some of us even forget that the season started less than two months ago. The important thing is to fixate on those first six weeks. The best way to do that is to ignore the last two weeks and the 2 1/2 years before that. I do imagine what would happen if he played an entire season. In my wildest imaginings he wins the rookie of the year, finishes first and fifth in the MVP voting and shatters HR records. If only Howard would be as good as some people pretend that he isn't. Then the Phillies might even make it to the playoffs some year.— phdave
- Oh it's not forgoten Johnny, just forgiven as long as he hits from here on out. Next year will be the same old stuff, if he starts sloooooow again! As much as it sucks, some guys are just slow starters, as long as its just April, I can deal with it, but when it goes into the middle/end of May, that sucks. All the big mans strikeouts and hitting well under .200 makes it seem worse too!— Clinton, NJ
- Good job of Howard putting the ball in play and getting a SAC fly in the bottom of the 3rd. The big play came in Utley's AB though, he put the ball in play and the defense messed up. Thats why strikeouts can hurt a team, it doesnt give the other team a chance to screw up. With a guy like Howard who hits the ball so hard when he does hit it, there's even a better chance for an error cause he hits rockets, when he hits the ball!— Clinton, NJ
- What an attack!! Poor Pat, he was left out of the hit parade! Moyer comes through again, I'll take this game from him every time.— Clinton, NJ
- Dave, check the stats. Please. He hit .225 half the season last year. Was fourth on the team for MVP behind Rollins, Utely and Rowand. Or did you not watch any games last season? Forget the national press - they get their thoughts from Sportscenter - apparently just like you. Will go into June hitting .210. Went into June last year around .220. Call me old-fashioned, but I like my "superstars" to play an entire year. Kinda like ARod and Pujols and Vlad Guerrero and Miguel Cabrera and about 6 other guys Howard isn't in the same class as. Seriously, when you hit 45 points lower following an MVP year and still finish 5th in the voting, some writers aren't doing their jobs. Will he hit a ton of homers? Yes. Is he great at that? Absolutely. I'm sure the record-breaking Ks don;t matter to you, either. Or the concrete glove. He's still behind Rollins and Utley on this team.— John in LA
- Why do we Phillies fans jump on and off the bandwagon almost daily? Ryan Howard has been thrown under the bandwagon/bus. He deserves a bit more slack than he's getting. (Also,notice his more recent numbers and his RBI totals even with his average.)— John Christel
- 47 HRs, 136 RBIs, 107 BBs, .392 OBP, .584 SLG, 144 OPS+. Check. Amazingly, it was an off season. But this is what you wrote: "imagine if he actually played an entire season." Did you watch the 2006 season? Or did you just start following baseball last year? I'll take an inconsistent Howard season over one of Rowand's best seasons any day. Not even close. And I'll take Howard's season this year over the seasons that Vlad and Cabrera are having. Maybe you didn't notice they are not putting up "superstar" numbers. Perhaps you just like trashing Philadelphia "superstars." And, big deal, he's not as valuable as Pujols and ARod. Neither is 90% of the HOF. That's not a justification for your irrational evaluation of Howard.— phdave
- Dave, why bother with John in LA. Its a waste-look at his latent racism and bogus comments and you see what you get.....Not much!— Truth
- Right. It's cause Howard is black. Truth, my wife is a Civil Rights lawyer here in LA. Be kinda hard to be racist around my place. Dave, when you've been in the league 3 and a half years, and the last 2 you've basically done the same things - start off terrible, then play the rest of the season catching up, then that's probably who you are. Oh, and look at Vlad and Cabrera's career numbers, dude, not this season - 6, 7, 8 years of consistency, not one great year like Howard. So last year really wasn't a disappointment? The K record, three terrible months, the massive BA drop? And this year, unless he hits around .310 the rest of the way to get to .270, that won't be a disappontment? Really? See, being a .270 hitter isn't a terrible thing. It just doesn't make you one of the top players in the game, which is what Howard thinks he is and wants to be paid like. Again, are you reading the papers? He feels disrespected. Like Truth. Howard, at least, has value. That's the crux of my argument: he thinks he's in the top tier, but a totally one- dimensional player will never be in the same conversation as a five-tool guy. In our division, that includes Utley, Rollins (he's black, Truth), Wright, Chipper Jones, Hanley Ramirez (Latino, I think, Truth). Let me guess, Dave - big Fantasy fan? No kidding? All you guys do is check stats, not day-to-day stuff. OPS? WHIP? Dude, go kiss a girl. Turn off the Star Trek. So if a guy is terrible half the seaon, then ends up "getting his numbers", that's totally okay with you? Wow. 4 HRs over 2 games makes up for a terrible past 10 days? Got it.— John in LA
- When Truth is lecturing on racism and bogus comments, I must be logged into the Twilight Zone, not the Phillies Zone.— jimmymack
- Again, I like Howard. But he's great at one thing, and that one thing doesn't win games. Consistency and solid pitching does. And what I don't like is all the Homers coming out of the woodwork once the guy finally starts doing what he's supposed to do.— John in LA
- All I have to say is.......I WAS AT LAST NIGHT'S GAME!!! How fun was that!!!!— Norma
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