However, there was one word Fregosi would never use.

Ask Fregosi about a hitter who had fallen on tough times and he'd slide his reading glasses down his nose, cop an admonishing tone, and say, "Just a little mix-up."

Fregosi detested the word slump. To him, it was the dirtiest word in baseball. He had played the game and knew how torturous one of those . . . those . . . those things could be on a player's mind. He refused to give in to the word, refused to recognize its place in the baseball lexicon.

Fregosi wasn't the only one who stiff-armed the word.

Yogi Berra once said, "I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting."

Despite the efforts of Fregosi and Berra, slumps do exist, and, for the second straight season, Phillies fans are watching slugger Ryan Howard suffer through a painful one.

"He looks like a lost person at the plate," said a major-league scout who has seen a bunch of Howard's at-bats this season and did not want to be named. "It looks like he's guessing every pitch, like he's trying not to strike out instead of hitting the ball."

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Howard's trip to the disabled list that some team insiders say was as much for mental reasons as physical. Sure, Howard was bothered by a strained left quadriceps. But would he have been shut down if he were in a late-season pennant race? No. Would he have been shut down if he wasn't hitting a dismal .204 in his first 29 games? Doubtful.

With his head spinning, his chin dragging, his batting average flagging and his quad hurting, Howard went to the DL, and the two weeks off did him wonders.

His leg improved, and his head cleared. He hit .283 with 41 homers, 113 RBIs and a .619 slugging percentage over the final 115 games en route to a fifth-place finish in the MVP voting. (He won the award in 2006.)

Howard's rebound a year ago makes the people who know his swing best - manager Charlie Manuel and hitting coach Milt Thompson - say he will turn it around again this season.

But it won't be easy. Because as bad as Howard was early last season, he has been worse this season. Though he had a homer to left field in Saturday's loss to the Giants, Howard is hitting .169 with seven homers and 18 RBIs in his first 38 games. A season after setting the majors' single-season strikeout record with 199, Howard is on pace to shatter the mark with 52 strikeouts in his first 136 at-bats. That's an alarming lack of contact for someone who merely needs to put the bat on the ball to be a home-run threat.

So what's wrong?

Manuel, a former power hitter who lived through slumps, says Howard is violating the first rule of hitting: He's not choosing good pitches to hit.

"He's not swinging at strikes. He's chasing bad balls," Manuel said. "He's not following the ball. He's not staying on it. He's swinging too early and missing it by a lot."

Every time Hoard has a bad at-bat, it further hurts his confidence.

"He's trying too hard and digging himself a big hole," Manuel said. "It's like he gets up there and says, 'I've got to hit a home run.' It looks like he's trying to get 10 hits in one at-bat."

Manuel said Howard's problems are part mental and part physical.

Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, another power hitter who knows what a slump feels like, has seen about 50 of Howard's at-bats on television. He said slumps in general, and Howard's problems in particular, are fueled between the ears.

"It's mental," Schmidt said. "But what you go through leads to physical problems. Instead of waiting and trying to smoke that ball right out of the catcher's mitt, you lose your sense of how to do that.

"I'm sure Ryan's mind is playing some tricks on him. You miss balls you should be driving, and you get frustrated. It's tough to figure out how to get it back."

Ups and downs

In his book, 1941, The Greatest Year In Sports, author Mike Vaccaro dug up a quote that went like this: "There is no use kidding myself. I don't know the answer to the problem. There's only one thing you can do - just go up there and keep swinging and hope that sooner or later you'll come out of it."

Those words were spoken by Joe DiMaggio, who was mired in a 9-for-56 slump just before embarking on his record 56-game hitting streak.

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson had such a bad slump in 1981 that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner ordered him to NYU Medical Center for a full day's worth of tests. Jackson had everything from his reflexes to his eyesight tested. He was fine. He was just in a slump.

Manuel said that Howard's eyesight was fine. He added that power hitters can be particularly susceptible to slumps, and when they are in the throes of one they look worse than contact hitters because they can't slap the ball and try to beat out a hit.

"It's all part of being a power hitter," Schmidt said. "You go through these ups and downs.

"Power hitters' swings are bigger and longer than most hitters. That makes you vulnerable and susceptible to loss of timing and continuity in a swing. When that happens, you're more vulnerable to jumping at the ball and loss of rhythm.

"Unlike a Chase Utley, who has a short, compact swing, Ryan has a lot more length and uppercut in his swing. He needs more time to execute that swing, and that makes it easier to lose the swing.

"With Ryan, you're seeing his right shoulder fly out. His swing is probably a smidge more of an uppercut than it usually is, and his hands might be coming forward a little too soon. It's tough to generate power when that happens."

Howard's year began with a victory, a $10 million salary award at the arbitrator's table. That put a smile on his face, and some baseball people thought it would lead to a huge year. So far, it hasn't.

Howard, 28, probably could have gotten the same $85 million deal Utley got in 2007, but he was looking for a bigger pay day. That pay day is tied to production this season. Could the quest for a bigger pay day be putting undue pressure on Howard?

"Nope," Schmidt said.

"I don't know," Manuel said.

Manuel paused and added, "Probably not, because last year he had pressure on him and really delivered."

Trust his hands

Manuel and Thompson spend much time talking to the slugger.

"The bottom line is he's got to hit the ball to left field," Thompson said. "That's what I've been preaching to him. He's got to stay back and trust his hands. He just doesn't trust his hands right now. He's jumping out there on everything. He's not waiting on the ball. He's flying out.

"I think a lot of it is the [infielders'] shift, too. He knows they're going to pitch him inside, so he's trying to be quick."

It's not a surprise that pitchers try to exploit Howard's jumpiness at the plate.

"It's hard," said teammate Pat Burrell, who has fought his way out of several slumps in his career. "It's especially hard because the other team is paying attention, too. And they can smell blood.

"I don't know if there is a clear-cut answer for the best way to get out of it. You've got to keep grinding. Ryan's a hugely talented player, so that's going to help."

Manuel has seen too many power hitters struggle to be worried whether Howard will turn it around. But he did admit to wondering when it will happen.

The above-mentioned scout believes Howard will come out of his funk, but he cautioned, "Will he come out of it like last year and hit 47 homers? I don't know. I'd say he'd hit 30 to 35, though."

Schmidt, too, expressed faith in Howard.

"I'm not worried at all," he said. "He'll work out of it. A few good at-bats, and the old way will come right back. It can happen quick."

Schmidt cautioned that Howard has to focus on individual at-bats, not rebuilding his batting average quickly.

"The batting average won't be indicative that he's swinging the bat better," Schmidt said. "He's not going to jump to .280 over night. It's going to take a long time. He's going to be in the one-somethings and low-200s for awhile. But there's still plenty of time for it to be a 40-homer, 110-RBI season. He has to keep that as sort of a security blanket. There's plenty of time."

or jsalisbury@phillynews.com.