Chris Volstad leaves Marlins; Ryan Howard saddened
The latest Phillies and baseball news from Philly.com.
Chris Volstad leaves Marlins; Ryan Howard saddened
Matt Gelb
In a January of emptiness, this constitutes news in Phillies land: Chris Volstad is no longer a member of the National League East.
The Miami Marlins continued their overhaul into baseball's top circus by acquiring Carlos Zambrano in a trade with Chicago. The NL East should be quite fun once Ozzie Guillen and Logan Morrison engage in a Twitter battle, Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez both play shortstop, and Zambrano bashes the backstop aquarium in the new ballpark.
Anyway, back to Volstad: His departure marks a sad day for Ryan Howard, who probably could use some good days. If you've watched any Phillies-Marlins games in the past half decade, you might have seen Howard teeing off Volstad.
They've faced one another only 31 times, but Howard has eight home runs against Volstad, the most vs. any one pitcher.
Here's Howard's top 10 victims:
| PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR â–¾ | RBI | BB | SO | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Volstad | 31 | 26 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 5 | 5 | .500 | .581 | 1.462 | 2.042 |
| Tim Hudson | 63 | 52 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 10 | 8 | .327 | .429 | .712 | 1.140 |
| Livan Hernandez | 44 | 37 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 10 | .297 | .386 | .622 | 1.008 |
| Javier Vazquez | 27 | 21 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 4 | .381 | .481 | 1.048 | 1.529 |
| Johan Santana | 27 | 25 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 5 | .320 | .370 | .800 | 1.170 |
| Mike Pelfrey | 51 | 43 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 4 | .372 | .471 | .628 | 1.098 |
| John Lannan | 43 | 37 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 13 | .243 | .349 | .541 | .889 |
| Ricky Nolasco | 38 | 30 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 8 | .200 | .368 | .567 | .935 |
| Josh Johnson | 36 | 33 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 7 | .303 | .333 | .636 | .970 |
| Tim Lincecum | 35 | 32 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 16 | .219 | .286 | .594 | .879 |
| Dave Bush | 30 | 27 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | .370 | .433 | .852 | 1.285 |
| Brian Moehler | 27 | 24 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 5 | .458 | .519 | .958 | 1.477 |
| Aaron Harang | 25 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | .286 | .400 | .762 | 1.162 |
| Kyle Lohse | 23 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 5 | 5 | .500 | .609 | 1.000 | 1.609 |
| Chuck James | 21 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 7 | .167 | .238 | .667 | .905 |
Sure enough, Zambrano has solid numbers against Howard in his career, limiting the slugger to a .222/.333/.278 slash line in 21 plate appearances. We're pretty sure this is not why the Marlins made the trade.
And so long as a healthy Howard is on the field come June 29, when the Phillies make their first trip to Miami, the Phillies won't care who he's facing.
***
Two more in-house non-roster invitees for spring training to report, via MLB.com: Righthanders Austin Hyatt and B.J. Rosenberg.
We like Hyatt as a possible innings-eater down the line. For now, he's at least rotation depth and could be at the top of the triple-A Lehigh Valley rotation in 2012. His strikeout rate has dipped as he's moved up the ladder, but it still remained at 10.0 per nine innings in 28 double-A starts. He turns 26 in May.
Rosenberg is also an older guy (26) who has yet to taste triple A. He's been injured, bounced between the rotation and bullpen, and showcased in Arizona Fall League play. He has yet to show prolonged effectiveness, but there are those in the Phillies organization who like his arm. So he'll be with the big kids come February.
***
Ryan Madson is still unsigned, but here's betting he won't end up as big a loser in free agency as some think.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
Just curious as to how John Lannan and Tim Lincecum, can be victims of Howard? Looks to be the other way around to me looking at Batting Average and strikeouts. .243/13k and .219/16k, doesnt sound like they are victims if you ask me.— JAG27- His OPS against Lincecum is .879. The rest of the league's OPS against Lincecum is .630. If Howard hit for a season against every pitcher the way he has hit Lincecum, he would end up with somewhere around 56 homers and 56 doubles. That makes you an all star even if you are only batting .219.
— phillyl0 - And haven't the haters always said Howard gets all of home runs off bad pitchers? On that list of 15 pitchers, there are 19 all star appearances, 13 top-five finishes in Cy Young voting and four Cy Youngs. — phillyl0
- While what you say about him versuses the rest of the league is a nice stat, it makes sense, and would be nice to see, the fact is he hasnt don't jack squat in the playoff's since before the 2009 World Series against the Yankees. Before that he was rolling along pretty nicely, since then he has been mediocore at best, espcially for what he is getting paid. — JAG27
- I realize you are a fanatic, which implies irrationality, but c'mon, numbers don't lie. Ryan Howard has 286 career HRs. I'm counting about 20 there against top pitchers, who should be the guys you see regularly, year-in, year-out. That leaves 266 either against various journeymen or cup of coffee- AAAA- talent, or middle relievers. Which is a lot closer to supporting "Howard gets all of his home runs off bad pitchers" than the drivel you are referring to. Then, if you look inside the numbers, Howard hit 1 HR off of Lincecum since 2008 and 1 HR off of Josh Johnson since 2008. Clearly, it takes good pitchers a couple games to figure out Howard, but after that, they pretty much have his number. Even look at Hudson. Howard tagged him for 3 in a game in 2006 when Hudson was bad (4.86 ERA) and twice more in a game when Hudson was injured (42 IP the whole season). Other than that, when Hudson is pitching well? 1 HR. — jtj06
- Ryan Howard should be platooned since he can't hit lefthanders. Why doesn't any of these "hometown" writers have the guts to say it?— farley
- Chris Volstad was becoming common vocabulary for the mound version of Izell (toast) when facing Ryan...RH will have to pick out some more new victims trying to sneak fastballs by him... but this fan would love him to continue to work on picking up the rotation of the ball against the lefties, so the name Mario (Mendoza) can never be mentioned.— bearsfriend
- Another Howard victim is no longer with the Marlins, FA Javier Vazquez. At least for now. He said he was retiring. But he finished very strong the second half of the season winning his last 5 decisions with 2 SH and a 0.71 ERA. Maybe he could be having second thoughts, which could make them more dangerous.— EL Zorro
- It's crazy when you realize that Zambrano is only 30...The Marlins are only paying 3 mil, with the Cubs picking up the rest!(guess that tells us HOW psycho he really must be)..Hope he takes batting practice at CBP with ...Stanton,Morrison,Buck,Hanley...that's alot of souvenirs. — bearsfriend
- The pictures of the new stadium for the Miami Marlins is beautiful...But with the grouping of Ozzie Guillen with the likes of Hanley,Reyes,Zambrano... (with Morrison telling the world about it), maybe they should have pitched a tent over that circus.— bearsfriend
- Any pitcher worth their weight in salt can throw Howard 4 pitches. 2 off speed pitches down and away, one curve or slider tight inside, and a high fastball.
They sucessfully do that, Howard has a BA of 0.000 and sets a new record for strikeouts in a season with 550 (his total number of at bats).— Bruno Sammartino - Fortunately, dim-witted, good-for-nothing palookas like Tim Hudson, Johann Santana and Tim Lincecum can't crack the Howard code the way have, Bruno. Also, even if we were willing to play your stupid game, wouldn't we need to count Howard's plate appearances instead of his at bats? — phillyl0
- Poor Cholly Manuel. The Marlins will be calling him all kinds of names in spanish next season and he'll just smile.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
- Excellent posts here guys! All winners.....ah, Volstad...just one more 3rd rate pitcher that RH won't have available to tee off of anymore.....the best player I have ever seen at padding hisnstats...."Howard the K".— Mark1npt
