Ryan Howard
 

Makes you wonder though, how much Big Mac, Slammin' Sammy, and Potatoe Head Bonds' numbers were inflated from the juice and how much can be attributed to other changes in baseball.

Dude is a stud!

Ryan howard has a little ball bark but the way he stays inside the baseball to the oppo field is crazy. and why they still pitch to him is even crazy.

I am really interested in seeing what happens when he passes 62 homers. What people will say, etc. It's going pretty far under the radar, for sure.

Although I've always said that there's more to it than steroids though. Even if nobody touched a steroid, all baseball, football players, etc... all work out and stay in shape year round. That never happened back in the 50's and 60's. Players would still be bigger and stronger and homers would probably go up. Plus there are more teams so the pitching is more diluted, and the biggie is that ballparks are smaller. Some of these stadiums are bandboxes now, I think that gets really overlooked. Even in an old place like Yankee Stadium, you used to have to hit it way out beyond the monuments to the black seats to get it out, now the fences are much shorter.

Like the Polo Grounds where Willie Mays started his career. The center field wall there was 480 feet away, and up to 60 feet high. That's insane. People think the 410 feet at Kauffman stadium is unfair today. It was really really short down the lines at the Polo Grounds but if you didn't hit it down the line you had no chance. They don't build anything close to that today.

really really stupid when the power alleys are 360 what a joke.

just watching the high lights even at 3 rivers the fencers werew 12 feet tall

http://stadiumpage.com/stadiumgraveyard/polo8.JPG

There's a good picture of the Polo Grounds. Put half of Ryan Howard's games in that thing, I bet he has to work hard to bust out 40 homers. Actually it was like 250 right down the lines, so you could get some cheapies, but it shot out fast. If I remember right, that area where you can see the bullpen in left-center is over 400 feet away, and then you're talking 460-500 feet to clear the fence in center. Granted most parks weren't quite that extreme, but I think they're probably more hitter friendly nowadays.

who knows whether or not Howard used to juice up or not? Sure it's all a big witch hunt, and sure I've heard from a friend's friend's first cousin who went to high school with Howard that the guy used to be a big time juicer in high school...but honestly, we all ASSUME Sosa and Bonds juiced up, and even McGwire for that matter...but none of them have been convicted, and none of them have confessed to anything. The only one Canseco even called out was McGwire. Pretty much...I don't give a flying **** anymore. Bonds is the single season HR record holder IMO, even if Howard hits 65 this year.

Ryan Howard isn't on roids........he's just fat. That's just a big man.

This guy is a pimp...

26 years old...

HR in Minor Leagues and in the Majors

2001 (drafted) 48 games (minors A-) 6 HR
2002 135 games in A, 19 HR
2003 130 games in A+ 23 HR
2004 102g in AA 37HR, 29g in AAA 9HR, 19g MLB 2 HR
2005 61g in AAA 16 HR, 88g in MLB 22 HR
2006 138g in MLB 56 HR

who's tosay he wasn't doing roids in 2001, 2002, 2003...before that?

I mean honestly? What do you guys know?

Let's not assume that, just because he's new to the scene, he wasn't a past steroid user. That shit is more popular in the minor leagues (at least was) than it ever was in the big leagues. Trust me, I played a semester of college baseball at a small JUCO and even there I experienced a lot of peer pressure and heard a lot of stories...

all I'm saying is, if we're going to 'judge' Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, ETC... for things they haven't been convicted of, let's not assume this Howard guy has been clean his entire baseball career. Bonds isn't doing steroids now, Giambi isn't doing steroids now, ETC... and they're still hitting HR's. Shit, Giambi is having as good of a year as ever (minus the batting average)...

I do think that 600 HR's should be the new requirement to be a HOF lock 15 years down the road.

I don't trust anyone hitting tons of HR's anymore. Give me Ichiro and Jose Reyes like players and I'll be more interested.

OBP is the most important stat in baseball.