[Akileese]

Alright, what the FUCK is wrong with Ryan Howard? I'm beginning to think he's a Boras client, or he borders on mental retardation. Taken from Jayson Stark.

NOTE: If you think this isn't true, you haven't been following the guy. He thinks he's fucking jesus.

• Miguel and Ryan: Miguel Cabrera may have had a bearing on Ryan Howard's income level for this year. But don't connect any future dollar-sign dots between those two guys, just because the Tigers were able to sign Cabrera to an eight-year, $153.3-million long-term deal.

In the short term, Cabrera is probably the biggest reason Howard will make $10 million this year. Why? Because many people believe Howard wouldn't have won his arbitration case this spring if the Phillies hadn't made the mistake of submitting a bid lower than the $7.4 million Cabrera won in arbitration last year.

But there are no indications that Cabrera's big deal provides any kind of blueprint that would enable the Phillies to get Howard signed long-term.

For one thing, the two sides haven't spent 10 seconds talking about a deal since the arbitration hearing. For another, Howard and agent Casey Close continue to position him as an unprecedented player, who therefore deserves an unprecedented contract.

So there's no sign they view the Cabrera deal as being any more applicable to Howard's situation than, say, what Mark Teixeira will get in free agency this winter or what Matt Holliday will rake in the winter after that.

Alright. You're NOT A-Rod. On top of that, you're going to be 31 when you hit free agency. You're a career 290 hitter (severely aided by his 06 season, which I think will be his peak) and on top of that, you didn't even pull a 400 OPB last year.

Look, Ryan Howard can drive in runs and he's gonna hit home runs. The problem is his service time is so minimal (it'll be 3 years after this year) and aside from 2006, his 2007 season wasn't great. If you look strictly at his power numbers, it was solid. Once you dig deeper and look into his strikeout rate, his OBP, and non intentional walks, it was an alright season, but nothing epic.

His whole situation bugs the fuck out of me. No one will give a 32 year old outside of A-Rod that much years and money and that seems to be what he wants. Not only that, but aside from his career year, he's fucking dreadful vs lefties. .238/.328/.488 with 33 homers and 97 RBIs. Compare that to his righty splits .317/.431/.671 with 94 homers and 192 RBIs. Now, the ABs is 467 vs 955, but I think most will argue 450 ABs is more than a big enough sample size for how well a guy can hit. What's more frightening about the whole thing is he's left handed. A guy like David Ortiz has a 269/375/559 line vs lefties so while his power numbers aren't as good (as expected with a smaller sample size), he'll still get on base.

Ok, I'm done throwing out stats to show that Ryan Howard isn't good vs lefties and that he's not worth 10 years and 200 million. Phillies fans, I await your angry messages and poss telling me I'm wrong. Fire away.