A Modest Proposal

If you were being set up on a blind date, you'd probably demur at the suggestion that a prospective match had "a nice personality." It's code, of course, for "looks like a cross between Julia Child and Arnold Ziffel."

Imagine how you'd back away if she were described as being ugly, but mean. Imagine further, that you had an alternative offer with a nice young lady described as average looking. In comparison, she'd seem like Helen of Troy.

Not that the juggarnaut known as the Phillies needs my help, but that's the situation facing them when Charlie Manuel writes Sybil, I mean Ryan Howard, in his lineup everyday. Howard, of course, is a truly great hitter, a .279/.376/.576 slugger with 222 dingers on his early career resume. But Howard is really two blind dates in one: Scarlett Johansen against righties and Madeline Albright against southpaws.

Continuing a trend, Howard popped off a .320/.395/.693 line in 2009 against righthanders, with a four-bagger every 10 at-bats. Against lefties, Mario Mendoza stood in for him and accumulated a .207/.298/.356 portfolio with a homer every 37 trips. Coupled with his below-average defense, Howard is a double threat -- against the Phils -- when a lefty takes the mound.

It's worse than even this, because even against right-handed pitching, opponents bring lefties out of the bullpen to face Howard, Utley and Ibanez when the game is on the line. The Phillies lose some of their pop right around the time Brad Lidge comes into the game to inject some energy into the opposition. The Yankees took advantage of this during the World Series with Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia eating Howard up.

Suppose instead, the Phillies platooned Howard against lefties with whatever detritus they could sweep up off the waiver wire or out of Triple-A. They'd improve on offense and defense, and deflect rotation management by other teams. They'd even give the righty-killing Howard more at-bats, because as the temptation to find lefties from the bullpen declines, Manual could pinch hit Howard against righty relievers and get that 1008 OPS guy into key situations.

A replacement level first baseman hits about .237/.288/.405 with -- maybe counter-intuitively -- above-average defense. It's about a 40 point increase in OPS, plus the glove play, but what if the Phillies could find a better hitter than that? They probably have one on the roster.


Take Chris Coste, their backup catcher/first baseman. Over the last three years, Coste has pasted southpaws at a.297/.349/.465 clip. Replacing Howard with Coste against lefties would win Philadelphia two more games. And Coste is just the first name that jumped to mind. I'll bet Philly GM Ruben Amaro could do even better.


None of this should be seen as an indictment of Ryan Howard. He's a very good baseball player. But why not leverage his greatness and mitigate his weakness? It just makes sense.
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