Watching the Mets/Phillies game tonight, and Howard is a butcher defensively. Anything hit hard to his sides, he boots. Offensively, he can't hit good pitching. Santana was throwing high change ups and hanging sliders, and he was still missing them. All he hits are fast balls, and even thats questionable since he broke the K's record.

1. defense doesn't matter that much when you're talking about a player like ryan howard, whose bat is exponentially more valuable than his glove.

2. johan santana is easily the greatest pitcher of his time. i've argued this in other threads, look it up if you care to.

3. lefty hitters have always had trouble hitting lefty pitchers. this is common sense. even the greatest hitter of the modern era (ww2- ted "fucking" williams - had trouble hitting lefties. i'm not saying ryan howard is ted williams, but ryan howard is an incredible lefty hitter who has trouble hitting lefty pitchers - big deal. however, if you are trying to find fault with ryan howard, an incredible lefty hitter, for having trouble handling pitches thrown by johan santana, an incredible pitcher (and also a lefty), then you need to stop yourself and think it through. you're missing out on a great matchup being all fired up over how bad ryan howard's defense is at the least important position on the field.

I think I heard that Ryan Howard has more HRs against lefties than any other hitter over the past two years.

dude, who CAN hit good pitching? if the pitcher's doing his job, the hitters aren't supposed to be hitting...hitters try to catch up to the pitcher, not the other way around.

a lot of the big guys are struggling this april, and it's no wonder to me.

ryan howard is still a great hitter. i don't think anyone was hyping him up on his defensive ability.