Taking a look at Josh Kalk's card for Howard once again, we see that he still hasn't done anything with sinkers and sliders though it seems he hasn't been given too many sinkers. He's only done as well as singling on curve balls and change-ups.
His BABiP has climbed to .233, indicating that some of his bad luck is turning around. As we noted in the third installment of The Ryan Report, Howard's LD/GB/FB percentages were 18.6/42.9/38.6 but the last week has brought them to 21.0/43.0/36.0 showing that Howard has been hitting what would have been lazy fly balls two weeks ago for line drives. His batted ball ratios are now almost exactly in line with his line for 2006: 21.9/41.9/36.2.
Finally, for my favorite part of The Ryan Report, a pointless comparison between his strikeout total and that of the game's elite starting pitchers.
Major League Baseball Strikeout Leaders
Ryan Howard, PHI: 162 AB, 64 K
Tim Lincecum, SFG: 56.1 IP, 63 K
Edinson Volquez, CIN: 54.1 IP, 62 K
Jake Peavy, SDP: 58.2 IP, 60 K
Javier Vazquez, CHW: 58.2 IP, 58 K
Johan Santana, NYM: 60.0 IP, 57 K
Roy Halladay, TOR: 72.0 IP, 57 K
Felix Hernandez, SEA: 67.1 IP, 57 K
C.C. Sabathia, CLE: 54.1 IP, 57 K
As for homers, Howard's 10 is still tied with 5 pitchers and behind 5 others, including teammate Brett Myers who has been wracked with 15 jacks.
Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to the friction of the day
Why did I just quote Rush?