Daily Graphing – Ryan Howard

Congratulations to Ryan Howard for winning the 2005 National League Rookie of the Year award! In his first full season he hit 22 home runs in only 348 plate appearances. There are only 25 other active players who hit 20 or more home runs in their rookie year.

Name			Season	AB	HR	SLG	ISO
Albert Pujols		2001	590	37	0.610	0.281
Ryan Howard		2005	312	22	0.567	0.279
Brian Daubach		1999	381	21	0.562	0.268
Jason Bay 		2004	411	26	0.550	0.268
Lance Berkman		2000	353	21	0.561	0.263
Jonny Gomes		2005	348	21	0.534	0.253
Tony Clark		1996	376	27	0.503	0.253
Mike Piazza		1993	547	35	0.561	0.243
N. Garciaparra 		1997	684	30	0.534	0.228
Paul Lo Duca		2001	460	25	0.543	0.224
Preston Wilson		1999	482	26	0.502	0.222
Mark Teixeira		2003	529	26	0.480	0.221
Carlos Delgado		1996	488	25	0.490	0.219
Todd Helton		1998	530	25	0.530	0.215
Juan Gonzalez		1991	545	27	0.479	0.215
Jody Gerut		2003	480	22	0.494	0.215
Nick Swisher		2005	462	21	0.446	0.210
Craig Monroe		2003	425	23	0.449	0.209
Brad Wilkerson		2002	507	20	0.469	0.203
Eric Hinske		2002	566	24	0.481	0.201
Bobby Crosby		2004	545	22	0.426	0.187
Scott Rolen		1997	561	21	0.469	0.185
Chipper Jones		1995	524	23	0.450	0.185
Verno Wells		2002	608	23	0.457	0.183
Carlos Beltran		1999	663	22	0.454	0.161
Travis Lee		1998	562	22	0.429	0.160

He's in pretty good company. Taking a look at the graph below, you can see his Isolated Power (ISO) increased steadily as the season went on.

Unfortunately, the increased power came at the price of his strikeout percentage which also increased steadily. He was one of the ten worst players in strikeout percentage.

There's no doubt that Ryan Howard has tremendous potential, especially looking at his power numbers. However, if he wants to hit for power and average, he must learn to pick his pitches better.