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.
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ryan howard= a beast