Ryan Howard Comments on Fan Throwing Bottle at Him During Game vs. Brewers

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard felt the wrath of his home crowd at Citizens Bank Park during Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers when a fan threw a bottle at him.  

On Sunday, he spoke with the media about the incident, according to Philly.com’s Matt Breen:

I’ve done too much in this town to have that kind of stuff. If you want to yell out ‘You suck,’ that’s whatever. But when you start throwing stuff, that’s when stuff gets personal. … We have to be held accountable. If someone throws something, we’re just supposed to sit there and wear it and get hit. Nah man, we’re human beings first and foremost. People get it twisted. They see the baseball stuff and they don’t see you as a human being. They see you as someone that just plays baseball.

On the baseball side of things, Howard has struggled this season, batting .151 with eight home runs and 19 RBI in 49 games. Including Saturday, he hadn’t started for three games, and the 36-year-old has been a shell of the player who won a National League MVP in 2006. 

After being inserted as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning and grounding out to end Saturday’s game, Howard was walking back to the dugout when the bottle went flying.

“I turned around and it was down near my feet,” Howard said. “I don’t play that. To me, that’s crossing the line. It becomes a security issue. It’s not necessary. That stuff infuriates me.”

The incident put Howard in an unfortunate situation, as he believes professional athletes are unable to defend themselves in predicaments like these:

If you’re in the street and you do that to somebody, you might get hauled off on. But we’re supposed to hold ourselves to a different standard and what not. Somebody has to do something. Somebody should get reprimanded for it. Because if I would’ve done something, if I would’ve went into the stands and tried to beat this dude up, I would’ve gotten in trouble by Major League Baseball. He probably would’ve tried to sue me. But it’s OK for him to throw a bottle and then go home and be on his merry way? Nah, that doesn’t work.

Conduct like this is nothing new in the city of Philadelphia, as the fanbase has a reputation of being one of the harshest in sports. After all, Philly fans chucked snowballs at Santa Claus during an Eagles game in 1968. 

Much more recently, though, Flyers fans littered the ice with wristbands given out to commemorate late owner Ed Snider during their first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals. 

Their behavior earned the Flyers a two-minute bench minor, much to the frustration of Wells Fargo Center public address announcer Lou Nolan, via 94 WIP’s Cindy Webster:

These public displays over the years tarnish the image of Philadelphia fans. On Saturday, though, one fan in particular took it too far in the treatment of a man who helped deliver the Phillies their second World Series title in 2008. 

Howard doesn’t sound like he’s ready to forgive anyone too quickly, either. 

 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Pete Mackanin, Phillies Agree to New Contract: Latest Details and Reaction

The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Friday they have signed manager Pete Mackanin to a new two-year contract for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. 

The deal also includes a club option for the 2018 season and replaces the contract Mackanin signed back in September 2015, per the team. 

Mackanin, who was originally the team’s third-base coach, took over the Phillies manager job in the final 88 games of the 2015 season after Ryne Sandberg resigned in June. 

He went 37-51 with a young, inexperienced team that began the year 26-48 and were already 15.5 games behind the first-place Washington Nationals at the time of Sandberg’s resignation. 

The small improvement in winning percentage didn’t do much for the Phillies, who ended the season with a league-worst 63-99 record. 

His side was made up of either inexperienced youngsters or veterans on their last legs. Five of Philadelphia’s starters in the field were 25 or younger, while the likes of 37-year-old Carlos Ruiz and 36-year-old Ryan Howard didn’t hit over .229. 

The Phillies’ pitching staff didn’t help, either, with a team ERA of 4.69. Only the Colorado Rockies had a worse mark than that. 

Mackanin will once again have to deal with a team that is trying to rebuild with young talent, such as third baseman Maikel Franco and starting pitcher Aaron Nola, in a National League East that looks to be dominated by the New York Mets and Nationals. 

With expectations low around Philadelphia for the 2016 season, Mackanin will have an opportunity to surprise some people in baseball if he manages his Phillies to some success. 

 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Brett Oberholtzer, More to Phillies: Trade Details, Scouting Report

In a deal that sent over closer Ken Giles to the Houston Astros, the Philadelphia Phillies acquired pitchers Vincent Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer, a minor leaguer who is reportedly outfielder Derek Fisher and a fourth player on Wednesday, pending physicals, according to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. 

The Phillies took advantage of the Astros’ need for bullpen help to address their starting-pitcher predicament.   

Last season, Philadelphia starting pitching allowed an average of 4.99 runs per game, ranked 27th in the major leagues and won a league-worst 38 games. While Oberholtzer and Velasquez might not yield positive results immediately, Zolecki noted that acquiring two starters who could one day string together 300-400 innings combined for a late-inning pitcher who will only pitch between 60-80 innings per season seems like a favorable trade-off. 

Oberholtzer started more games than Velasquez last season, going 2-2 in eight starts with a 4.46 ERA. Velasquez saw his time split in the rotation and bullpen, appearing in 19 games and posting a 4.37 ERA.

Per Zolecki, Velasquez was the fourth-ranked prospect in the Astros’ farm system and 69th among all prospects around the league. In nine appearances in Double-A ball in 2015, the 23-year-old dominated, going 4-0 with a 1.91 ERA. 

A right-hander, Velasquez has a lively fastball that can reach upward of 96 mph with the ability to tail away from left-handed hitters. He pairs that with a solid changeup and breaking stuff that can really move when he’s on his game. 

He showed just what he’s capable of in his major league debut against the Chicago White Sox, per MLB:

At 26 years old, Oberholtzer has had some trouble sticking with the big club in Houston over the first three years of his career. He went 7-4 in 12 starts in Triple-A in 2015 with a 3.86 ERA while splitting time in the majors. 

He’s probably best remembered during his stint with the Astros for throwing at Alex Rodriguez during a game in June. 

The lefty doesn’t have overpowering stuff. His fastball won’t go much higher than 90 mph, but he has some off-speed pitches that could baffle opposing hitters. 

According to Brooks Baseball, Oberholtzer has a changeup, slider and curve that are all within four miles per hour of each other. With a nearly identical release for all of those pitches, it’s difficult for batters to recognize which pitch is coming at them.    

You can see his arsenal in work here, per MLB:

Ideally, these two could become a solid duo placed in the middle of the Phillies’ rotation as the team looks to be in the process of building itself a nice young rotation that could be led by 22-year-old Aaron Nola, who went 6-2 with a 3.59 ERA. 

The third player in the deal, Fisher, spent 2015 playing A-ball, where he hit .275 with 22 home runs and 87 RBI. 

At 22 years old, he still has plenty of work to do on his game both offensively and defensively. His arm is average, which would be an invitation for aggressive runners to take advantage of if he does one day patrol the outfield and Citizens Bank Ballpark. 

His swing, while nice, is a bit long, and he needs to work on making contact at the plate. If he can’t put the ball in play, promotions to the upper levels of the Phillies organization will be few and far between. 

Moore Baseball takes a look at some of his swings during his time in A-ball this year:

It’s a solid haul for the Phillies, who are gaining a pair of arms that could make an immediate impact along with a bat they could possibly mold into a productive outfielder. After a 63-99 2015 season, though, almost anything looks better than what they previously had.

 

Stats courtesy of FanGraphs, MiLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Pete Mackanin Named Phillies Interim Manager for Remainder of Season

The Philadelphia Phillies have announced on their Twitter that Pete Mackanin will remain the club’s interim manager for the rest of the 2015 season. 

Mackanin, formerly the team’s third base coach, was appointed interim manager after Ryne Sandberg resigned on Friday, June 26, with the Phillies starting the season 26-48. Sandberg was 119-159 from 2013-2015 in Philadelphia.  

A former infielder for the Texas Rangers, Phillies, Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins, Mackanin played nine seasons in the major leagues. According to Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press (via ABC News), he managed parts of two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2005 and the Cincinnati Reds in 2007. He is 53-53 in those stints. 

Entering Tuesday night, the Phillies are 27-51, 16.0 games behind the National League East-leading Washington Nationals. They have three more games at home against the Milwaukee Brewers before embarking on a 10-game road trip before the All-Star break.    

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com