First of all, in 2009, Ryan Howard is seeing the fewest fastballs in his career.  Here are the declining percentages:  2005–58.3%, 2006–53%, 2007–51.3%, 2008–51.2%, 2009–44.4%.  That is quite a drop off.

He is seeing more curveballs, but the most drastic increase is in the number of sliders he is seeing.  Here are the increasing percentages:  2005–12.6%, 2006–17.6%, 2007–20.3%, 2008-20%, 2009–24.8%.

So what?  Pitchers have figured out that Howard mashes the fastball and struggles with the slider so they have continued to throw him less of the former and more of the latter.  Simple, right? 

Here’s the thing though, Ryan Howard leads all of baseball in runs above average against the slider at 12.3 (Ryan Braun is 2nd at 10.4, Matt Holliday is 3rd at 10.2, Chase Utley is 4th at 8.8).   Howard’s production against the slider has skyrocketed this year (it was -6.6 in 2008 and -8.6 in 2007), which flies in the face of all the chasing and bad ball swinging we see from him.

Any diminished production we may see from him this year (the season is not over yet) will be directly attributable to a decline in his production off of fastballs.  Check out his precipitous drop in runs above average against the fastball over the last few years:  2006–55.4, 2007-37.9, 2008–23.6, 2009–15.8.

It’s all for the same reason too: money.  Everything favors the offense now (and has for some time)——–smaller ballparks, smaller strike zones, etc——–because more offense=more excitement=more fans=more money, and the DH is an integral part of that equation.  That’s not to mention the extended careers of and the money made by the DHs themselves, which I’m sure the player’s union does not want to see eliminated.

I agree that the game should be played by the nine men on the field and I’d rather have the AL get rid of the DH, but I just don’t see it happening.  Too many things are lined up against removing the DH from the game.  That leaves the NL with the decision to either fight the good fight for the sake of purity and history, continue on without the DH, and leave itself at a competitive disadvantage, or to give in and accept the DH.  

i dunno too much bout baseball’s history but the fact that they added the DH must be insulting to the old salts who played the game. the fact that the pitcher is just some guy that throws the ball and sits and there is a non position player is a hit to the soul of baseball. you wanna see all 9 guys hustling every inning. A pitcher trying to hit is part of the game. the DH was just added to boost offense kinda like how the NBA keeps making rules to make defense harder and we get 140pt games. its just dumb that there is a guy who hits and then sits. if u’re gonna have a lumbering 4oyr old with a big bat, might as well make ‘em pay by making ‘em field a position. Heck at thia rate guys like Ryan Howard can stay in the league till theyre 90. Bonds might have reached 1000 HRs if he had jumped to the AL.