Ryan Howard has a new stance on upping his numbers

Introducing the NEW (since the other one has been proven quite iffy) Verducci Effect!

“I’m just trying to find a spot where I can feel comfortable covering both sides of the plate,” he said. “I want to be in a place where I don’t tie myself up on an inside pitch, but I can still get my arms extended to reach the outside part of the plate. I’ve always been pretty far off the plate to make sure my arms were extended. There’s an adjustment in my vision and depth perception because of where you are in your stance and where your head is.”

Recently, it was brought to Howard’s attention by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci that the Phillies’ slugging first baseman was being force-fed more breaking balls than any other hitter in the major leagues. The numbers came courtesy of the remarkable number-crunching people at Stats Inc.

...Verducci theorized that the New York Yankees may have rewritten the scouting report on Howard during their six-game World Series victory last fall by throwing Howard breaking balls an astonishing 57.4 percent of the time.

...Howard called the breaking-ball figures “an interesting piece of information.”

Verducci said he considered Howard “something of a late-inning liability” because managers can neutralize his tremendous power by matching up lefthanded breaking ball pitchers against him. He pointed out that Howard is a career .298 hitter in the first six innings of a game and a .237 hitter after the seventh.