Mule K'ing

If Travis Hafner's nickname is PRONK and Adam Dunn is known as the DONKEY, I suggest Ryan Howard go by the name of THE MULE. Why you ask? Well he kinda looks like a mule but ask any fantasy owner what they think of him this year and you will probably hear something with a lot of cuss words and insults so I think THE MULE is actually quite nice considering the alternatives. I have been calling Mr. Howard THE MULE so much recently that even close personal friends are catching on. In a recent interview the Phillies coach, Charlie Manual, was asked what he thought was wrong with Ryan Howard and he responded, "Don't worry about The Mul....I mean, Ryan, he will bounce back, a lot of great players go through a minor slump." You see, even Howard's coach almost let it slip. They guy has K'd 52 times this year, he is on pace to shatter his own record of 199 strikeouts in one season. This guy is a gal damn MULE. Anyways, I was recently reading an article on philly.com about what is wrong with The MULE. Here is a bit of what was said about THE MULE and his struggles:

He's not swinging at strikes. He's chasing bad balls," Manuel said. "He's not following the ball. He's not staying on it. He's swinging too early and missing it by a lot." Manuel said Howard's problems are part mental and part physical.

"It's mental," Schmidt said. "But what you go through leads to physical problems. Instead of waiting and trying to smoke that ball right out of the catcher's mitt, you lose your sense of how to do that.

"I'm sure Ryan's mind is playing some tricks on him. You miss balls you should be driving, and you get frustrated. It's tough to figure out how to get it back."

"With Ryan, you're seeing his right shoulder fly out. His swing is probably a smidge more of an uppercut than it usually is, and his hands might be coming forward a little too soon. It's tough to generate power when that happens."

He's got to stay back and trust his hands. He just doesn't trust his hands right now. He's jumping out there on everything. He's not waiting on the ball. He's flying out.

"I think a lot of it is the [infielders'] shift, too. He knows they're going to pitch him inside, so he's trying to be quick.

So basically all THE MULE has to do is, trust his hands, stay back, wait on the pitch, start swinging at better pitches, stop letting his right shoulder fly out, have less of an uppercut, keep his hands from coming forward, stop jumping at the ball, and convince the other team to stop employing the infield shift. Thats it. Fantasy owners should feel at ease now.

That over there is THE MULE taking a dump before he hits.