Is Ryan Howard now a sure fire 1st rounder?

[The Artful Dodger]

In a standard redraft or keeper league, I see Howard going in the late first round. I'll even be bold enough to say he could go for the seventh or eighth overall pick in keepers.

[sixer03fan]

[quote="Krunk City King$"]funny how some talk as if they do not EVER see him cutting down on his K rate and improving on that in the future......maybe even next season.

afterall, he improved on hitting against lefties this season....dramatically.

and he improved on hitting after his junior year of college when his BA dipped below .300....which caused some scouts to think that this kid was not anything special....

my league penalizes for Ks......but if this man leads the league in HRs and in RBI after his second year in the league, in that lineup batting higher (finally), and in that shoebox ballpark....

i view him as a keeper and a first rounder down the road! he generated empty points early in the season cause he hit so low in philly's batting order. many of his HRs were solo. now there are more ducks on the pond when he comes to the plate nowadays.

his productions should increase next season. even with the Ks he is the 4th best 1st baseman in my league. behind Ortiz, Pujols and Morneau.

[/quote]

i agree with you for the most part. but i'd definitely take him over morneau

[TheYanks04]

I still dont see him as a first rounder. At least not in the top of the first round. 1st base is a deep postion and for solid numbers you can grab a Berkman type in the 4th round or so. He's good dont get me wrong but I just see better postion options out there right now

Berkman will likely not last til the 4th round. He is late 2nd to 3rd round material imo. Howard likely goes soemwhere early round 2 in most leagues.

[Kingctb27]

Yeah, easily. He has better hr and rbi #'s than pretty much everyone.

[Yoda]

Boy where are all those people who were so against Howard prior to the season?

[Big Tiex]

i think he will be a late 1st round selection next year. the thing about him i like the most is his ability to drive the ball to the opposite field. i just think he will get better and cut down on the k's next year.

[Gold Rush]

Howard's HR/Fly Ball rate is by far the highest in the league at 36.9%, while second place is below 30%. I think that will level out a little bit next year, although it should still be high do to his power, it shouldn't be THAT high.

He K's way too much to project a consistent .290 average. He could hit that one year then he could hit .260-.270 the next with the amount he K's.

He's at a pitiful .245 clip with RISP, I'd expect a dive in RBI's next year

With 1B being a as deep of a position that it is, I'd stay away from Ryan Howard in the first round. I'd much rather wait on a guy like Morneau that will go in the 3rd possibly 4th round.

Point being, I'd much rather take a safer pick (guys like Cabrera or Crawford) than take the risk that Howard will enjoy the type of season he is having this season

[jdsun1]

Unfortunately I declined the trade offer of obtaining Howard for my Teix back in April.

I can see him going top 5-10 in most leagues, for sure. Stupid Teix. He single handedly sunk my season (although I'm still in 4th in a H2H league, so who knows what will happen in the playoffs).

Howard is going to rake for many years to come.

Single handedly for me too. However I was one spot away from getting howard as my 1B man instead I got sexson. I would def. take Howard in the 1st though given the chance.

[OneLoveBoomer]

I would not take Howard in the first round.

[CadensDad]

Boy where are all those people who were so against Howard prior to the season?

I'm here and I was wrong, I'm not intrested in him for next year unless he falls to me in the later part of the 2nd round. I think there are better buys out there in shallow postions. Howards good dont get me wrong but there are ALOT of good first basemen......ALOT