A general rule in baseball is you better be able to hit your weight or you are really pathetic. It is not that difficult since this usually only requires hitting about .230. Players are usually sent tot he minors before their batting average gets a chance to descend that far, so this rare achievement truly deserves praise and admiration.Mariners fans have grown accustomed to Richie Sexson (240 pounds, .216 average) achieving this rare phenomenon and Dodgers fans pretty much expected Andruw Jones (240 pounds last time anyone checked, .165 average) to be awful. (note: Chin-Lung Hu can probably be included in this category but he will be spared the humiliation of publication of either his weight or batting average).
But nobody really expected this from Ryan Howard. Howard is a big guy, weighing 256 pounds, so if he were hitting .240 nobody would care. However, his .208 batting average is embarrassing no matter how you look at it. Howard is a career .280 hitter and has made serious runs for the MVP award the last two years, so this is surprising and a huge concern to the Phillies.
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Doctor X -- the 'Baseball Medic' -- is an anonymous U.S. government trauma specialist with a Duke University sports medicine background and more than 20 years experience in emergency medicine. From time to time he considers MLB rumors, events and news reports as they pertain to baseball players' injuries, illnesses and various other disabilities, both on the field and off.
MLB Rumors editor Greg Fieg is a former sports news editor and award-winning writer whose bylines have appeared on the wires of the Associated Press and in numerous publications, including San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio Light, Houston Chronicle and Philadelphia Bulletin. He formerly was posted in various positions on the U.S.-Mexican border with Freedom Newspapers, and was a regular, independent contributor to United Press International.