Recently, Ryan Howard has cut down on his strikeouts.  He is making contact with the ball and putting it in play.  Still, he has 190 strikeouts this season and is on pace for 205! Looking deeper into his numbers, Ryan has played 150 games this year and has had 570 at bats.  He strikes out exactly once every 3 at bats.  He has also scored 93 times, hit a homerun 44 times, and knocked in a total of 133 runs.  All of this has been done while only putting the ball in to the field of play 2 out of every 3 at bats.  Much has been made of his record high strikeout level.  We are led to believe that Howard will break the strikeout record and since baseball has been around for so many years, it may be years before this dubious record is again approached or broken. My question is, why?

I would be curious to know how many people know who is second in the mlb in strikeouts.  Also, how far behind Ryan Howard is he?  How close is his production to that of Ryan Howard's? 

The answer is Mark Reynolds of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Mark has struck out 187 times!! Only 3 less times than Ryan Howard.  He has done so in 71 less at bats and in 8 less games.  With 12 games remaining, why is it a given that Ryan Howard will own the strikeout record?? Reynolds is actually on pace for one more strikeout than Howard is on pace for.  Ryan Howard has played in every game this season and is likely to play in each game remaining.  With Arizona still in a playoff race Mark Reynolds is likely to play until the end as well.  He has 27 homeruns and 92 RBI.  These are very good numbers but, not quite the numbers that should negate HIS high strikeout totals from national attention. 

Ryan Howard gets unfair criticism due to his high strikeout totals.  Sure, he looks lost at the plate sometime.  But, no one in the MLB since his arrival as a fulltime player even approaches his run production.  Here is to hoping that Reynolds overtakes the lone blemish on Ryan Howard's career resume.