With the exception of Mike Schmidt, no player in Philadelphia Phillies' history has ever hit 500 home runs. So on June 14th, 2004, when Jim Thome hit his 400th career home run at Citizens Bank Park, it was a pretty special moment in Phillies' history.
Though he quickly made it feel as though he did, Thome didn't really belong to Philadelphia. Prior to playing a game for the Phillies, he had hit 334 home runs, and though the 400th home run moment was special, Thome went on to hit his 500th home run on a walk-off in Chicago and became one of eight men to ever hit 600 home runs in Minnesota. So to Thome, the 400th home run was just another great moment in a hall of fame career, not the defining home run of his career.
Ryan Howard has long since passed having his time. Though some of the positive memories have faded, his September 2006 afternoon mashing of three home runs to become the first Phillie to ever hit 50 home runs was a special moment. Chase Utley and him hitting back-to-back home runs in a game three route of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series was a special moment. Howard's career belongs to Philadelphia much more than Thome's ever did, but he seems destined to fall just short of getting to have the moment of hitting his 400th home run with the Phillies like Thome did.
Howard enters what is all but guaranteed to be his last season in Philadelphia with 357 career homeruns, 43 home runs away from 400. Though it didn't take all of these home runs to reach 400, Thome hit 42 home runs the year he hit his 400th run home run. Howard couldn't be at a more different point in his career. Howard hasn't hit 43 or more home runs since 2009, and that trend isn't going to change this season, meaning he won't hit his 400th home run until at least 2017.
There's a very good chance that Howard could finish 2016 something like 20 home runs away from 400 for his career. The Phillies won't bring Howard back for 2017, at any price, just for him to have a chance to hit his 400th home run with the team, nor should they. It's just unfortunate, given that Howard's recent lack of success has caused some to forget just how good he was in his prime, that Howard and the fan-base will miss out on the chance for what would have been a special moment.
Phillies nuggets
- Though him and Ryan Jackson combined for a fairly embarrassing missed foul ball in the game, Jorge Alfaro's fourth inning throw-out of a would-be base-stealer was my biggest takeaway from the Phillies' Sunday win over the University of Tampa. Alfaro is probably the most boom or bust player in the team's system, but he's going to be a very good hitter and has a great arm. If the Phillies can even make him serviceable in the rest of the aspects of being a catcher, he seems a lot more likely to be a boom than a bust.
- The 2009 Phillies had four players — Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth — hit over 30 home runs. Since then, Howard has the only two seasons of over 30 home runs, hitting 31 in 2010 and 33 in 2011. Not a single Phillies player has had a 30 home run season since 2011. It's funny how things work in baseball.
- If Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino both have successful spring stints and make their respective major league rosters, they will make a combined $4 million. Meanwhile, Homer Bailey, who has a career 4.19 ERA, will make $18 million in 2016.
- Mind-blowing stat of the week: Sammy Sosa had seven seasons where he hit over 40 home runs (three of those times he hit over 60 home runs), is in the 600 home run club and has hall of fame numbers. Despite that, he's 46.4 career WAR short of Mike Schmidt, per Fangraphs. To put that in perspective, Jimmy Rollins' career WAR is 49.3 and he will get a hard look when his name eventually appears on the hall of fame ballot. So Schmidt's career, according to WAR, was almost a potential hall of famer better than one of the most prolific home run hitters ever. (Comparing the WARs of players who played different positions and in different eras is an in-exact science at best, this stat was just interesting.)
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features
