Nor did the cautious skipper plug Howard immediately into the cleanup spot that was his destiny from the day the Phillies signed him in the fifth round of the 2001 draft for a $230,000 bonus. The Phillies' No. 1 pick that June day was Gavin Floyd and the high-school righthander set the Phillies back a staggering $4.2 million. Staggering summarizes a career where the White Sox are trying to locate a fastball velocity that might have never been there in the first place. But Floyd is a bedtime story for a night when you're really trying to scare hell out of the kids. He is the Keyser Sose of the amateur draft. Every scout should have Gavin's picture in his wallet right next to his organization credit card.
Some people wonder if the Phillies would have stumbled to that 10-14 April if Manuel had plugged Howard into the No. 4 spot Opening Day and just left him there. I didn't realize how long it took Charlie to pull the trigger until I ran through the box scores yesterday.
In that stumbling April, Howard batted in the No. 6 spot 15 times. And in back-to-back games against immortal Nationals lefty Billy Traber and Marlins southpaw Scott Olsen, he batted seventh behind David Bell. A little bit of diss, a little bit of dat . . .
The 2005 Rookie of the Year and 2006 MVP didn't bat fourth until May 17, and that was just for one game. It was early July before Manuel wrote his name
into the No. 4 spot for good. His new cleanup hitter pounded the written-off Phillies back into the wild-card race. Part of the reason for Manuel's reluctance to make the obvious, necessary, move was that Pat Burrell, the
incumbent cleanup man and
second highest-paid Phil behind traded Bobby Abreu had a solid if unspectacular spring. April and May were his two best months. Pat didn't crash and burn until after the All-Star break.
