NEW YORK - It was only the second week of the season and Ryne Sandberg was already answering questions about Ryan Howard's struggles at the plate. Some of the first baseman's inconsistency stemmed from him not taking advantage of the abundance of fastballs thrown his way, the Phillies manager noted at the time.
Six weeks later, Howard is still seeing a higher percentage of fastballs than he has in any season since his 2005 rookie of the year campaign. But a big factor in his ability to turn a .380 slugging percentage on May 2 into a resurgent .