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Greatest Phillies player: Ryan Howard or Mike Schmidt?
by Scott Butler 11/30/10

Who is the greatest Phillies player of all time? If you were to ask this question ten years ago, the most common answer would be Mike Schmidt. And why not? He leads the Phillies in games played, hits, runs, total bases, walks, home runs, and RBIs. But if you ask this same question in another ten years, the answer will be Ryan Howard.

Over the next few weeks, we see how the Phillies current core of Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and Chase Utley measure up with the all-time Phils' greats. We naturally begin with the big boppers: Mike Schmidt and Ryan Howard.

Obviously Mike Schmidt is going to win virtually every offensive category since he played 18 seasons compared to just 7 for Howard. Therefore, we won't waste our time on the career totals.

What we will do instead is compare apples to apples by averaging their statistics over 162 games. That is the best way to compare stats because it shows exactly how a "typical" season would look. Viewed this way presents a very clear victor in the Howard vs. Schmidt debate. Quick note: categories in which Howard wins will be positive numbers highlighted in yellow and categories Howard loses are negative numbers highlighted in green. Here they are:

162 GAME AVERAGES
	PA	AB	R	H	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	HBP
Howard	697	599	102	167	3	47	138	2	86	192	0.279	0.372	0.572	0.944	343	6
Schmidt	678	563	101	151	4	37	107	12	102	127	0.267	0.380	0.527	0.908	297	5
Difference	19	36	1	16	-1	10	31	-10	-16	65	0.012	-0.008	0.045	0.036	46	1

And the winner is:

RYAN HOWARD

"The Big Piece" beats Schmidt in nearly every major offensive category. He averages 10 more homers and 31 more RBIs per season. Howard is 12 points higher in batting average, 45 points higher in slugging percentage, and 36 points higher in On-base plus slugging percentage (OBP).

Howard doesn't completely outweigh Schmidt, though. Schmitty averages 10 more stolen bases, 16 more walks, 65 less strikeouts, and his OBP is 9 points higher. We also left out the fact that Mike Schmidt might be THE BEST DEFENSIVE THIRD BASEMAN OF ALL TIME and Howard is an average fielder at first base.

Overall, Howard is clearly better in the power numbers, but Schmidt gets on base quite a bit more and strikes out significantly less.

Postseason Batting

There is a clear difference between Howard and Schmidt when it comes to the playoffs. Howard has decent postseason numbers, while Schmidt was, ehem, let's face it he stunk in October. Not much analysis is necessary here considering Howard won or tied EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY. See for yourself:

POSTSEASON BATTING
	G	PA	AB	R	H	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	HBP
Howard	41	178	151	21	42	1	7	27	1	25	61	0.278	0.382	0.517	0.899	78	7
Schmidt	36	158	140	19	33	0	4	16	1	15	27	0.236	0.304	0.386	0.690	54	0
Difference	5	20	11	2	9	1	3	11	0	10	34	0.042	0.078	0.131	0.209	24	7

Career Totals

Finally, here are their career totals. Schmitty wins easily considering he played 11 more seasons than Howard. You can expect Howard to shatter these numbers if he can remain healthy.

CAREER TOTALS
	PA	AB	R	H	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Howard	3765	3237	552	902	16	253	748	11	465	1035	0.279	0.372	0.572	0.944
Schmidt	10062	8352	1506	2234	59	548	1595	174	1507	1883	0.267	0.380	0.527	0.908
Diff	-6297	-5115	-954	-1332	-43	-295	-847	-163	-1042	-848	0.012	-0.008	0.045	0.036

The numbers do not lie. Howard is far better at this point in his career than Schmidt. Granted, Howard plays in the "live ball era" and isn't half the defensive player, but he is making it harder and harder to argue that Schmidt is the best Phillies hitter of all-time.


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