Philadelphia Phillies: Spencer Howard did enough to earn spot in rotation

Despite ending up with the loss, Spencer Howard did just enough to earn a spot in the Philadelphia Phillies rotation moving forward.

In what ended up being one of the most anticipated call-ups in Philadelphia Phillies history, starting pitcher Spencer Howard took the mound for the first time in the major leagues on Sunday. Facing off against the Atlanta Braves, the 24 year old righty had himself a solid debut despite the box score not reflecting as such.

Howard finished his outing allowing seven hits and four runs through just 4.2 innings, which obviously doesn’t look too great on paper. However, the numbers simply don’t tell the full story.

Howard looked electric on the mound, with his pitches being as good as advertised. His fastball was clocking in at the high 90s, and his off speed stuff had Atlanta batters fooled all night (four strikeouts). Howard’s control was impressive for a rookie as well, as he walked just one batter. Normally young pitchers tend to struggle with keeping their pitches across the plate, whereas Howard seemed to have this aspect of his game on lock (56 of his 81 pitches were strikes).

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Howard really only got “beat” twice during his start, allowing a two-run home run to Freddie Freeman and a solo homer to Ronald Acuna Jr. Considering these are two of the best hitters in all of baseball, and regularly launch bombs against All-Star caliber pitchers and Cy Young candidates, this really isn’t something to feel upset about.

While it may be concerning to see the phrase “7.71 ERA” attached to the organization’s number one pitching prospect, Phillies fans should be overall excited for what Howard has to offer for the future. Making your debut against the reigning NL East champions is no small task, and he handled it with poise and conviction, despite being called up mere minutes before the game began.

In all reality, had the Phillies offense actually capitalized on some of their early run scoring opportunities, this game could have gone a completely different way for Howard. Getting that initial run support is huge for pitchers (especially young ones), and it could have led to a far more comfortable and relaxed version of Howard. Spot the righty a 2-0 lead to start the game, and he’s likely walking away with a win in this scenario.

In just his first start, Howard has already shown more promise than Zach Eflin or Vince Velasquez have in years. For that alone, he’s earned a permanent spot in the rotation moving forward in my book. He possesses some truly elite pitches in his arsenal, and he will only get better and better as time goes on. A trio of Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, and Howard moving forward has genuine potential to be one of the best one-two-three punches in the league.

The stat sheet looked ugly and the result was not what Phillies fans were hoping for, but all in all Howard had an extremely promising first start in the major leagues. His fastball was cooking, he was missing bats with his off-speed stuff, and he worked out of a handful of jams. Give him a few more games and I would expect that ERA to drop down around the 4.00 range.