While the team didn’t explicitly say his name, it’s looking likely that today is the debut of the Phillies’ top prospect Spencer Howard. Manager Joe Girardi mentioned the initials “S.H.” when asked who would be starting the second game of today’s doubleheader, so unless Scott Hartnell has suddenly developed a curveball, we can be pretty safe in our assumption of who it will be.
Many of you are familiar with Howard and how much his success could mean to the team this year and beyond. It’s an enormous amount of pressure that is being heaped on the young man’s shoulders, but that is partially due to the fact that poor player development on the part of the team has forced us as fans to bring those expectations out when a player shows even a shred of potential.