Larry Lee, the head baseball coach at Cal Poly, asked Spencer Howard after the season to list what he had done to make himself a better pitcher.
Howard filled out an entire sheet – “very detailed,” Lee said – but one part stuck out. Howard, whom the Phillies drafted Monday in the second round, had meditated each morning during the season. And his career would never be the same.
The righthander began the season in Cal Poly’s bullpen after being told two years earlier that the Mustangs did not even have a spot for him. He finished the year as the 45th pick in the draft and a player the Phillies believe was the draft’s top righthanded pitcher.