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JUSTIN HOWARD
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FIRST BASEMAN
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Born: August 28, 1987 Height: 6′ 0″ Weight: 205 Bats: Left Throws: Left Drafted: 24th Round, 717th Overall, 2010 How Acquired: Draft College: New Mexico Agent: N/A |
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WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES
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| Howard went to Navarro JC and then to New Mexico, where he had a huge year as a senior. His stats require some caution, as the Lobos hit .346 as a team, and he appeared to have more doubles than HR power. Still, he made great progress with his plate discipline, aside from just mashing the ball. He’s not good defensively and has average speed. He also suffered a knee injury shortly before the draft. The exact nature of it wasn’t known at the time. Howard stated that he expected to be drafted much earlier and that the injury was the reason he wasn’t.
2010 Joined the GCL Pirates for the final three weeks of their season. He hit well, as you’d expect from a 23-year-old in rookie ball. 2011 Spent the year with West Virginia. With Matt Curry at first, Howard played mostly in the outfield, which at least will help his versatility. Once Curry got promoted to Altoona, Howard played first. He showed only a decent bat, hitting 262/369/393. He had a lot of doubles and walks, but six HRs isn’t enough for a first baseman who strikes out once every four ABs. He had a pretty significant platoon split, with a .663 OPS against LHPs and .797 against RHPs. 2012 Howard had a solid season, hitting for average, drawing walks and cutting down significantly on his K rate. Unfortunately, he hit for even less power. He didn’t play very much the first two months, but got into about two-thirds of the team’s games the last two months. He played a little at first and in right, but was mainly a DH. All of his HRs and triples came against LHPs, leading to a better OPS against them than against RHPs. Howard has a good bat and in 2012 showed very good plate discipline, but the lack of power for a corner player will relegate him to organizational status. He’ll be at Altoona in 2013, primarily in the outfield. |
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STATS
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| Baseball Reference–Minors Fangraphs MiLB.com
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