Ryan Howard
'The Big Piece' is the only player in Phillies history to hit 40 home runs on four separate occasions, accomplishing it every season from 2006 through 2009. Howard may take the title of 'Most Raw Power' for any player to put on a Phillies uniform, but his career average was a respectable .258 for his career, largely buoyed by a .313 mark during his bonkers 2006 MVP season, when he set a team record with 58 dingers. He remains the only man to hit 50 for the club. It was truly awe-inspiring to watch him come out of virtually nowhere to blast mammoth home runs as the preeminent slugger in the game for almost a decade.
Ryan Howard's 382 home runs for the Phillies put him firmly in second place on the club's all-time list, and it's fair to say that the 2006-2009 stretch is one of the absolute best extended performances at the dish that we've ever seen in the game, as he AVERAGED 50 home runs and 143 RBI during that time period. Alas, Howard comes up probably one or two monster seasons short of being considered a slam dunk Hall of Famer, although his place in Phillies lore is forever secured. His trophy case is full, even including a Home Run Derby victory. At the very least, we'll be seeing him on the Phillies' Wall of Fame someday in the very near future.
Howard attempted to return to the bigs with both the Braves and Rockies, but his minor league tenures there fizzled out, leaving him as solely a Phillie on MLB ledgers. And that's just fine with all of us. Nowadays, Ryan Howard would like to sell you chicken sandwiches. With each bite, remember just how fortunate we were to witness his prodigious power displays during a golden era of this franchise.