Our 70 in 70 countdown rolls on and today we’ll take a look back at two former BlueClaws players, now excelling in the big leagues. We’ll start with Ryan Howard.

The Phillies slugger, just signed to a new three-year, $54 million contract, hit 58 home runs in his MVP year of 2006. Howard was a BlueClaw in 2002 after being draft in the fifth-round of the 2001 draft out of SW Missouri State. He was NL Rookie of the Year in 2005 and finished second in MVP voting after a slow start in 2008.

David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News looks at the average annual value of MLB contracts and notes that Howard’s deal is tenth largest in the sport. The Yankees have the top two (A-Rod, Sabathia), three of the top four (Teixeira) and four of the top six (Jeter).

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The other former BlueClaws we’ll look at is Howard’s 2002 teammate in Lakewood, Gavin Floyd. Now with the White Sox after being part of the Freddy Garcia deal, Floyd went 11-10 but had an impressive 2.73 ERA with the 2002 ‘Claws. On May 8th of the year, he was named Phillies Minor League pitcher of the week.

Last year, Floyd nearly pitched two different no-hitters, taking one into the eighth and another into the ninth. Floyd, by the way, pitched a no-hitter for the BlueClaws in 2002 but lost the game 1-0.

While Floyd is doing very well with the White Sox, Howard is clearly on another level. But when they were in Lakewood, it was Floyd who was more highly-touted and Howard who flew under the radar.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 9:50 am and is filed under 70 in 70, General Baseball, Past BlueClaws, Phillies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.