Even though most considered Albert Pujols, Joey Votto or even Adrian Gonzalez to be the front runners for the National League M.V.P., Phillies slugger Ryan Howard just may have the inside track. After a lackluster beginning to the season, Howard is now leading the N.L. in RBIs while also posting an average above .300. As the Phillies finally have caught fire and started making up some ground in the N.L. East, Howard has been the consistent power threat that they have needed to get back on track.

With Howard posting a meager .794 OPS in April and Jimmy Rollins going down with a significant injury, the Phillies stumbled out of the gates and were quickly behind in the standings. Though most considered the Phillies the overwhelming favorite to run away with the division, the baseball gods proved that they have a sense of humor; at various parts of the season, even the hapless New York Mets were ahead of the supposedly unbeatable Phillies, a team that many speculated were the best National League team in decades.

But after struggling early on, Howard slowly began to wake up and has been steadily gaining strength throughout the season. Howard has improved his run production in each of the last three months and suddenly is well ahead of everyone else in terms of RBIs with 81 as of July 28. His closest competitor at that time was Albert Pujols with 70. Not only has Howard begun knocking in runs left and right, but he’s also picked up his batting average and continues to push it higher and higher. Through 100 games, Howard had a .302 batting average and the last time he hit .300 (2006) he won the M.V.P.

What is perhaps even more impressive is how much improvement he’s made in the striking out department. Since his first full season in 2006, Howard has ranked either number one or number two in strikeouts in the National League, with human windmills Adam Dunn and Mark Kamagra Gold Reynolds being his only real competition. This season, however, Howard has struck out just 99 times, which puts him on pace to have by far the least amount of strikeouts in his career. Though Howard has the type of run-producing approach that will always guarantee plenty of strikeouts, learning to make more contact makes him an even more formidable hitter than he already is.

More importantly for the Phillies, 2010 is a season in which they need Howard to be one of the best players in the league. Not only do they need his massive moonshots to sell plenty of Philadelphia Phillies tickets but they simply cannot catch the surprising Atlanta Braves without him. Even though the Phillies added one of the best pitchers in the game in Roy Halladay, they have been surprisingly inconsistent offensively and have squandered many quality starts from not only Halladay but the rest of their pitching staff as well. Without Howard producing in the middle of their lineup, they would possibly even be surpassed by the Mets and Marlins, which would be nothing short of a disaster for Phillies fans.

But nearing the end of July, the Phillies put together a six-game winning streak and climbed to just 3.5 games back of Atlanta heading into the final two months of the season. With star second baseman Chase Utley expected back sometime in August, the Phillies need to continue to put the pressure on the youthful Braves as we move into the final stretch.

If Howard can continue to carry the team over the next few weeks and eventually get the Phillies back to the top of the division, he very well could win his second M.V.P. award in the process, even after a very mediocre start to the season. Though Pujols will certainly have something to say about the award by the end of the year, particularly if the Cardinals pull it together and run away with the N.L. Central, it will be hard to argue with Howard’s production and impact on his team.

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