Ryan Howard worked out Thursday without a boot on his left foot. Howard fielded grounders while sitting on a stool and wasn't wearing a protective boot on the field for the first time since a setback in his recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon three weeks ago. Howard had a procedure on Feb. 27 to remove an infection around his surgically repaired left Achilles tendon. "I don't really think it was a setback," Howard told ESPN.com senior baseball writer Jayson Stark. "I looked at it as a blessing in disguise."