it was only a matter of time.

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_mesg&forum=8&topic_id=2473885&mesg_id=2473885&listing_type=&page=294

Calm down. Boy is good hopefully he goes on a run for MVP like Trout has...but untill he does......

AND #actually nats have the best record in baseball right now today so they kinda are leading things...

But if we are going by your calculations then Josh Donaldson is also right there with those guys too? lol

Sorry to offend you fatboy.

and still leads in slugging. so, something.

At the time of my reply, btw I checked gnat day, he or Trout were not leading in any stat. Bringing up RBI's...word? One of the most laughable stats to most people who aren't romanticize the narrative. I do agree he'll eventually or some years be better than Trout. And he's starting to finally be right there in the convo of best player in all of baseball. But let's stop pretending that Trout can't steal that story real quick. Harper is amazing and living up to the hype now.

Tell her I'll be over after work and want my pork chops lightly salted this time, she drowned them hoes in grease last time

Trout's four consecutive years as the best (or second-best) player in baseball get flushed after two rough weeks?

And he's been facing that juggernaut Twins staff the past two games. That's reason enough to give the guy a break.

And since peak Trout was, like, 2013 and he's not even twenty-five then I don't really think it's that simple.

Though if Trout's aged out of his elite centerfield defense (which is possible - that's kind of a young man's thing) and this is more of a bat-to-bat comparison then you may end up being right.

Durability could come into play too. Last year was Harper's first healthy year. It can be true that he's actually that good but still not capable of staying healthy and productive for 150+ games annually. Eric Davis only spent a couple years being as good as he actually was too.

____________________

<================== Learn the name now before everyone gets dunked on

Loved that guy. Oh, what could have been. Imagine if he and the Straw played in the same outfield at their best. Good gawd!

And this Harper/Trout thing looks like discussing whether "Dream On" or "Arli$$" was the better HBO original programming before Oz and Sopranos debut'd.

I don't really have the emotional energy to hope for any sports outcomes past the Twins organization.

they fucked courtney cox together and you questioning which is better?

What a weird career she's had.

I nearly bit, like "it wasn't so bad." It absolutely was.

In fairness, I was like eleven or twelve when Dream On started airing. Until the last year or so it was on, it was purely a boobs-on-TV delivery system. And once we added Showtime and Red Shoe Diaries, Benben/Malick pretty much get the boot.

edited to add: while we're here, Trout definitely would have made an appearance on Arli$$ while Harper would have been smart enough to pass.

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_mesg&forum=8&topic_id=2473885&mesg_id=2473885&listing_type=&page=294

Braves, Fish, Braves, Phils, Fish...There is one good team in the East and they haven't played them yet.


And we're coming up on Harper's first arbitration year.

Also, I don't think arbitration year performance booms are a thing.

Any decent player on the Nats or Mets this year should rake while Stanton and Freeman have a walks race.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0730/005_mag_body_Harper07_RW_1536x1845.jpg

As confirmed by this Dave Cameron article from Fangraphs:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/bryce-harper-is-catching-up-to-mike-trout/

Which is now happening, up to .300/.405/.529. They're tied in fWAR and Trout leads slightly in bWAR.

On the other hand, that homerun that Harper hit on Sunday against the Twins had this sense of utter inevitability to it. I had a long argument with the bearded guy next to me about whether the Twins should have pitched to Harper or not. Seems pretty clear to me. I wouldn't even have walked Barry Bonds there, and Harper still isn't Bonds. Some guy kept yelling "you can't let Harper beat you" but he didn't really seem to care that:

a) technically, the Twins let Harper tie them
b) the root problem here is a bullpen that has Kevin Jepsen as king of the hill

In any case, I'll call Trout as a marginal victor at the end of the season in both brands of WAR - due to better defense, a bump for position, and the oddity that the Angels now play in a really tough scoring environment. But mostly, I want this argument to continue to play out because both players post 8+ win seasons well into the second-half of their 20's.

edit: I can't recall the last team before this current Angels squad that had so many players I like but still remains utterly boring and unwatchable. I usually scroll through the west coast games after each latest Twins trainwreck and I can't recall stopping on LAAA once yet this season. If Andrelton Simmons can't make you entertaining, you've kind of failed at sports.

😎

*it's a 1995 Angels joke. I'm going to go nap in my hobbit hole now.

"http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=dolphi001---"

I got nothing.

Was when an ingenuous drunk BoSox fans led me and the rest of the bleachers in an inspired call and response:

Leader: HEY SALMON!
FlocK: YOU SUCK!

This went on for every single second that salmon was in right field from the third inning on. Two straight hours, Salmon was 25 feet from thousands of people telling him he sucked.

Bryce Harper is rocking Make Baseball Fun Again hats, taking selfies at the museum with his jersey in the background, and getting boo'd in most parks he shows up in. He's got a couple years before becoming the biggest FA in sports since LeBron James.

Mike Trout watches the Weather Channel, gives boring interviews, and is being repped by his mother in an ad campaign. He signed a very reasonable contract extension that takes him to free agency at age 29.

Seems like they are on different tracks.

Baseball purists should have no problem appreciating both in parallel, but I definitely see casual fans eschewing Trout's marginal increases of value taking an extra base or covering 10 more feet in the OF for Bryce's helmet falling off on a double.

I dig Harper's whole thing, but my love for the boring ballplayer is limitless. Joe Mauer's milk campaign or LaTroy Hawkins joining members of his fanclub for Thanksgiving Dinner make Trout look like Bryce Harper killing and eating Manny Ramirez.

pinch hit bottom of the ninth full count, 34 hits a game-tying bomb. It was a Moment with a capital M. Play fair now homie.

http://gortons.com/sites/default/files/recipe/image/169.JPG

https://farmerstanproductions.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/manny.jpg

Discyss

I don't think it's very likely that he hits .355 all year, though he's still on the short list for best-in-baseball even without it.

It's also not impossible that he keeps something like this up. He's one of the rare current hitters who doesn't strike out that much, and Camden Yards is a nice park to hit in. Even players as talented as Machado are entitled to at least one season where they get a perfectly normal (if it happens to a guy we don't care about like Josh Harrison or Kurt Suzuki) batch of luck that makes their usual, impressive base of skills look other-worldly.

My guess is he'll find a slump or two this year that'll look uglier because he doesn't walk much. But like Trout, he makes himself really valuable even when he's not hitting with his defense and baserunning.

I don't think he'll stay there for too long but it's like one of those powers that Superman only has when the writers get backed into a corner. Like, why wouldn't he use this ability all the time? It would make everything easier.

Because that's probably correct, I just really like watching JJ Hardy play shortstop when he's healthy.

There's probably a parallel world where the Orioles announce after 2014 that they'll be moving Manny Machado to SS, letting Hardy go, and pursuing a FA 3B to upgrade the line-up. From there they sign Pablo Sandoval or Chase Headley and the team is worse off even though Manny is maximizing his personal utility.

He's still a good defender at the position, and I like his... whatever he's doing with his bat... in Camden Yards. And since nobody seems to think that Chance Sisco is going to catch (but he sure can hit - we saw him in Frederick last year) they could have been working him at third.

But yeah, your scenario where the bizarro Orioles take the gift of ARod-ian level performance at shortstop and ruin it by overspending on a crapforks thirdbaseman via free agency sounds a lot more likely.

Trout doesn't punk out going for that ball. I'm just saying.

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/wrigley-field-got-the-best-of-bryce-harper-on-critical-misplay-000722448.html

Wrigley Field got the best of Bryce Harper on critical misplay

By Mark Townsend
18 hours ago
Big League Stew

Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper had a moment he'll want to quickly forget on Saturday, and it happened at the most critical point in Washington's 8-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Harper, who was lined up in his customary spot in right field, found himself battling Wrigley Field's cramped quarters and even the forces of nature as he chased down, but ultimately dropped Addison Russell's slicing fly ball.


“I'm not going to run into the wall, plain and simple,” Harper said. “Got as close as I could and put my glove out and (the ball) nicked off it. Things happen. I'm not going to do it again - run into a wall - and I'm not playing for another year and not feeling healthy. I'd rather be in the lineup every day. That's just not going to happen.”

Those comments will definitely have people questioning Harper's effort. Then again, people were also critical of Harper when he was going full speed on those types of plays and constantly dealing with nagging injuries. He can't win either way, but game situation sometimes dictates that as well.

As noted, there was a lot riding on this play. Chicago had the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning of a then tied game. If Harper catches it, Washington escapes. There's also the question of had Harper not touched the baseball at all, would it have landed fair or foul? It would have been close, but we'll never know for sure.

Replay did confirm the baseball hit the chalk after deflecting off Harper's glove. The official scorer credited Russell with a two-run double, and the Cubs went on to win again, improving to an MLB best 23-6.

As for Harper. Well, he can count on thousands of tweets just like this one.

"Make baseball fun again unless I have to go close to a wall" -Bryce Harper

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) May 7, 2016

http://www.thinkbluela.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Harper-Injury-1.jpg

.

.

ijs

dude ran full speed head-on into a wall, damn near knocked himself out sprawled out on the ground like he got run over by a truck, but somehow his hair is still perfectly coiffed. gotta admit, that's pretty impressive.

Bryce got more hair flips though.

White Bonds

Just because he could have gotten the record outright. He saw 27 pitches today and never swung the bat.

His last 23 PA, his line is: .375/.739/.750. That's definitely Bondsian

>White Bonds


We just care about 'dem wins...Let him be the White Bonds all he wants...lol

My Cubs handled them...And that's with Jake A. not even being his dominant self...

BTW...Trout still better....

https://twitter.com/fugi0930/status/729714925493432320

Swell guy

https://streamable.com/ui6y

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2639064-bryce-harper-spotted-giving-jar-of-money-to-homeless-woman-in-chicago

http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/04/28/atlanta-braves-greg-maddux-clubhouse-pranks-were-pretty-gross

Broderick was trying to ruin Maddux's good name because he was tired of being mistaken for Greg out in public.

What do either of those players have to do with Harper being a punk?

I love this dude

Richards out. Heaney out soon. Simmons out. Pujols looking 150 years old and signed through 2022. Farm system emptied out for the acquisition of the aforesaid Simmons.

Maybe other sports will be a better referent here, but the Angels are sitting on a decent contract for a 24 year old player who can consistently roll out 8-10 WAR seasons and they look like a 65 win team now and for the next 2-3 years. That's... pretty rough.

He had three years there as the best player in the American League and the team won 73, 72, and 71. There were definitely bright spots in the line-up, but the pitching was brutal. Chan Ho Park couldn't stay healthy and wasn't worth the money when he was. Their best pitcher was old man Kenny Rogers sporting a 4.70 ERA (the only guy to make more than 50 starts over that three year period).

A-Rod felt dour enough about it to agree to take less money to play in Boston. They had an 89 win blip of a season after he left, but then went back under .500 for 4 straight seasons.

Side note: How the hell did the 2004 Rangers win 89 games?

Those early aughts Rangers squads used to just pummel some pretty good Twins teams into submission with their lineup, so I always need to be reminded that they were, on the whole, pretty terrible.

But when the lineup was intact, they could string together 1-9 guys who would hurt you. That's the only way to make up for a Rogers/Park-based staff.

The 71 win 03 line-up hit .266/.330/.454 with a 96 OPS+. The 89 win 04 line-up hit .266/.330/.457 with a 96 OPS+. So it doesn't look like there was a huge uptick there.

Pitchers had a 5.67 ERA with 969 RA in 2003 (4.90 FIP) and 4.53 ERA with 794 RA in 2004 (4.64 FIP). 175 less run allowed. That's huge. The 2003 team had a .316 BABIP and the 2004 team had a .301 BABIP. So it's probably a combination of better luck and better pitching.

They went from 1 decent pitcher (John Thomson) to 2 decent pitchers (Ryan Drese and Kenny Rogers). The bullpen really had an amazing year though. The top 8 relief guys all had an ERA+ of 118 or better, highlighted by Francisco Cordero. Inherited runners dropped from 325 to 299 but the number that scored went from 120 to 79.

So I'd say it was like 1/3 bullpen, 1/2 starters, 1/12 luck, 1/12 defense.

and yes the arod thing here in texas is still quite the sore spot

24mm this year and next for a guy to simply go away?

Terrible.

The ARod sore spot is pretty reasonable. I actually remembered their return for him as better than it was. Soriano was a good get, and Arias was (I think) a pretty good prospect. But that's it. And I think I read somewhere the Yankees offered Cano and the Rangers insisted on Arias? Oof if that's true.

15 against one caught stealing. It'd be cool to see him swipe 30 again this year.

Anything to help, I guess. It's weird being a fan of a terrible Twins fan and still being able to look kind of smugly at a team who can count on an 8-9 win centerfielder who still hasn't turned 25 yet.

Keith Law said he thinks they wont have anybody on the top-100 prospect list for next year, and that roster - past Trout - is flatlining hard.

http://images.onset.freedom.com/ocregister/gallery/m6y3s0-b78978399z.120120710055019000gnn18v6qg.3.jpg


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/nationals-journal/wp/2016/05/24/his-struggles-mounting-its-fair-to-wonder-whats-wrong-with-bryce-harper/

Bryce Harper’s struggles mounting, is it fair to wonder what’s wrong with him?

By Chelsea Janes May 24

Bryce Harper went 0 for 4 Monday night, extending an uncharacteristically long slump. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

About 40 minutes after the last out of the Nationals’ 7-1 loss to the Mets Monday night, Bryce Harper walked into the Nationals’ clubhouse. Most of his teammates were in the kitchen with postgame meals, or showered, dressed and long gone. The reigning National League MVP still wore his uniform, hat turned backwards, batting gloves on.

Harper walked to his locker, where he propped his bat against the side and peeled the batting gloves off his hands. They were red with what had to be dye from the gloves, because it is hard to imagine the number of swings it would take to leave them so inflamed.

Did he go straight to the cage after another quiet offensive day, after the most pronounced slump now has him hitting .183 in his last 25 games?

“No comment,” said Harper, though his batting practice pitcher Ali Modami was a late arrival to the clubhouse, too.

Harper has gone whole games without swinging the bat once. He’s gone series without attacking a first pitch. Harper saw nine pitches in four hitless at-bats Monday night, seemingly out in front or just behind pitches he normally squares up.

“I thought I got good pitches to hit. I felt great up there, to tell you guys the truth,” Harper said. “I don’t feel like there’s a problem at all. Just need to stay through the baseball. That’s pretty much it.”

The 23-year-old has not exactly been flailing helplessly during this stretch. He’s struck out five times in his last 10 games, but is still piling up walks, though only twice in the last three games, well off his normal pace. Harper appears seemingly less willing to let a decent pitch go by for the sake of walking.

“He’s kind of in between,” Nationals Manager Dusty Baker said. “He’s ahead of breaking balls or off-speed pitches and he was behind on fastballs. It’s about vision and recognition. Right now, I’ve been there. Everybody’s been there. When you’re hitting good, the ball looks like a beach ball and when you’re not swinging good it looks like a golf ball.”

“It’s about vision,” Baker added. “He’ll get it, because this guy has tremendous eyes and hand-eye coordination. It just happens to be that his name is Bryce Harper and he’s kind of spoiled us all.”

Harper has shown some signs of frustration over the last few days, including a rather violent disposal of his bat after one at-bat in Miami when he fired it to the ground so hard MLB’s Instagram account posted a video of the toss with the caption “When you realize tomorrow is Monday.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFuaN9gplrV/

Monday, he dropped a tough sliding catch on a line drive in the first inning. Sunday, he was caught stealing when he stopped halfway to third base, an uncharacteristic moment of hesitation. Harper has not endured many prolonged slumps recently, and did not have one to speak of last season. His manager thinks he has handled the trouble “pretty well.”

“How many times can you say ‘hang with ’em’, or how many times can you say pat a guy on the back. All you can do right now is give him some love,” Baker said. “Right now, one thing that’s not giving him love is his bat. That’s what gives the hitter love is when you’re getting hits. Right now, he just needs some understanding and love from all of us. He’ll come out of it.”

it's disgusting. he's not THAT good to not pitch to him like this.

>it's disgusting. he's not THAT good to not pitch to him like
>this.

he sure isn't.

I don't want to admit it, but millennial Bobby Abreu made me laugh out loud.

don't expect it to stop if all the walking keeps his timing fucked up...doesn't matter how low his 'bers get. Giving him 1-2 ABs per game seems like a good strategy.

barring injury he might finish top 5 ever.




Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg


Get 25% off www.karmaloop.com w/ rep code JR9103 |
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http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ranking-the-top-100-players-in-major-league-baseball-right-now-june-edition/

Bryce still #1 in hair flips though.

Let's see what random Twitter user Ralphdawgg_ thinks:

https://twitter.com/ralphdawgg_/status/740398642520064001

at least Chuck-dogg agrees with the Machado ranking:

https://twitter.com/matty_23ice/status/740396722652913666

Bryce hair flip game still #1

http://www.natsenquirer.com/2015/04/about-bryce-harpers-home-run-hair-flip.html

Bryce out here making baseball fun again

see post #68.

I actually enjoy watching him play, he's an awesome talent. I'm just fucking with y'all.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page/mlbrank100_matzharper/mlbrank-slow-naming-bryce-harper-legend

#MLBRank: Slow down before naming Bryce Harper a legend

In case you haven't noticed, the legend of Harper isn't going according to plan in 2016. Oh, he started the season well enough in defense of his MVP crown. Sure, you could argue that he didn't deserve to be named National League Player of the Month for April (see: Arenado, Nolan). But you can't argue that Harper -- with his 9 home runs, 24 RBIs and 1.120 OPS during that first month -- didn't come out of the gate mashing. But that was then, and this is now.

Since April 27, Harper is hitting just .231 with a .378 slugging percentage. His average ranks 149th out of 159 qualified major leaguers over that time, and his slugging ranks 130th. Even when Harper isn't getting hits, his prolific plate discipline -- he set a franchise record with 124 walks last season and walked 45 times in his first 39 games this year -- has a huge impact on the game. But since May 19, he has drawn a relatively human 27 free passes in 50 games. During that time, his .347 on-base percentage puts him firmly in the middle of the pack (38th out of 82 NL players).

On one hand, maybe it's just a slump. A really extended, nearly half-season slump that's about to end. Maybe Harper's on the verge of busting out and going on a tear that will have his average north of .300 come October, and we'll all look back and say, "See, we knew it was just a matter of time."

On the other hand, maybe what we're seeing this year is the real Bryce Harper. Maybe the .270-something that he hit in each of his first three seasons is more like the rule, and last year's video game numbers were the exception. If that's the case, then the slash line we're seeing offensively from Harper in 2016 (.252/.394/.477) is roughly equivalent to what we can expect in the years to come. For the record, it's also roughly equivalent to what Joey Votto is doing this season. And with all due respect to Votto -- who, like Harper, is a former MVP -- his name doesn't appear anywhere on our top-100 list.

Just because Harper put up one monster year doesn't mean we should automatically grant him the keys to the kingdom. Slow your roll. Let him do it a few more times before we exalt him to "top 100 in the history of a sport that has been in existence for nearly two centuries" status.

being only slightly less so than the statement that Bryce is already the 85th best baseball player ever.


the writer is Jewish, btw.

wtf. you're so emo, its sad.

track the next 2 months.


Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg


Get 25% off www.karmaloop.com w/ rep code JR9103 |
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Last month against the Dodgers he hit an opposite field HR in his first AB and then hit like a 108 mph ground ball straight back through the box. Then followed that up with a stretch of 4 HR in 9 games. I thought he was readjusting, staying back, not bailing and limiting his strike zone away. But that hasn't held since the Break.

That said, he still has a good shot to end up with a 30 HR, 20 SB, .400 OBP regression year. Which is crazy.

And if he gets hot in the playoffs, fans won't care.

>That said, he still has a good shot to end up with a 30 HR, 20
>SB, .400 OBP regression year. Which is crazy.

His age, his improvement curve, and the fact that this is a down year (so far) means he's in that group of a half-dozen or so guys where we're not really permitted to be surprised if he's the best player in the game in any particular year.

I noticed fangraphs likes his defense a lot more than BBRef. What's going on there?

>I noticed fangraphs likes his defense a lot more than BBRef.
>What's going on there?

The numbers suggest that me might have slightly better range than last year but Fangraphs has him 0-1 on Unlikely (10-40%) plays while he was 6-12 in those last year. He's been similarly sure-handed. So I'm not sure what the difference is. I think he's been good but Fangraphs puts him in the Top 10. Seems like a stretch to me. I don't know what Total Zone and UZR have such different ideas about him thus far. I'm wait for John Dewan to weigh in with some data.

His arm has definitely progressed this year. He had 6 throwing errors last year to 9 assists and 0 errors so far to 5 assists. A big part of that is that other baserunners are holding more often when the ball is hit to RF but he's basically eliminated those eye roll throws he was previously known to unfurl .

>That said, he still has a good shot to end up with a 30 HR, 20
>SB, .400 OBP regression year. Which is crazy.

https://thatballsouttahere.com/files/2014/03/8437424.jpg

Leave my Cubs out of it....lol...We've been playing pretty after the all-star break...

Now Bryce Harper? That's another story...

It's clear...Trout is better....

.

There's God And There's Flygod. Praise Both.

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>There's God And There's Flygod. Praise Both.


#griselda #gxfr

.

Mo....Betta.....

.

http://oi64.tinypic.com/106gh2h.jpg

FRAUD!

.

agenda Basa had. While that one was awful, this is just worst in OKP history. Trout was already an MVP & and finished in the top 2 for the award 3 times before this agenda started.





Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg


Just trying to share the world - www.JySbr.net

http://24.media.tumblr.com/917bd74d489ebf0dc67a33f67c7107ea/tumblr_mr3glnpwOv1rhe069o1_500.gif

Of course, Bryce was never not healthy last year...despite multiple reports (https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/08/12/bryce-harper-washington-nationals-injury)_.

https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork/status/855627866444251136

Harper: ...trying to stay healthy and doing everything I can to help this team win every single night and when I can go out there and stay healthy and play ball, I'm a pretty dang good player...

Rosenthal: Last question. Obvious question: Were you not healthy last year?

Harper: You know, I think we played a great game tonight. Did everything possible for us to win a game and got a big win down here in New York. Play them another 18 times. Looking forward to it

It doesn't really matter though, right?

What kind of money is at stake if instead he just says, "Yeah, I was banged up last year - and still had over 600 plate appearances and hit well enough for an All Star nod. Then got healthy and rested over the winter and went right back to hitting like vintage Bonds?"

Baseball's hard. Playing through a bunch of nicks and scrapes effectively (if not at his usual excellence) seems like something to brag about.

Like a guy that has been getting walked since he first put on way too much eye black just went to pieces for months because some weird wuss decided he wasn't going to be his team that day.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/917bd74d489ebf0dc67a33f67c7107ea/tumblr_mr3glnpwOv1rhe069o1_500.gif

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=31678

Highest March/April career OPS:

1. Babe Ruth
2. Ted Williams
3. Barry Bonds
4. Bryce Harper

http://orig01.deviantart.net/75e7/f/2010/119/6/5/attack_of_the_killer_trout_by_universa13.png

nm

Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg


Just trying to share the world - www.JySbr.net

He also just made an incredibly impressive catch on an infield pop-up that was blown all over the place in Target Field. Not the sort of thing that's going to make any highlights, but it was fun to watch.

Caught a nice 1+1 piece

https://mobile.twitter.com/cjzer0/status/869318050922856449

like did he try to throw it in the other direction?

.

Nope! it matters!

.

#Zimm-dogg's team

.339/.447/.713 with 23 HR through 63 games for Judge at age 25 is something to be proud of...

I guess Bryce's .339/.464/.704 with 26 HR through 81 games at 22 was pretty cool too.

I mean, Judge had a .308/.419/.486 with 17 HR over 131 games at age 22...In A-Ball.

#Zimm-dogg's team

He's been pretty consistently around 20% his whole career. If he levels up and cuts that down to like 13%, that's something like another ~20 times on base with 5 more homers from already MVP level production.

Still early enough to just be an anomaly, but yeah. That would be fun

http://i.imgur.com/qK82giS.gifv

.

https://goo.gl/xzn52A

Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg
http://Tupreme.com

and i won't be falling for trout slow start next year. sick of this.

>and i won't be falling for trout slow start next year. sick of
>this.

http://www.socialistamorena.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/charliebrown.png

nothing to scoff at, Bryce is money, he aint Trout nor ever will be.

muhfucka ain't even doing cabrera numbers

this is about Trout vs Bryce, but since he has already ended that debate you gotta have Trout overtake BARRY?! Come On Man (c) Rex

bryce played a whole season injured after his MVP. was on pace for another MVP and got injured.

hopefully, he don't get fucked up this season.

.

https://twitter.com/BryanHarper45/status/984079461749583873

POWERFUL!

https://fivethirtyeight.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/gettyimages-643486518.jpg

so

https://nesn.com/2016/04/mike-trout-dunks-at-warriors-practice-beats-draymond-green-in-horse/

bryce still better at personal hair grooming though.

The best has gotten even better once again, chasing Babe Ruth’s single-season WAR record by willing himself to improve the one weaker point in his game: defense

By Ben Lindbergh Jun 4, 2018, 5:50am EDT

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/6/4/17423738/mike-trout-defensive-improvement-best-season-ever

On Sunday, Mike Trout went 0-for-3, failing to reach base via hit or walk for only the eighth time in a game he’s started this season. Even so, he helped his team win. With the Angels up 2-0 on Texas in the fifth, Delino DeShields drove a ball to the wall in left-center, 103 feet from where Trout was standing when the pitch left Tyler Skaggs’s hand. Based on the distance and direction of the wall and the ball, an average outfielder would have had only a 19 percent chance of corralling the probable extra-base hit, according to Statcast. But Trout made the grab, running a nearly direct route (104 feet) and reaching a top speed of 29 feet per second. It was the unlikeliest catch that Trout has recorded in the 2015-18 Statcast era, and the latest highlight of the multitime MVP’s consistently extraordinary season.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GregariousTepidAtlanticsharpnosepuffer-mobile.mp4

That play was a microcosm of Trout’s 2018: not the most eye-catching, but upon closer inspection, an exceptional effort in every respect. Later this year, Trout will almost certainly surpass Ty Cobb for the highest WAR total ever through a position player’s age-26 season, even though Cobb came up a year younger and played more games through that point. In less than seven full seasons, Trout has already amassed a Cooperstown-caliber career stat line. For all he’s accomplished since he rose to stardom in 2012, though, Trout’s best baseball isn’t behind him. As he approaches his 27th birthday, the Angels center fielder may be in the midst of the most valuable season ever. And if this unparalleled player does have an unparalleled year, it will have a lot to do with defense.

By going 3-for-5 on Saturday with a single, a triple, a home run, and a tag-evading stolen base so slick that it required a replay review to sort out, Trout propelled himself to 5.3 wins above replacement, 1.2 WAR ahead of anyone else on the Baseball-Reference leaderboard. That put him on pace for a 14.6-WAR season, which would surpass Babe Ruth’s 14.1 in 1923 as the best ever by a position player.

Ruth’s record-setting season, which came at age 28, wasn’t his most memorable or his most impressive on the surface. It wasn’t one of his two-way triumphs, like the year when he led the AL in games started, ERA, and hit rate while also posting a 123 wRC+ (1916), or the year when he led the majors in complete games while recording a 161 wRC+ (1917), or the year when he pitched to a 2.22 ERA while also leading the majors in homers (1918). It wasn’t the year he hit 60 bombs (1927), or the year he won his lone batting title (1924), or the year when he played the most games (1928), or the year when he managed his highest wRC+ (1920), or the year when he produced the most runs on offense (1921). It was, in fact, his worst baserunning season, the year when Ruth, a historically bad base stealer, stole 17 bags and was caught 21 times.

Naturally, Ruth was ridiculously great at the plate in 1923, but his defense set that season apart. Defensive ratings aren’t perfect today and are considerably less precise for seasons that took place almost a century ago, but based on the most accurate information we have, Ruth was never better in the field than he was at 28. That year, Ruth set personal highs in defensive innings and putouts and recorded his second-most outfield assists. According to Total Zone, which Baseball-Reference relies on for seasons prior to 2003, Ruth was 19 runs better than the average corner outfielder. Without that extra all-around value, his WAR wouldn’t have been as otherworldly.

Trout, who’s slashing .308/.443/.678 in a pitcher’s park, is having a career year at the plate: He’s played in every Angels game, and he’s leading the majors in home runs, total bases, walks, and on-base percentage. Increased selectivity has helped him record a career-low chase rate, career-high contact rate, and career-best strikeout rate relative to the league, and he’s also tied for second in the AL with 13 stolen bases. In stark contrast to Ruth in 1923, he has yet to be caught. Like Ruth, though, he’s having a standout season on defense. If Trout approaches or surpasses Ruth’s single-season WAR record, it will be because range in the field is the latest in a line of modest shortcomings that Trout has targeted for improvement and immediately managed to turn into strengths.

Trout has a track record of refusing to be less than exemplary at anything. In 2015, he fixed his former weakness against high fastballs; later, he learned to hit better with two strikes and became less passive at the plate. When he came up, he had a below-average arm, but he set his mind to being better, and soon enough he was: Through a combination of conditioning, long toss, and practice throwing to bases, Trout went from minus-11 throwing runs in his first four seasons to plus-2 runs in the four seasons since.

When Trout came up, he was a fantastic fielder: In roughly a full season’s worth of innings from 2011-12, defensive runs saved and ultimate zone rating graded Trout’s defense in center as 22 runs above average and 10 runs above average, respectively, despite his subpar arm. (UZR run totals are regressed and tend to be more conservative.) Over the following five seasons, though, Trout’s cumulative ratings in center sank to minus-18 (DRS) and minus-2.2 (UZR), even as his arm improved. Most of that drop-off was attributable to decreased range.

When Trout’s once-lofty stolen-base totals slipped in 2014 and 2015, he resolved to run more often and bounced back to 30 steals in 2016. Something similar has happened this season to Trout’s eroding range. Last year, Trout had the sixth-worst DRS range rating among center fielders. As a result, right after reporting to spring training in February, Trout announced his intention to improve his defense and win his first Gold Glove, which would be difficult to do if he couldn’t impress DRS and UZR, both of which factor into Gold Glove voting. “There are a lot of defensive metrics out there that you want to get better on,” he said at the time. In light of his history, that statement alone came close to guaranteeing that at least some of his range would return; as one AL assistant general manager says, “If he’s been working on it, it’s probably gotten better, because he’s a freak.”

He has indeed been working on it, and lo and behold, it has gotten better. Trout’s DRS range rating has rebounded from minus-9 to plus-6, which puts him on pace to finish near where he was as a rookie. His UZR range trend has also reversed, climbing from minus-4.5 to plus-2.6. And after finishing at minus-2 in MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast-based outs above average in 2016 and minus-3 in 2017, Trout is sitting at plus-4 in 2018, which puts him in an 11th-place tie among all outfielders. Last year, according to Statcast, Trout converted only one of five potential four-star plays (those with a catch probability of 26-50 percent), four of 13 potential three-star plays (those with a catch probability of 51-75 percent), and 21 of 23 potential two-star plays (those with a catch probability of 76 to 90 percent). This year, he’s 1-for-2 on four-star plays and has a perfect record on three- and two-star plays. His defensive feat on Sunday was his first five-star catch on record.

All of this has happened in a fairly small sample of fewer than 500 innings, but it’s almost certainly not a fluke. This is just what it looks like when Trout’s plan plays out. “Mike’s been a guy that always comes to me every year and says, ‘What do you see, what do you want to work on, what do I need to get better on?’” Angels third-base and outfield coach Dino Ebel, who recently reassumed the latter responsibility after a two-year hiatus, says via phone. This spring, the Angels had answers to Trout’s annual inquiry. In spring training, Ebel says, “We got together with our people upstairs, our analytical department, and they said, ‘This is what we can improve on,’ and took it to heart.” Getting good jumps and making the most of Trout’s elite speed were the orders of the day.

Not every superstar has Trout’s hunger to improve; some players are oblivious to their flaws until it’s too late to overcome them, and others might resent the suggestion that they’re coming up short. Not Trout: “He doesn’t have grudges or anything like that, doesn’t get mad,” Ebel says, adding, “He is on board, and he’s coachable, and he likes it. He wants it.” This year, Ebel says, Trout is doing drills to read the ball off the bat; in April, Trout told the Orange County Register that he’s “trying to be aggressive” and making sure that he’s not merely “going through the motions” when he shags flies in batting practice. According to Baseball Info Solutions, Trout dove for a ball only once last season, but the Angels’ goal this spring wasn’t to have him dive more; the benefit of occasionally catching an extra fly or liner isn’t worth the risk of an injury that would deprive the team of his bat. (In 2015, Trout missed time after hurting his wrist mid-dive, and his hitting subsequently slumped.) Rather, the hope was that Trout would get to more balls without needing to get dirty, as he demonstrated against DeShields.

In recent years, some outfielders have improved their performance by drastically repositioning themselves; Dexter Fowler, for one, posted a positive DRS total for the first time in a full season after playing much deeper in 2016. Trout, who prefers coming in to going back on balls, already played deep, and that hasn’t changed: Angels center fielders this season have stood 324 feet from home plate on average, the third-deepest mark in the majors but virtually unchanged from last year’s 323. Nor has the Angels’ batter-to-batter positioning strategy substantially changed, although Ebel, who’s newly returned to his role as an in-game outfield director, is particularly diligent about implementing the front office’s recommendations. (To cut through the noise of the crowd, Ebel blows a whistle to get outfielders’ attention when necessary, although he says he rarely, if ever, has to whistle at Trout.) Optimized positioning might explain some of the Angels’ overall outfield improvement—the unit as a whole has climbed from minus-11 DRS last year to plus-10 thus far in 2018—but as indicated by the positioning-independent Statcast-based numbers, Trout’s uptick goes deeper than that.

“The thing about Mike this year, when the ball’s hit, he’s moving, where even if it’s not hit to him, it’s the first step,” Ebel says. “If it’s hit to left field, he takes a hard step to the right. If it’s hit to right field, he takes that hard step to right field.” Ebel adds, “The most important thing that Mike is doing is in his mind he wants to catch every ball that’s hit to him and hit in the gaps, and he’s going for it.”

Although Trout’s sprint speed on the bases—29.3 feet per second, which ranks 24th among 400-plus qualifiers—is unchanged from last season, his sprint speed in the outfield is up. According to MLBAM senior data architect Tom Tango, Trout’s outfield sprint speed, which Tango calculates by taking the average of the top 5 percent of an outfielder’s runs, had increased from 27.4 ft/s in 2016 to 27.6 ft/s in 2017 to 28.6 ft/s this season even before that snag on Sunday. His rankings among center fielders with at least 60 runs, meanwhile, have climbed in that three-season span from 25th of 39 to 31st of 54 to eighth of 28 (also prior to Sunday). In other words, while Trout’s maximum speed probably hasn’t changed, he’s routinely coming closer to achieving that speed in center.

Outfield sprint speed measures only a player’s peak rate of travel; it doesn’t tell us anything about how quickly he reaches that top speed, or how quickly he reacts to the flight of the ball. Tango and his team are working on a metric called “burst,” which will account for those factors and will likely roll out later this season, but many teams have already developed such stats. According to one source in a non-Angels front office, Trout “is running way faster in the outfield and is getting to his top speed way faster,” yielding speed and acceleration figures that put his percentile ranks in the 80s or 90s, easily his highest on record. A source in another non-Angels front office confirms that Trout’s reaction time, peak speed, and acceleration are all improved from past seasons, and that his run value derived from fielding range, as assessed by that team’s in-house metric, is positive for the first time in the period covered by Statcast.

The GIF below shows a montage of Trout’s five best catches this season besides the one on Sunday, featuring catch probabilities ranging from 46 percent to 62 percent.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/TinyChubbyDungbeetle-mobile.mp4

Although the broadcast views make it tough to tell how quickly Trout is mounting his horse, replays reveal his jumps and acceleration in all their quick-twitch glory. Here he is on April 13, ranging to his left and laying out to rob a gapper from Paulo Orlando.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GlaringClearcutChanticleer-mobile.mp4

Here he is on May 15, going back and to his right to take at least two bases from José Altuve.

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And here he is on May 30, sprinting in to steal a single from Niko Goodrum, much to Shohei Ohtani’s delight.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/NecessarySnoopyFlea-mobile.mp4

No matter which way he’s called upon to move, Trout is wasting no time in 2018. Compare those plays with this montage of his five worst non-catches from 2017, which feature catch probabilities ranging from 99 percent to 65 percent.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ReasonableScratchyIlladopsis-mobile.mp4

No outfielder looks great when he’s at his worst, but thus far, Trout has all but eliminated lowlights like those, reflexively getting himself into high gear. “It’s not like he never thought that way,” Ebel says. “It’s just maybe, he is blessed with a lot of speed, so a lot of balls that hang in the air a lot longer, he can catch up to it . But he’s catching those ones that are in front of him that ... should be hits, and he’s taking away balls in right-center and left-center. It’s just making him self-aware where when that ball’s hit, gonna take that step, if it’s in or back or sideways to his left or right.”

If baseball were more like the NBA, Trout would be taking his spotty supporting cast to the playoffs year after year. As it is, though, baseball’s closest LeBron equivalent may miss out on October for the fourth consecutive season. Even after their win on Sunday, the 32-28 Angels have less than a 30 percent chance of qualifying for the postseason. If the Haloes fall short, though, Trout won’t be to blame. He can’t do any more than be the best ever, and he’s already doing that.

Ebel, who has coached for the Angels for 14 seasons and spent the previous 17 as a minor league player, coach, and manager in the Dodgers organization, says that Trout is “probably the best I’ve seen in my 31 years of baseball.” He notes that experience has helped Trout read hitters and compartmentalize his performance such that whenever he’s wearing a glove, he’s always focused on fielding. But most of Trout’s improvement boils down to a process as simple as it is mind-boggling: He’s decided to be better, and baseball has bent to his will. As Angels GM Billy Eppler told me in April, “We’re just witnessing him reach another level that we really didn’t know was there.”

By restoring his defense to its rookie-level luster, Trout—who’s challenging Ruthian records in a league that’s much more competitive, talented, and outlier-averse than the one Ruth had his way with—has not only put the all-time top single-season WAR within view, but also brightened the already-rosy outlook for the rest of his career. The average outfielder’s range peaks early and shrinks steadily from there, but Trout is spitting on that pattern; as one of the front-office sources who relayed his stats asked, “Is he reverse-aging?” Perhaps that’s hyperbole, but if he hasn’t found the defensive fountain of youth, Trout has at least reset the clock on his aging curve. Whereas after last year it was easy to project a few years forward and envision Trout moving to a corner, where his hitting wouldn’t clear the typical player’s by as great a degree, it’s now possible to picture him providing passable defense in center at an advanced age, a la Willie Mays, which would help him age gracefully and aid his odds of becoming baseball’s best-ever player through any age. “I think he’s gonna play center field for a long time,” Ebel says.

Trout is like a Lost character: It’s best not to tell him what he can’t do. He’s currently leading all AL center fielders in DRS, so he may get that Gold Glove after all. “When he puts his mind something that he’s gonna get better on, or somebody says that this he can’t do or he needs to improve on this, he will prove them wrong,” says Ebel. At the end of one answer, Ebel sputters, searching for something else to say. “So, he just, uh, you know, it’s—he’s Mike Trout!” he says. Yeah, that sort of sums it up.

Thanks to Mike Petriello and Tom Tango of MLBAM for research assistance.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5302/5763530109_2ee968ab7a.jpg

Fake Mickey Mantle isn't even making this a discussion. too far ahead

Fake Mickey Mantle isn't even making this a discussion. too far ahead

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24066780/this-was-supposed-bryce-harper-all-star-game

This was supposed to be Bryce Harper's All-Star Game

The stage was set for the Bryce Harper hometown Midsummer Classic, but given the walk year he's having, should he really be front and center?

The seating chart said it all.

It was the Sunday before the Sunday before the All-Star Game, and the Washington Nationals were holding a news conference. On a podium deep within the bowels of Nationals Park, the three players who were voted into the Midsummer Classic sat behind a long table and fielded questions from reporters.

On the right was Max Scherzer, the two-time defending Cy Young winner whose dominant first half makes him a favorite to be the starting pitcher for the National League in front of his hometown fans. On the left was Sean Doolittle, the bearded southpaw who hasn't walked anybody in three months and has been as good as any closer in the game. In between Scherzer and Doolittle, in the chair that was literally the center of attention, sat Bryce Harper.


Given the year that Harper is having so far, he had no earthly business being the man in the middle. Relative to Scherzer and Doolittle, he is Washington's least deserving All-Star, and it's not particularly close. Yet there he sat, the clear focal point in a roomful of lenses and microphones and eyeballs. This was, after all, supposed to be Bryce Harper's All-Star Game.


Sean Doolittle, Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer will represent the Nationals in the 2018 All-Star Game. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo
Ever since 2015, a season that started with commissioner Rob Manfred announcing that Washington would host the 2018 festivities and ended with Harper being named the youngest unanimous MVP ever, this was meant to be his All-Star Game. In the middle of that MVP campaign, Harper announced that he would abstain from the Home Run Derby until the Midsummer Classic descended on the District, which only served to make the 2018 ASG seem even more like his baby. The fact that the former top overall draft pick is poised to become a free agent after this season at the tender age of 26 didn't hurt, either. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Bryce Harper Summer Invitational. Actually, two things:

1. Manny Machado and his Traveling Trade Circus crashed the party.

2. The host with the most stopped playing like it.

Maybe it's the scrutiny that comes with being one of the most anticipated free agents in MLB history. Maybe it's the pressure of having the All-Star Game in your backyard and proving that you deserve to be there. Maybe it's the burden of carrying an underachieving offense that has spent large chunks of time without guys named Murphy and Eaton and Rendon and Zimmerman and Kendrick. Whatever the reason, Harper has frequently looked like a guy who's trying to do too much.

"He's trying to hit 9,000 home runs, and it's costing him," one American League scout said. "He's making himself look like an ass."

He's also making himself a lot of outs. Even though averages across the league are down thanks to a variety of reasons (homer-happy hitters, shift-happy defenses, velo-happy hurlers), Harper's average has plummeted to unforeseeable depths. At the time the All-Star results were announced Sunday, his .218 average ranked 78th out of 81 qualified National Leaguers. He led the National League in walks and was third in homers, but he was on pace for 164 strikeouts, a number that would shatter his previous career high. It was a startling downturn for a superstar who hit .319 last year, before an August knee injury derailed an outstanding season that had thrust him firmly into the MVP conversation again. Unlike in 2016, when reports of a lingering shoulder issue surfaced and perhaps helped explain why he struggled to repeat his historic 2015 performance, Harper seems physically whole this season. As for the psychological piece, that's not so clear.


Bryce Harper's 22 home runs this season rank third in the National League, but his miss rate has jumped to a new career high. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
On the surface, Harper appears to be holding it together. Despite suffering through a massive slump that started in mid-April and only recently showed signs of letting up, he has been cordial when talking to members of the media. He has been atypically restrained toward umpires and has yet to be tossed from a game, a sign of maturity that, if it holds, would result in his first ejection-free season since 2014. Said hitting coach Kevin Long: "He's really in a good frame of mind." That isn't to say the slump hasn't taken its toll.

"Is he frustrated? Sure," Long said. "Does he want to do better? Sure. Is this pissing him off a little bit? Yeah. What human being wouldn't it? This is what you do for a living, and you're arguably the best hitter on the planet."

Over the past few months, however, it seems as though what Harper cares most about is being the best home run hitter on the planet.

Before a May contest against the Pirates, the Nats slugger took early batting practice, then proceeded to go deep for the first time in more than two weeks. Afterward, when asked what the purpose of his early BP session was, Harper said: "Just hit some homers ... I was trying to hit the ball as far as I could." A few days later, following a two-jack game against the Phillies that included a 473-foot bomb to dead center, he weighed in with, "It's not how far. It's how many." Over Memorial Day weekend, when he went yard against Miami but finished the series with a then season-low .230 average, he rationalized it like this: "If I hit .230, and I hit 40, I'll take it any day of the week."

It's hard to tell whether Harper's homer-centric mindset is the cause of his slump or merely a byproduct of it. Long, for one, believes it's the latter. "With all the negatives that are surrounding him, why wouldn't he bring up some positives? Why does it always have to be negative negative negative negative negative negative negative negative negative, and we never talk about the good things? He wants to feel good about himself on something right now. If you're the top of the National League, you're doing something good. That's him saying, I've got to feel good about something."

That isn't the only thing Harper is doing in an attempt to feel good. On a recent off day in D.C., the face of the franchise met his hitting coach at the stadium for some extra batting practice, about 500 swings' worth. Long said it was only the second time in his career that he had a player punch in on a day off for extra reps (the other was Mark Teixeira). Over the past month, Harper has shaved his trademark beard, changed one of his walk-up songs -- he ditched Sam Hunt's "Body Like A Back Road" in favor of "Drunk On Your Love" by Brett Eldredge -- and even taken ground balls at first base with infield coach Tim Bogar. While some viewed the grounder session as a marketing ploy meant to catch the attention of a Yankees club that's loaded in the outfield (Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton) but lighter at first base (Greg Bird), agent Scott Boras insisted that wasn't the case.

"You need to do things that relax you and make you feel like a baseball player," Boras said. "It's something that allows him go out and be an athlete."

Added Bogar: "Just give him something different to do. Change his mindset a little bit. Take his mind off of what's going on in his world."


Shaving his beard is one of the recent changes Bryce Harper made to his routine. Nick Wass/AP Photo
What's going on in Harper's hemisphere is that his Nationals are hovering around .500 and are one of baseball's biggest disappointments so far this season. Even when they have played well, it has been more in spite of him than because of him: From May Day until Father's Day, a stretch that saw Washington go 25-15, Harper hit .197 with 50 strikeouts and 14 walks. "It does help when we're winning," Long said, "but at the end of the day, he wants to be a main cog in this. He wants to be a big contributor, and that's the part that frustrates him."

The narrative has been that Harper's frustration stems from getting pitched around so much, that because pitchers tread so lightly (41 percent of the pitches he sees are in the strike zone, lowest in MLB), he has grown impatient and has been swinging at offerings he should be taking. But that isn't necessarily the case. The truth is Harper's 28 percent chase rate is only slightly above league average and is actually down more than 2 percent from a year ago, when he looked like one of the best hitters in baseball. The bigger problem is that when Harper does swing, regardless of whether the ball is in the zone, he's catching more air than ever before.

"Is he frustrated? Sure. Does he want to do better? Sure. Is this pissing him off a little bit? Yeah. What human being wouldn't it? This is what you do for a living, and you're arguably the best hitter on the planet."
Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long on Bryce Harper
"It's just a matter of not missing pitches," Nationals shortstop Trea Turner said. As someone who frequently hits before or after Harper in Washington's lineup, Turner has had a front-row seat to his teammate's uncharacteristic season. "I think he would tell you that he's missing a lot of pitches this year as opposed to years past. That's the difference."

The numbers bear out Turner's theory. Entering this season, Harper had whiffed on 26.1 percent of his swings as a big leaguer, a relatively low clip for a power hitter who swings as violently as he does. This year, his miss rate has spiked to 32.9 percent, a career high and almost 7 percentage points more than last season. It's an alarming trend that suggests an increasingly all-or-nothing mentality for the former MVP.

Said one National League executive: "He's a very hard-headed guy in terms of his approach." Exactly how that approach will translate on the free-agent market is anybody's guess.


Real or not? Bryce Harper playing his way out of $400M deal
Bryce Harper's free agent season hasn't been a total disaster, but his average is down to .217 -- and $400 million players don't hit .217.


Boras: Harper's slump not tied to contract year
Agent Scott Boras blames the increased prevalence of defensive shifts for his client's low batting average -- not the pressure of a contract year.


Harper a go for HR Derby if named All-Star
While some players have said they'll decline participating in this year's Home Run Derby if invited, Nationals slugger Bryce Harper confirmed his commitment to the event on Friday, assuming he's named to the NL All-Star team.

"If he doesn't rebound in the second half, his stock is decreased dramatically," the NL exec said. "He'll still get a lot of money, but not anywhere near if he had a year like he was having last year before he got hurt."

According to one AL general manager, though, Harper's struggles -- even if they persist throughout the second half -- can't be evaluated in a vacuum. "People don't look at things in one-year buckets," the GM said. "You look at things in a three- or four-year bucket because you're trying to forecast what you're buying over the course of that contract. So using one year as the driver of your analysis is problematic." Also clouding the picture is the aftershock of last winter's free-agency free fall.

Coming off his strong but injury-shortened 2017 campaign, the general consensus was that Harper, along with Orioles star Machado, was in position to break the bank and challenge Stanton's record for the richest pro sports contract ever ($325 million over 13 years). But that was before an unprecedented offseason in which the free-agent market turned colder than a White Walkers convention in Winterfell; it was a bizarro alternate reality in which Harper's current teammate Mark Reynolds -- who had 30 homers and an .839 OPS last year -- went unsigned until a week after Opening Day. With the 2018 free-agency period just around the corner, the early forecast -- at least for the Harpers and Machados of the world -- calls for Winterfell to thaw.

"The best players and the young players will still achieve those contracts," another American League GM said. "There are very few guys that are going to hit free agency like those guys, at 26 years old, with the kind of cachet and talent level they have. I don't think they'll be struggling to find a payday."

In the meantime, Harper will continue his quest to find his groove. If the past few weeks are any indication, he might have already turned the corner. Since the summer solstice, Harper has a .940 OPS, with 10 extra-base hits in 20 games. He has as many walks as whiffs (25), and has been using the whole field more. He's chasing less and making more contact.


Whether he likes it or not, all eyes will be on Bryce Harper during the Midsummer Classic. Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports
"Not really," Harper says when asked if he has been doing anything differently the past few weeks. "Just trying to get good pitches over the plate. I've been saying it all along. If I get a pitch over the plate, I can do damage on it. If not, then I take my walks."

As he talks, he methodically cleans out his double locker. It's the Sunday before the Sunday before the Midsummer Classic, and the Nats are headed out of town for a one-week road trip. When they return, they'll find their cubbies and folding chairs inhabited by the best players in the NL. As such, gone from Harper's locker are the boxes of extra batting gloves. Gone are the five different-colored mitts he typically displays on the top shelf -- red, black, gray, white and blue. Gone is the bottle of Master Brew Kombucha.

All that remains are a pair of black Under Armour slides, a red bat, some street clothes and a small, turquoise sticky note. On it, written in black capital letters, is this message:

START FROM NOTHING.

CREATE SOMETHING WITH PURPOSE.

FIGHT YOUR WAY.

STAY TRUE TO BEING FEARLESSLY YOU.

In the week ahead, when Harper returns from the road and morphs from Nationals outfielder into National League All-Star, there's a chance that he'll get bumped to a different locker. On a seating chart filled with the biggest names in the game, there's no guarantee that he'll have his usual spot, the swanky corner unit that's conveniently situated right in the center of the room. Then again, who knows? Maybe Harper will continue to be the man in the middle.

After all, this was supposed to be his All-Star Game.

lol

Oh no.

why not go full joey gallo?

Actually Bryce might be Rob Deer this season, Dave Kingman would be an upgrade. Hitting .218 is Rob Deer territory!



Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg
http://Tupreme.com

slumps last days, in some cases weeks. But 2 1/2 months?

We're in this weird spot locally where everyone has given up on the Wizards, is thrilled with the Caps, and Skins camp hasn't started yet ...so the primary focus on radio and online is how shitty Harper is this year. And he seems affected by it. I've been to the park five times so far this season, four of which were in the last two months of this dogshit run he's on - the tension in the stadium is palpable and his body language looks like he's at a funeral. This is one of the weirdest stories I've ever seen in sports, a megastar talent facing a big contract who completely forgets how to do what he does best. Some of the stuff he swings at is shoulder-high.

Happy to see him find his composure and it was cool to see Harper just crank 'em ball after ball once that happened.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

his dad was falling apart

i dont' remember the last time i sat and watched that much of the home run derby, but i was into it. really wanted Bryce to win it in front of all the Nats fans, and he delivered in tremendous fashion.

i, too, thought pops was gonna blow it for him. glad he got it together and they connected like they did. 9 in a row was incredible.

Happy for him. It was great to see the city behind him for a few hours. I hope it extends for a few months

i was literally on the edge of my seat in that last 55 seconds or whatever when he went on that tear to catch up and win it. that was really thrilling. Schwarber's run in the semifinal round capped off with hitting the last-second shot to advance to the final was great too. whole thing was a blast.

>Happy for him. It was great to see the city behind him for a
>few hours. I hope it extends for a few months

yeah the whole atmosphere was great, hopefully this jolts him out of whatever funk he's been in. I hope he hits .400 with 20+ bombs in the second half.

>yeah the whole atmosphere was great, hopefully this jolts him
>out of whatever funk he's been in. I hope he hits .400 with
>20+ bombs in the second half.

Absolutely. There's a small part of me that hopes he goes to another team next year and wins 3 MVP awards because fuck this fickle ass fan base.

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/07/17/did-bryce-harper-cheat-in-home-run-derby/

Ultimately, the red behind home that holds his fist in the air and released when the pitcher can throw the next one can waive off any “illegal” hummer as I understand it, so...

Do what you can to win. I heard the ref just waived them on at some point too.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Losers are such losers.

he coulda gotten three in that time.

next.

How much further will that BA fall post all-star break?

"If you don't recognize Mike Trout as the best player in the game, you're not paying attention" -Bryce Harper

https://twitter.com/BasebaIlKing/status/1019394612350160896?s=19

but then again, Bags always take L's

.

Your girl Serena is praying she wins a match against journey-women ("try and win one for once" - Serena) just to tie Margret Court's record but keep piling on the unlimited excuses why she hasn't been able to dominate for a decade (ZERO, calendar slams. Bwhahhaaaaa) despite playing in a shitty era.......

This is a direct quote from the best of the current generation that has a mindset of Cottonelle:

"So, yeah, I think it's better for me now to be, like, I was going to say lower ranked - isn't that crazy - to be No. 2 here because the only upside is if you win the tournament, you're automatically No. 1.

"That, for sure, is a really big goal of mine." - Osaka

Serena is nothing but the Wladimir Klitschko of the WTA w/ Kobe fanfare. Zzzzzzzz

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

Couldn't even make the all star reserve roster

Road team

https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-trout-wins-al-mvp-for-third-time-in-storied-mlb-career-234917047.html


It's Mike Trout's world. We're just living in it.

The Los Angeles Angels outfielder was named American League MVP for the third time in his career on Thursday after a vote by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Trout received 17 of 30 first-place votes, while Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman received the other 13 first-place votes. Trout and Bregman also received all of the second-place votes. Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien finished third.

Here are the full standings, via the BBWAA. You can find individual ballots on their site.

LOL

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/bryce-harpers-game-5-home-run-was-a-master-class-in-hitting/

.