There’s a lot of pressure on the Philadelphia Phillies to be a better baseball team than they were a season ago. As a result, the Phillies and Bryce Harper have caught some early heat. Harper, one of the best players in baseball, wasn’t himself last year.
I’m not going to take a 28 at-bat sample size from this season and have too much of an issue with it, but others will. Harper is just 5-28, hitting .179. He has two home runs and four RBIs. He’s only struck out five times.
Great? No, but Harper has hardly played a full week of baseball. Let’s slow it downs ome.
Jake Elman of FanSided, however, thinks there’s something to be said about the start, pointing to Harper as an early scapegoat despite being who he has been throughout his career.
“Harper went deep in Wednesday’s walk-off victory over the Nationals, so maybe not! It’s nonetheless concerning, though, that Harper is hitting just .120 with a .425 OPS, and that follows a frustrating showing in the World Baseball Classic,” he wrote.
“I’m personally not ready to give up on Harper just yet, even in his age-33 season. But when you’ve started the new year with those kinds of numbers after your team’s lead baseball executive questioned whether you could regain your elite form, can you blame anyone whose cynicism is growing?”
It’s far too early to make any judgment about a player with Harper’s track record this early in the season. He’s been one of the most consistent hitters in the game for over a decade, and stretches like this, while not ideal, happen to everyone.
Harper came out in the offseason and went after Dave Dombrowski for his comments about him not being “elite” still. Harper seemingly used that as motivation but hasn’t been able to back it up just yet.
However, with a home run in back-to-back games, it seems like a matter of time before we see what Harper does on a daily basis.
“It was good. A first-pitch curveball. [I'm] still chasing a little too much, but I feel good. We’ll get going,” he said, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.