Fact: On Friday night, Bryce Harper hit the longest home run of his career (453 feet).
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: ESPN Stats & Info
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
It’s been a comeback year for the ages for Alex Rodriguez, who made his highly-publicized return to the Bronx after a year-long PED suspension. But the 40-year-old isn’t the only breakout star getting attention in 2015. Outfielder Bryce Harper currently leads the National League with 29 home runs this season.
Which superstar is having a better comeback season?
Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller joins Stephen Nelson to break it all down in the video above.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The Washington Nationals may have to deal with losing superstar outfielder Bryce Harper to injury after the outfielder was scratched from the team’s lineup for the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night because of left knee soreness, per the team’s Twitter account.
Continue for updates.
After having been listed in the lineup initially, Harper was replaced in right field by Clint Robinson, according to Mark Zuckerman of CSN Washington.
He banged his knee when diving for a ball in the third inning last night and it began to swell after the game, according to Dan Kolko of MASN, who added he’ll be available off the bench.
It’s unclear at this stage what Harper hurt or how serious the injury might be, but losing the outfielder for any length of time would be a massive blow.
Harper has been magnificent in 2015 and has to be considered a serious candidate to be awarded the NL MVP this season. The 22-year-old has shown why he was one of the most hyped baseball prospects in league history this season, finally turning his elite potential into elite production.
He’s also been making history along the way, per MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter:
With the Washington Nationals playing like one of the best teams in baseball this year, the loss of Harper could be devastating, especially if he’s going to be out for a significant period of time. Outside of perhaps only Max Scherzer, nobody has been more valuable to the Nationals this season.
And you could make a strong argument that no player in baseball, on any team, has been better than Harper, period. Harper has proved that every bit of hype was justified. Now, the Nationals will be hoping that this setback won’t stymie the momentum of Harper’s epic breakout season.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
From the moment we first heard his name, we were told how great Bryce Harper would be.
He was 16 when he made the cover of Sports Illustrated, 17 when he was the first overall draft pick, 19 when he showed up in the major leagues. He was “Baseball’s Chosen One,” Sports Illustrated famously told us, baseball’s LeBron James, the kid who was going to grow up and become one of the game’s all-time greats.
He was going to have seasons like the one he’s having now, seasons where the only real comparable ones would be Ted Williams’ or Babe Ruth’s or Barry Bonds’, and we were all going to see it.
And now we have seen it…and yet we’re still talking about what Harper could become someday.
“Watch Bryce in five years, when he’s 27,” Washington Nationals broadcaster F.P. Santangelo said the other day. “Then look out. When his knowledge of the game collides with his talent, you’ll see.”
It’s a fair comment, but it also makes you wonder. If we keep talking about what Harper could become, will we lose sight of what he already is?
By one significant measure, Harper is already having a season to match with the greats. If you go by OPS+, a stat that attempts to equalize OPS (on-base plus slugging) by conditions of the era and the ballparks he plays in, Harper’s 2015 season has been one that is basically reserved for Hall of Famers.
The idea with OPS+ is that 100 represents major league average, and that every point above 100 represents a percentage point above average. Harper’s OPS+ has consistently stood above 200, or more than 100 percent better than average.
The last guy to end a season there was Bonds, 11 years ago. The last guy to do it at 22—the only guy ever to do it at 22—was Williams in 1941, the year he hit .406.
“It’s a blessing to be mentioned [in that company],” Harper said. “I’m humbled. But I don’t think about it.”
Harper can still be brash, and he can still show signs of his youth. Nationals people talk about how much he has grown up, on and off the field, but they also note there’s still a ways to go. Just last Friday, Harper lost his cool in extra innings and got himself ejected, leaving the Nats in a bad position in a huge game against the New York Mets.
But the Nationals also acknowledge Harper is already the best player on a team with other stars. They call him the best player in the National League, and it’s hard to argue otherwise.
“He’s doing great things for us,” $210 million ace Max Scherzer said. “And he’s continuing to get better.”
Scherzer spent the last five years in Detroit watching Miguel Cabrera, and he sees comparisons to Harper. Santangelo played with Bonds in San Francisco, and he sees comparisons there too.
“I don’t know if I’m seeing history [this year],” Santangelo said. “I know I’m seeing the evolution of a great player.”
Harper leads the NL in home runs (29), runs scored (70), slugging percentage (.667), OPS (1.121) and WAR (6.9). He’s second in batting average (.330) and fourth in RBI (68).
But it’s OPS+ that more easily allows comparisons across eras and more clearly shows how brilliant Harper’s season has been.
According to Baseball-Reference.com, only 18 players in history have finished a year with an OPS+ above 200 (Ruth did it 11 times, the most of anyone). Thirteen of the 18 went to the Hall of Fame. The other five are Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell and Norm Cash.
Only eight players have done it more than once. Only Williams and Ty Cobb did it before turning 24.
(And if you’re wondering about Mike Trout, his OPS+ is 185, which would be a career high).
“He’s got all the potential in the world,” Nationals pitcher Doug Fister said. “He’s the one who puts the limit on where his ceiling is.”
Already, Harper has learned to lay off pitches out of the strike zone, which Nationals people cite as the biggest improvement he has made this year. But they all insist there’s more to come.
“There’s untapped potential,” manager Matt Williams said.
“It’s not that he’s going to hit 80 home runs in a season, or hit .450,” Scherzer said. “But he’s going to be more consistent in situations.”
There it is again, the talk of what Harper could become. He won’t turn 23 until Oct. 16, so it’s fair to expect improvement, fair to talk about what he could be.
He could go on to do special things. Just understand he already is.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
You could call it a comeback.
Except Clayton Kershaw never went anywhere.
The best pitcher on the planet still is and has been for most of this season. It’s fair to say he hasn’t been as good as he was a year ago, but you would just barely be correct in that assessment.
The wins and the ERA are not where they were in 2014, but we should all be able to agree that advanced metrics have produced far better barometers to judge a pitcher. And when you look at those things, you realize Kershaw has been every bit the ace the Los Angeles Dodgers need him to be as they attempt to win a third consecutive National League West Championship this season.
He continued to prove so Saturday afternoon as he dominated the Washington Nationals in a 4-2 victory. Kershaw was a victim of the Dodgers’ new hesitation to let pitchers throw complete games—they have just three despite the rotation having the fourth-lowest ERA in the majors—so he reached eight shutout innings, striking out 14 and allowing three hits. He generated 30 swings and misses, tied for the most in a game in the last seven years, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
He used just 101 pitches to do so and lowered his ERA to 2.68, putting him in the league’s top 10.
Kershaw also struck out Bryce Harper, the likely National League MVP, three times as he posted a 90 Game Score, tied for the eighth-highest in the majors this season. For reference, Max Scherzer’s 16-strikeout, one-hit performance in Milwaukee last month was a 100, and his no-hitter was 97.
“He went out there like the MVP that he is,” Harper said after the game, per Jacob Emert of MLB.com. “He was pretty devastating. We tried to go in there and did what we could. I think he is the best pitcher in baseball.”
The prevailing belief when looking at Kershaw’s record and ERA over his first nine starts this year was that he was experiencing a big letdown from 2014, when he swept the league’s Cy Young and MVP Awards. His ERA had hit 4.32, he was 2-3 and the Dodgers were 4-5 in those games.
While Kershaw wasn’t as sharp early in the year, his results were just as much a product of some bad luck and bad breaks, which all pitchers experience. But at times, his frustration was palpable.
“I don’t feel like answering questions right now,” the normally media-friendly Kershaw told MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick after his May 4 start against Milwaukee, when he let a three-run lead in the sixth inning slip away. “I don’t want to analyze it right now. Thanks.”
Plenty of people analyzed those first nine starts for him, though. The conclusion was he was experiencing some bad luck—his .349 BABIP at the time would have been the worst of his career, as would his 65 percent strand rate—that could easily be amended.
Kershaw was still dominating. He was striking out hitters at a blistering rate, placing in the game’s top five in strikeouts per nine innings, strikeout rate and strikeout-to-walk ratio. His xFIP was a major league-best 2.15 going into that ninth start.
In start No. 10, Kershaw turned the corner and hit the turbo booster. He went seven shutout innings and struck out 10 Atlanta Braves that night. From that start going into the All-Star break, Kershaw had a 1.53 ERA and his BABIP dropped to a more realistic (for him) .270.
Coming out of the break against the Nationals was more of the same, and Kershaw has been as good, even better, than he was in his marvelous 2014. Dodge Insider provided Kershaw’s stats:
Clayton Kershaw, 2014: 1.77 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 10.9 K/9 Clayton Kershaw, past 10 starts: 1.36 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 12.5 K/9 http://t.co/NK5pIGBANN
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) July 18, 2015
Also, with what he did Saturday in D.C., Kershaw became the first pitcher in 100 years with 10-plus strikeouts, no runs allowed and no walks in back-to-back starts, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
“It’s probably as close as I can remember his stuff being to his no-hitter day back last June,” catcher A.J. Ellis told Emert after the game, referencing Kershaw’s nearly perfect game last year.
In a season many thought to be a down one for Kershaw, he is proving that to be absolutely false while continuing to make history.
His FIP was 2.38 entering the game Saturday, third-lowest in the majors. His xFIP was 2.06, best in the majors. And his FanGraphs WAR was 3.7, fourth-best in the majors.
Kershaw might not have put up the prominent numbers early on, the kinds that please fans late to the party thrown by advanced metrics. But he was still quite good and one of the best in the business of throwing baseballs. A correction was bound to happen.
We are seeing that now, and it has made things painfully obvious to the rest of the sport and some of its best hitters, like Harper.
Clayton Kershaw is still the best pitcher in Major League Baseball.
All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper was one of 24 athletes who took part in ESPN The Magazine‘s Body Issue this year, and he has revealed that he put in quite a bit of work to make sure that his body was ready for the photoshoot.
Harper developed an athletic body over the years, but he wasn’t able to just roll out of bed on the morning of the photoshoot and pose for pictures. He put in weeks of extra work to fine-tune his body.
Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post was able to get the details on Harper’s preparation for the revealing photoshoot:
[It] consisted of three workouts and six meals a day until it consisted of none, that final week when Bryce Harper consumed only juice. Seven different raw juices. Over the final two weeks, before he exposed each of his muscles to ESPN’s photographers, he put salt in his drinking water so he could hydrate himself without gaining weight.
On the final day, before he stripped naked and recorded the results for the world, he rose for one final workout, but when he went to refresh himself, he spit the water out. When he arrived at the field at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the shoot, his system was completely depleted. He shoved raw, white potatoes down his throat because he knew the glucose and glycine they contained would run straight to his muscles — which yearned for something, any kind of nourishment they could find.
“It makes you pop,” Harper said. “It makes you stand out.”
The result:
Some fans may wonder why athletes decide to do the naked photoshoot. For Harper, it was all about changing the perception that his sport doesn’t have athletic players. Per Svrluga:
I did it for baseball. Baseball players have such a bad rap of, like, we don’t work out or we’re not strong or this or that. Guys work so hard in baseball, it’s incredible. But people don’t know that. I wanted to show them, ‘Hey, this is our sport. This is who we are.’
The 22-year-old Harper is dedicated to putting in the work on his body and his game. As long as he continues to keep a strong work ethic, the sky is the limit for the three-time All-Star.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Starting pitching and superstars from both sides will determine who earns home-field advantage in the World Series when the American League and National League clash Tuesday in the 2015 MLB All-Star Game.
The Houston Astros’ Dallas Keuchel (11-4, 2.23 ERA) will take the hill for Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost and the American League. Zack Greinke (8-2, 1.39 ERA) of the Los Angeles Dodgers will start for San Francisco Giants’ Bruce Bochy and the National League.
Greinke has been stellar for the Dodgers this season, but he may end up in some trouble against this AL lineup. Keuchel leads an AL pitching staff featuring eight first time All-Stars, according to Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway. The group may be slightly inexperienced, but they may be the key to an AL victory.
Bryce Harper, 22, of the Washington Nationals and Mike Trout, 23, of the Los Angeles Angels lead a youth movement that will take over Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati for the Midsummer Classic. A record 20 players under the age of 25 are on the two rosters, per the Star Tribune.
Here are some bold predictions for the game based on statistics, history and the abilities of some of the key players involved.
The 86th annual All-Star game will take place at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The festivities, though, got started off with a few bangs on Monday night with baseball’s Home Run Derby.
Todd Frazier seemed all too comfortable in his home park as he did something he’d done 15 times before in 2015: hit a ball into the red-shirted screaming fans beyond the outfield wall.
The only difference? This dinger would win this year’s All-Star Home Run Derby and propel the Reds‘ third baseman into a hometown hero.
Frazier homered in the waning seconds of the four-minute championship round to tie Pederson. He promptly won it just one pitch into his 30-second bonus round (for hitting two homers greater than 425 feet)-giving him 15 home runs in the final round.
In a sport famous for not using a clock, it was timed rounds that made the annual competition more a dramatic spectacle than in years past.
Frazier, who has 25 homers on the season, benefited from an energetic home crowd to capture the Derby crown over Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Joc Pederson and kick off the All-Star festivities in an exciting way.
After the competition, he mentioned how much of an effect the Cincinnati crowd had on his 39-home run performance, via ESPN’s Jayson Stark.
“Big-time impact. Just hearing the crowd roar, call my name, adrenaline. And those last minutes of each round, [they] really picked me up and [helped] drive the ball out of the park a lot more.”
The new format proved vital to the 29-year-old, who credited the pressure and clock via Steve Gardner of USA TODAY Sports:
“You swing at everything once you’re down, no matter how much time you’ve got,” Frazier said. “When you get the opportunity, you just have to hit it out no matter where the ball’s pitched. I felt like a little kid out there in the backyard swinging at everything.”
Check out Frazier’s walk-off blast:
He became just the second player ever to win a Home Run Derby in his home stadium, via ESPN Stats & Information.
Frazier takes his Derby win into Tuesday’s All-Star Game where he starts at third base and bats second for the National League. Its his second appearance in the Midsummer Classic and first as a starter.
Rain Delay?
Unfortunately, the weather forecast does not look too promising for Tuesday night. Here’s the latest from the National Weather Service:
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
There was concern that rain would affect Monday’s Derby, but the sky stayed clear and no postponement or delay (besides modified timing rules to quicken the pace) was necessary.
Tonight, though, may be a different story.
Ultimately, it’ll come down to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s decision.
Arms Race
Dodgers’ ace Zack Greinke starts on the mound for the NL with the Houston Astros‘ Dallas Keuchel opposing him for the American League.
Greinke’s league-leading 1.39 ERA should prove a tough test for AL hitters. The former Cy Young-winner takes a 35.2-inning scoreless streak over his last five starts into the game.
Greinke was named the NL’s starter after Washington Nationals‘ right-hander Max Scherzer pitched on Sunday.
Keuchel has been no slouch himself, though, while going relatively unknown. In a league-high 137.1 innings, he has a 2.23 ERA and hasn’t allowed an earned run in seven of his 19 starts on the season.
Youth Movement
After injury replacements and the Final Vote winners were announced, a record 20 All-Stars are 25 years old or younger, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Nats outfielder Bryce Harper, at age 22, is the youngest. He’ll appear in his third All-Star game-just the 10th player to do so before the age of 23.
Harper will start in the outfield and hit third for the NL-a reward for his MVP-worthy first half which saw him hit .339 with a league-leading 1.168 OPS and already career-highs in home runs (26) and RBI (61).
Harper along with five other players 25-years-old or younger will start in the Mid-Summer Classic-Pederson and Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo in the NL and Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, Astros second baseman Jose Altuve and Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez in the AL.
There’s a First Time for Everything
ESPN Stats & Info also pointed out something that’s never occurred before in an All-Star Game.
That’s right. No Yankees or Red Sox in tonight’s starting lineups.
Three Yankees were selected to the roster: reliever Dellin Betances, outfielder Brett Gardner and first baseman Mark Teixeira.
Brock Holt is the lone Boston player to be chosen.
The biggest Yankee omission might be Alex Rodriguez, who was beat out by fellow designated hitters Nelson Cruz and Prince Fielder in the AL.
A-Rod, who turns 40 later this month, is hitting .278 with 18 home runs and 51 RBI as the three-hole hitter for the first-place Yankees.
Home Field on the Line
As with every All-Star Game, home-field advantage is granted in the World Series for the winning league.
Although the NL leads the all-time series 43-40-2, the AL has come out ahead as of late. The league has won the last two Midsummer Classics and 14 of the last 18.
Coverage of baseball’s 86th All-Star Game at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park begins at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday on FOX.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
You really can’t get any more ‘Merica than this.
Bryce Harper went all out celebrating the Fourth of July by knocking a two-run homer off San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner while using the most patriotic bat in history.
On top of the stars on the Nationals’ jerseys, Harper used an America-themed bat to send the ball over the fence.
It was Harper’s 25th home run of the year, which put him in an exclusive group at his age.
The announcer said it best. “Stars on the shirt, stars on the bat, star in the batter’s box.”
The long ball gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead early in the game.
[MLB, Twitter]
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Major League Baseball released its sixth All-Star Game balloting update Monday, with final results for the July 14 game in Cincinnati to be announced Sunday. Voters have until Thursday night to cast online, although there is always the threat of some votes being “scrubbed” away when the final count is announced.
The latest update shows that MLB’s cancelling of more than 60 million votes has taken some of the steam out of the Kansas City Royals’ domination of the American League starting lineup, but the message has likely been received that some tweaking to the system is needed going forward.
For now, we have the system MLB has relied upon since 1970, where fan voting determines non-pitching starters for each league, including a designated hitter. Despite the game determining home-field advantage in the World Series, the fan-voting system remains in place and has led to ballot-stuffing incidents, including this year, when eight Royals players were leading the AL voting as of June 15. That led to the cancelling of votes days later.
In the American League, there are only two races—second base and DH—where the leader and second-place player are within 1 million votes of each other. In the National League, there are likewise two—the race for third base and the third outfielder.
Some of the spots are therefore likely cemented, but a surge in some territories could lead to final-week upsets. So, knowing how things stand just days before polling closes, click through to check out Bleacher Report’s All-Star Game starter predictions.