Bryce Harper Is Struggling vs Breaking Balls Thrown By Lefties
The simple fact Bryce Harper is even playing right now is surprising to a lot of people in the MLB. When he got his Tommy John’s surgery back in November, this is about the time people expected him to be returning to the lineup. Instead he made his return in early May. Much earlier than players would usually get back to the lineup after that injury. And given the situation, he has played fairly well since that return. Bryce Harper is hitting .301 and his OBP is .393.
What is strange is the lack of power. He has just 3 HRs in that time, and has not hit a HR since the Rockies series a few weeks back. He has hit some balls hard. But they all seem to die on the warning track. When those balls would usually be out if Harper was his normal self.
But there may be another problem under the surface. Jayson Stark joined the Best Show Ever today, and talked about a troubling trend with Harper.
“Its probably shown up the most against left handed pitching. But really it has been an issue with all the breaking balls he has seen from left-handed pitchers. He has seen 140 breaking balls from lefties this year, and he has 2 hits. When he swings at a breaking ball from a lefty, he swings through more than half of those.”
It may not seem that abnormal for a lefty to struggle vs lefty pitchers. But that has not often been the case for Bryce Harper. In fact as Jayson Stark pointed out, usually Harper is quite good vs left handed pitchers. Especially when they throw him breaking balls.
“His first two years he had a .9 something OPS against left-handed pitchers. Last year against breaking balls from lefties he hit .302 and slugged .512. This year its .065 with a .167 slugging%. He is just going to figure it out. He will have to lay off more of those, or put them in play, or this won’t stop.”
You can listen to the full conversation with Jayson Stark below:
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6 Good, Bad, or Ugly Takeaways From The Loss to the Braves
The Ugly- Trea Turner Has Gone Cold Again
After the Diamondbacks series, we thought Trea Turner had finally arrived. His start to the season was brutal. We were promised an MVP candidate and the guy who showed up over the 1st two months was hardly playable. Turner was hitting .237 going into the recent Dodgers series. And his fielding left a lot to be desired too.
But things were starting to turn around. He went 11-29 in the 7 games vs the Dodgers and DBacks. That was to go with his 5 steals over those games. But the last 4 games were more of the same from April and May. Vs the Athletics and now the one game vs the Braves he is 2 for 17. It is a small sample size, but so was his mini hot streak. What is not a small sample size is him hitting .244 this deep into the season, with an OBP of just .293. The speed is still there because speed doesn’t slump. But you cant use the speed if you don’t get on base. And right now he is killing them at the plate.
He is way too talented to keep playing like this. That is what we keep telling ourselves. But here we are near the end of June, and he is still hitting like this.
(Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
The Good- Promising Game By Brandon Marsh
Brandon Marsh started the season on fire. Through April he may have genuinely been one of the best hitters in baseball. His slash line after the first month was .321/.415/.617/ 1.032. Those are MVP-caliber numbers. He has struggled at the plate in May and June though. His slugging percentage these last 2 months is under. 300, and his average is under the Mendoza Line.
But last night was a good sign. Vs a tough pitcher in Spencer Strider he went 3-4 with one of those hits being a double. He was squaring up some balls over the weekend too. We may finally be seeing him breaking out of his awful slump. Maybe the threat Christian Pache represents to his playing time was what it took for him to turn it around.
Even if he doesn’t reach what he was doing in April if he can be half that good he will return to being a valuable part of the lineup. Because it is hard to justify him playing every day if he keeps hitting like he did in May and June.
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
The Bad- Hitting with runners in scoring position
Hitting when guys were in scoring position was an issue for the Phillies most of this season. That turned around in a big way over the recent hot streak. But it reared its ugly head again last night. Despite 11 hits, they drove in just 2 runs. They were 1-12 last night with RISP. That can’t happen.
The fact they did so much better than that the past couple of weeks makes me willing to give them a small pass for it last night. But given how bad they were at that in April and May, it is worth keeping an eye on. They cant slide back into bad habits again after doing so well over the past couple of weeks. This lineup has too much talent to continually come up small with chances to drive in runs. Just one more timely hit last night may have been enough to turn things around.
Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts after striking out to end the game against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park on June 20, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Braves won the game 4-2. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
The Ugly- Trea Turner Has Gone Cold Again
After the Diamondbacks series, we thought Trea Turner had finally arrived. His start to the season was brutal. We were promised an MVP candidate and the guy who showed up over the 1st two months was hardly playable. Turner was hitting .237 going into the recent Dodgers series. And his fielding left a lot to be desired too.
But things were starting to turn around. He went 11-29 in the 7 games vs the Dodgers and DBacks. That was to go with his 5 steals over those games. But the last 4 games were more of the same from April and May. Vs the Athletics and now the one game vs the Braves he is 2 for 17. It is a small sample size, but so was his mini hot streak. What is not a small sample size is him hitting .244 this deep into the season, with an OBP of just .293. The speed is still there because speed doesn’t slump. But you cant use the speed if you don’t get on base. And right now he is killing them at the plate.
He is way too talented to keep playing like this. That is what we keep telling ourselves. But here we are near the end of June, and he is still hitting like this.
(Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
The Good- Promising Game By Brandon Marsh
Brandon Marsh started the season on fire. Through April he may have genuinely been one of the best hitters in baseball. His slash line after the first month was .321/.415/.617/ 1.032. Those are MVP-caliber numbers. He has struggled at the plate in May and June though. His slugging percentage these last 2 months is under. 300, and his average is under the Mendoza Line.
But last night was a good sign. Vs a tough pitcher in Spencer Strider he went 3-4 with one of those hits being a double. He was squaring up some balls over the weekend too. We may finally be seeing him breaking out of his awful slump. Maybe the threat Christian Pache represents to his playing time was what it took for him to turn it around.
Even if he doesn’t reach what he was doing in April if he can be half that good he will return to being a valuable part of the lineup. Because it is hard to justify him playing every day if he keeps hitting like he did in May and June.
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
The Bad- Hitting with runners in scoring position
Hitting when guys were in scoring position was an issue for the Phillies most of this season. That turned around in a big way over the recent hot streak. But it reared its ugly head again last night. Despite 11 hits, they drove in just 2 runs. They were 1-12 last night with RISP. That can’t happen.
The fact they did so much better than that the past couple of weeks makes me willing to give them a small pass for it last night. But given how bad they were at that in April and May, it is worth keeping an eye on. They cant slide back into bad habits again after doing so well over the past couple of weeks. This lineup has too much talent to continually come up small with chances to drive in runs. Just one more timely hit last night may have been enough to turn things around.
Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts after striking out to end the game against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park on June 20, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Braves won the game 4-2. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
