Thoughts on Bryce Harper

I really hadn’t seen much of Bryce Harper until last year’s playoffs.  After seeing him compete against the Giants in the 2014 National League Division Series, although in a losing effort, it was hard not to be impressed.  He was the only one to come through for the Nationals and he was only 21 years old.

While Harper was hitting clutch home runs his more seasoned counterparts, Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche, did nothing.  Werth and LaRoche hit .059 and .056 respectively and neither had an RBI.  Meanwhile, at 21 years of age, Bryce Harper hit .294 with three homers and four RBIs.

In past seasons Harper had a hard time staying healthy but he has this year and he’s putting up MVP type numbers.  Last night he hit his 40th home run of the season, making him only the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 in the season in which he was twenty-two.  The previous six players to accomplish the feat are Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Johnny Bench, Eddie Mathews (twice), Joe DiMaggio and Mel Ott.