Bryce Harper’s First 162 Games

A year ago today, the Washington Nationals called Bryce Harper up to the big leagues, so he officially has one full season of Major League Baseball under his belt. One of the coolest little known features of the site is a split called “Past Calendar Year”, which allows you to see how a player has done in the last 365 days, giving you a rolling one year look at a player’s most recent performance. Here is the Major League leaderboard for the year that has included Bryce Harper:

Rank	Name	G	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	Fld	BsR	WAR
1	Mike Trout	162	747	0.318	0.391	0.546	0.399	159	15.6	14.3	11.0
2	Robinson Cano	166	717	0.320	0.384	0.578	0.407	158	10.4	-1.5	8.7
3	Ryan Braun	155	681	0.317	0.395	0.601	0.416	164	4.7	2.5	7.7
4	David Wright	162	697	0.301	0.390	0.489	0.376	141	11.5	2.6	7.6
5	Buster Posey	154	630	0.327	0.402	0.538	0.399	157	7.2	-4.7	7.6
6	Miguel Cabrera	164	720	0.340	0.404	0.599	0.421	169	-11.8	-1.6	7.3
7	Andrew McCutchen	163	696	0.311	0.386	0.545	0.393	152	-8.1	4.0	6.7
8	Alex Gordon	162	726	0.310	0.375	0.474	0.368	133	12.1	2.1	6.2
9	Bryce Harper	162	692	0.284	0.356	0.518	0.375	138	9.3	-0.9	6.2
10	Yadier Molina	142	583	0.318	0.373	0.487	0.371	137	9.3	-5.4	6.1

(Side note – holy crap Mike Trout.)

Because the season started a little later last year, the past calendar year includes more than 162 games for a few guys, but Harper is right at 162 after yesterday. And in those 162 games, he’s been one of the ten best players in baseball. Some fun facts from Harper’s first full season.

Over the last year, he has a .234 ISO. Prince Fielder has a .233 ISO.

Harper is still learning how to hit lefties, which isn’t unusual for a guy who just turned 20. Against right-handers, though, his career line: .308/.382/.569, good for a .406 wOBA and 159 wRC+.

Harper has elite pull power, but he’s not just a pull power guy. For his career, he’s hit .363 and slugged .548 when going to the opposite field.

Think Harper just hits fastballs and can be exploited by good breaking stuff? Think again. Bryce Harper has been an above average hitter against every pitch type he’s been thrown.

Don’t let Bryce Harper elevate the baseball – he has a .583 wOBA on balls in the air, 100 points higher than the league average.

With 31 home runs, Bryce Harper is already tied with Ted Williams for 5th all time in home runs through his age-20 season. His age-20 season has five months left to go. He’s 11 home runs away from tying Mel Ott for most HRs before his age-21 season. I’m guessing he’ll get there.