Bryce Harper’s Platinum Feat
That teenager with the eye black in Washington is setting records as he blazes a trail through his rookie season, but today Bryce Harper broke a record that he may not brag about. In seven plate appearances against the Yankees, the outfielder struck out five times. He becomes the youngest person to ever earn a platinum sombrero, and the first teenager. Does it matter?
In some ways, you could say no. Other young players that managed the same feat before they turned 25 include Sammy Sosa, Bo Jackson, George Foster, Scott Rolen, Adam Dunn and Reggie Jackson. Even Dick Allen did it when he was 22. It’s no harbinger of doom.
Still, you might notice something about that list. Not all of them had strikeout issues, but you might think that a list with Bo Jackson and his 30-plus percent strikeout rate might be strikeout heavy. There were 50 players that struck out more than five times in a game before they turned 25. Let’s leave players that haven’t played at least five full years in the big leagues out of this equation (and pitchers) — that leaves us with 43 players — and look at their career strikeout rates. Average them all out, and you get a 18.8% strikeout rate. 19.6% of all plate appearances are ending in a strikeout this year.
Even with that knowledge in hand, it’s tempting to worry about a young player like Harper striking out so many times in a game. After all, Harper has a double-digit swinging strike rate. We’ve tracked that rate since 2002, and the average strikeout rate of the 507 qualified batter-seasons that featured a double-digit swinging strike rate since then was… 20.63%. His worse-than-average whiff rate is also not a big deal, it seems.
And yet you might watch his swing and see a little bit of extra effort in it. In the 2010 Arizona Fall League, a scout told me that you could see the max-effort swing as a negative. If you wanted to. And if you paired that hard swing with some of his early strikeout rates (28.2% in rookie ball, and over 30% in the AFL), you might worry a tiny bit. Especially after he struck out five times in one game in his rookie season.
But if you look at baseball as a whole, Harper’s five-strikeout Saturday was just a blip. It doesn’t mean that he’ll have a bad strikeout rate in the future, even if you squint as hard as you can and try to find the negatives. Instead, call Saturday’s platinum feat just a really bad day and continue to be excited about this skilled young player.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Pettite schooled him: 3 strike outs in 11 pitches with 7 swinging strikes (including 3 third strike sliders) and 2 called strikes. Now that is that is aggressive hitting. And pitching for that matter.
Pettitte threw him 2 fastballs (one for a strike and one inside)… and then 9 straight sliders.
If you look at his #’s, they are very good for fastballs, pretty good for changeups and curveballs and ~average on sliders and cutters. I think his average on sliders though is terrible (sub .200 I think) – while I get that batting average is a flawed stat I think his roughly average performance on sliders/cutters is a product of him hammering mistakes but having trouble on non-mistakes.
Some of that may be a sample issue, but watching him at the plate he seems to have a hard time recognizing sliders.
Rapada also punished him in both games (though he is pretty rough on lefties)
too bad the Nats blew the lead or this wouldn’t be a post. when you look at player under 25 that that 5Ks in a game with more than 5 PAs, the number becomes much smaller (just 16 ).
And while that list has a high level strike out guys, Guys like Cecil Cooper (11.5), and Roy Smalley(13.8) also appear on the list
I didn’t limit the PAs! There were 50+ instances of 5+ Ks in a game under 25.
Does 5+ mean “five or more?” Because you said in the article that there are 50 players under 25 who have struck out “more than five times in a game,” which can’t be true as according to baseball almanac there are only 8 players who have ever struck out 6 times in a game. I’m also confused in that you say “50 instances” in your comment whereas you said “50 players” in the post.
ANyways, just looking for some clarification – thanks!
Five or more strikeouts, 25 or younger. I used B-R play index. They have 52 instances, 50 players since 1918 that have struck out more than 5 times and were 25 or younger. Only three guys struck out six times and were 25 or younger according to BR.
Davey Johnson needs to give him some make-up remover and send him back to the clubhouse. The efficacy of eye black is questionable. Eye black down your cheeks is make-up.
I would also appreciate the young man getting off my lawn.
1) Eye black is efficacious, bro*. Give it a try some time.
2) Soap an water gets it out just fine.
3) Harper is one of the Nats best hitters right now, and he’s holding his own. Why send him down exactly?
4) It’s not really “cool” anymore to call guys little girls (or imply it with makeup digs), as if acting like a woman made one inferior.
*Lest there be any doubt, I typed this with my tongue in my cheek.
There is also the issue of if called strikes are objectively strikes. It seemed the umpire had it in for him. Maybe he was “old school.”
I don’t know about that. I saw a break down of the Pettite strike outs and Harper basically struck himself out in those three chasing sliders. Same with Garcia as he chased 2 pitches outside of the zone, including strike 3.
In the at bat against Rapada, Harper’s 4th strikeout, there was a called third strike that appears just outside the zone. Maybe a veteran gets that call. Maybe not. But it’s certainly not enough to say he got a raw deal.
I think you are over emphasizing the third strike. There is a big difference between a take yielding 0-1 vs 1-0 in terms of how an plate appearance progresses. As I recall there were two balls that started counts 0-1.
Nope… he whined about the strikeout against Rapada (pitch 5) and slammed his bat down. But the pitch was within the standard margin of error and was being called a strike all game. If he was complaing about pitch 1 in that AB, then he needs glasses.
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/numlocation.php?pitchSel=449060&game=gid_2012_06_16_nyamlb_wasmlb_1/&batterX=80&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=3
Then he whined about pitch 1 from Freddy Garcia (which you can see caught the bottom of the zone) and after striking out swinging flipped the bat and tossed his helmet onto homeplate and said something to the ump while walking away. Between that and slamming the bat down on the previous AB against Rapada he’s fortunate he didn’t get tossed and the ump showed some restraint.
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/numlocation.php?pitchSel=449060&game=gid_2012_06_16_nyamlb_wasmlb_1/&batterX=80&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=3
Seems like his frustration with the K’s just got to him a bit. Not sure how either of the pitches he was whining about were the “ump having it in for him” especially when he was calling pitches like that all game (some even slightly below the zone and some further outside on lefties)
Wrong plot for the Freddy AB above.
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/numlocation.php?pitchSel=150119&game=gid_2012_06_16_nyamlb_wasmlb_1/&batterX=97&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=3
Please don’t interrupt a good rant with facts.
Mike Trout > Bryce Harper.
When you see Nats fans posting, “Harper > Trout” on articles about Trout, then I will agree with you.
come on… that’s BS… consider them relatively equal.
For a 19 year old left handed hitter to pick up his 4th K against left handed pitching during the 10th inning of a 14th inning game probably makes it easier to swallow. On a normal day he might finish with 3.
“Until then” he had been stellar against left handed MLB pitchers.
Yeah, cause Trout really tore up the majors at 19. Oh, wait…
It would be interesting to know how often a guy strikes out 5 times and his team still wins the game. I would guess it happens a fair percentage of the time since in order or Hinton get at leat 5 AB’s his team mates must be reaching base some.
Chris Davis was 0-8 with 5 Ks and got the win vs the Sox this year.
Platinum Feet? No wonder the guy is so special.
He wanted to increase the ratio of BABIP to AVG to rival Trout even more. That’s the only reason he decided to put on the shiny hat.
In all seriousness after having read Rob Miech’s “The Last Natural”, watching every single at-bat of his thanks to MLB.tv even though the Nats are not my favorite team, and giving Davey a hard time by first-guessing his starting the rook against the grizzled unretired veteran, I say Bryce’s biggest flaw is expecting to hit a homerun every at-bat. He needs to shave an ounce or two off his bat and go back to hitting the ball opposite field like he did when he started his good run before he started trying to pull everything during/after the Blackberry Blue Jays series.
Oh I meant to include the detail of that grizzled unretired veteran being a LEFTY. Harp can handle a power lefty but has gotten undressed in at bats versus the more crafty lefties.
Uh…he’s 19.
Exactly. He’s a treThmendously talented young man getting on-the-job training. There are few compares to him since there have been few players playing everyday in the Majors at 19.
There will be rough days like this, especially when facing a tough veteran lefty like Pettitte. He’ll learn, and eventually will start crushing some of those pitches.
Yeah I don’t see why the fact that he’s 19 isn’t getting more play in this discussion. Most players his age if they’re REALLY good are in A ball. You don’t see them have days like that because when they do it’s against minor leagures and not borderline hall of famers (who is admittidley on the decline phase of his career). If you listened to scouts they though he’d struggle so much more than this, and one crappy day doesn’t change it.
That’s a clown article, bro.
Alright, Bryce, I’ll admit I’m old, and missing a meme. Why does ending statements with “bro” make them funny? Or is it just one of these things where, three years from now, everyone will look back and wonder, “What was wrong with us?”
bro.
The meme is from Harper responding to a reporter’s question about him drinking with “that’s a clown question, bro.”
And calling people “bro” is not new.
I found it interesting that you removed pitchers from your data set. I’d like to see the boxscores of the games where pitchers struck out 5 times.
5 K’s is bad, but five at bats is a pretty small sample size. I think it’s pretty meaningless.
I never knew anyone had ever struck out six times in a game. What’s that called, the Plutonium Sombrero?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_sombrero
Apparently 6 strikeouts in a game is called a “titanium sombrero.”. I actually prefer the euphemism “Olympic Rings” even more than “Platnum Sombrero.”. It’s funnier and you almost never get to use it!
i prefer platinum fez, and diamond fedora.
Wow! Adam Dunn struck out 5 times in a game before he was 25? I’m shocked.
What’s next an article when Bryce Harper sneezes?
Ken Griffey Jr. sneezed once when he was 19. He seemed okay for a while, but he aged quickly once he hit 30.
A 19 year old had a bad game. Newsreel at 11.
If a pitcher gets him five times in a game it could be a weakness identified or a fluke. Pitchers see the scouting info and data before they face the nats, they will try to go at Harper and see if this is a weakness. Harper will have to adjust just like any other player. That’s why we love baseball so much, the nuances of each at bat.
It was so concerning that he turned around and had a solid 2 for 4 day yesterday which puts him at a nice tidy stat line of .294/.370/.524. His K rate is around 18% AFTER the bad game which to me for a 19 year old isn’t too shabby. Especially for a 19 year old who works the count and has a walk rate of around 10%. The strikeout game may have been alarming if he had done it multiple times on the season but really he has showed a nice command of the strikezone. Players have bad games, he had one. Was it really worth an entire write up?
A list of players 19 or younger who have struck out 5 or more times in a game: Bryce Harper. And since Bryce Harper is awesome I guess that proves that Bryce Harper will be awesome.
I heard Eno Sarris struck out *6 times* at happy hour last week for the rare vage sombrero, but who’s counting.
GUYS BREAKING NEWS:
RA Dickey is technically considered a 19 year old since he’s a knuckleball pitcher. Where do we rate him on the Harper/ Trout scale with that in mind?