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Something might be wrong with Bryce Harper
Saturday’s Say Hey, Baseball features Bryce Harper’s phantom injury, A-Rod’s final game highlights, and a Barry Bonds photobomb.
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2016 was supposed to be Bryce Harper’s year. After his brain-meltingly awesome 2015 (he hit .330/.460/.649 with 42 home runs, so I’d say it qualifies as brain-meltingly awesome), he was going to cement his status as the best young player in the game, hit a million home runs, and make baseball great again. And at the start, it seemed like he’d actually do it. Through the first 19 games of the season, Harper hit .328/.430/.844. But after that, things went way downhill. Now after playing 105 games this season, with just over six weeks left to go, Harper is hitting .233/.374/.438.
So why is this happening? There haven’t been any good answers thus far, but yesterday Tom Verducci proposed one. Verducci reported in Sports Illustrated that a source told him that Harper has been struggling with a right shoulder injury for the last two months. Specifically, the injury affects “the area at the top and back of his shoulder and at the base of his neck.” That’s a pretty large area, and you need all of it to be healthy to play baseball well. He’s been receiving treatment for it, including cupping therapy, which Michael Phelps has also been receiving at the Olympics.
The Nationals have denied that Harper is having any shoulder issues, or at least Mike Rizzo has. He checked with Harper himself, and nada. But last night, Harper was out of the Nats lineup for the fourth straight game. The reason was neck stiffness, which the Nats say is new as of last Saturday and not anything that had been there before. But there’s no way to know the real truth here. Chase Utley, for example, is famous for playing through injuries which have affected his play, and it’s not an uncommon practice in baseball. We can only take Harper’s word at this point. But if we do, why has he been playing this way? Only Bryce Harper knows the answer. Hopefully he can figure out how to fix it before the Nationals really, really need him.
- A-Rod’s final game was full of highlights. He hit an RBI double and got to play third base in the ninth inning. He walked off to a thunderous standing ovation.
- Johnny Giavotella has been playing decently this year when given the chance, but is his time with the Angels done?
- The Red Sox acquired a handful of players over the past month, and Over the Monster takes a look at how all of them have been doing. Even Michael Martinez. Who? Yeah, that’s about right.
- The Phillies began the 2016 season by resolutely not sucking, but now The Good Phight asks an important question: are the Phillies tanking the rest of 2016?
- Speaking of the Phillies, last night Ryan Howard hit a grand slam with Bobby Abreu and recent wall of fame inductee Jim Thome watching and loudly cheering from the luxury boxes. A home run has never been so perfect.
- Danny Duffy and his sparkling 2016 pitching might actually have a shot at the AL Cy Young.
- Don’t look now, but the Cubs have won 11 games in a row.
- The Indians ran all over the Angels last night, literally. They stole eight bases and tied a 99-year-old franchise record.
- This photo of Ichiro and Marlins Man is amazing simply because of Barry Bonds photobombing it, his head floating eerily in the background. Oh, Barry. You’re the best.
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