Day six of vacation. Today is the cap on the best week of every year, our family's trip to South Haven, Michigan. It's always tough to leave, but the Cubs comeback today made it easier to swallow.
So, Bryce Harper has been a beast lately. In July (14 games), Harper is 25-54 with 12 walks. 11 of those hits have been of the extra-base variety. That comes out to a slash line of .463/.561/.907. And then he hit another bomb tonight.
I always have to remind myself that Harper is only 24; he doesn't turn 25 until October. For comparison, Aaron Judge and Kris Bryant are both older. After this recent hot stretch, Harper has raised his WAR to 4.5 for the season; that's second for NL position players (Anthony Rendon: 4.9).
Harper is now 27th on the collective WAR list for players through their age-24 seasons (age on June 30) with 25.8. The list of Hall of Famers he has passed this year is impressive: Robin Yount, George Brett, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Alomar, Stan Musial, and Willy Mays. DiMaggio and Ripken are in his sights. The top three spots on this list are very good:
- Mike Trout (48.6)
- Ty Cobb (46.6)
- Mickey Mantle (40.8)
Along with Trout, Harper is on his way to joining Cobb and Mantle in Cooperstown. In six big league seasons, he has made five All-Star games and won both the Rookie of the Year and MVP. Keep up the good work Bryce. You'll be joining KB and Rizz soon enough.
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.