This Good, This YoungĪll that said, his age-22 season is something else entirely. While his 2014 season was a legitimate disappointment, the idea that his first two years were anything but great is just false and born of the incredible expectations and hype that surrounded his ascension to the majors at only 19 years old. Only 20 players 20 years old or younger have ever had a season where they put up a wRC+ of 120 or higher with at least 450 plate appearances and, again, only Harper and Ott did it twice. Only 17 players 20 years old or younger have ever hit 20+ home runs in a season, and only Harper and Tony Conigliaro Conigliaro may not be the most familiar name to non-Red Sox fans, but he was a player on a path to greatness before he was struck in the face by a pitch in his fourth season and the injury permanently damaged his eyesight. Both of Harper’s first two years are on the list, and while the list contains some all-time greats, only Harper and Hall of Famer Mel Ott appear on the list twice. (generally considered an All-Star level of production). A stat that attempts to measure a player’s contributions in all facets of the game and quantify how many more wins that player contributed than a “replacement level” player would have (a replacement level player being a hypothetical “AAAA player” every team has in its farm system. Only 19 players 20 years old or younger have ever put up a season with 4+ fWAR Wins Above Replacement as calculated by FanGraphs. He was so hyped coming into the league that he was labeled a bust in his first two seasons, despite actually being one of the most productive young players ever (his third year was a legitimate disappointment, but judgment had been passed long before that). Part of baseball’s recently heralded “Youth Movement”, Harper is only 22 years old, despite having completed his fourth full season in the majors. His performance is even more amazing considering his age. Regardless of how we look at it, Harper is in extremely good company in 2015, delivering an offensive performance rarely seen in MLB history. Of those seasons, 66% of them come from Ruth, Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Hank Greenberg. 330), at least 40 HR (Harper hit 42), had an OPS of at least 1.100 (Harper had 1.109), scored at least 110 runs (118), while driving in at least 95 RBI (99). If we look at the raw numbers, there are only 42 seasons in which a player hit at least. Of those 43, 74% of them (including the top 22) were put up by a player named Ruth, Williams, Bonds, Hornsby, Mantle, Cobb, or Gehrig. In the modern era, there have been 43 seasons total in which a player produced a wRC+ of 195 or higher. is particularly useful because it accounts for all at-bat results, weighs them based on their correlation with runs scored, and then adjusts it for the offensive production of the league – a 150 means a player was 50% more productive than the league average, regardless of whether it was the dead ball era or the PED era. 100 is average and each point above or below is a percentage better or worse than the average player. When conducting a historical comparison, wRC+ Weighted Runs Created Plus: A comprehensive measure of offensive production relative to the league. The question being asked about this season should not be whether Bryce Harper was the most valuable player in the National League this year, it should be “Just how impressive was this season really?” Short answer: Extremely. As Craig Edwards at FanGraphs noted, finishing over 200 would have put him in exceedingly elite company, but his mark of 197 still puts him in rather rarefied air. Harper spent most of the season with a wRC+ Weighted Runs Created Plus: A comprehensive measure of offensive production relative to the league. 461 was 34 points ahead of the next closest player in either league. 590) and his wOBA Weighted On Base Percentage: A comprehensive measure of offensive production, measuring all at bat outcomes and placed on a scale roughly equal to “normal” on base percentage.320 is average. The next highest slugging in either league was 59 points behind Harper (Mike Trout at. That was good for the 2nd highest average in the NL (3rd in MLB), 5th in the NL in RBI, and 1st in the NL in every other category. Bryce Harper seems a lock for the NL MVP (despite any “his team didn’t even make the playoffs” dissenters) and amidst the flaming wreckage of the Nationals’ season, it’s easy to overlook just how amazing his year was (and why suggesting his team’s failures should detract from his award vote is just crazy).įor the 2015 season, Bryce Harper hit 42 home runs, scored 118 runs, and drove in 99 more, all while slashing.
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