Shore wrote:

smitty wrote:

Warszawa wrote:

mtcal wrote:

pacino wrote:

Warszawa wrote:What the #$!&@ is up with Bryce Harper? If I didn’t know better I would think he sucks

his BABIP is historically low. some of that is obviously bad luck because his OBP is still there. His exit velocity is lower than it was when he was amazing. is there such a a thing as *too much* patience if he's letting hittable pitches go by and getting himself down in the count? not sure, but that's what I saw when he was facing us. he's pulling the ball at a 5% higher rate this year. Jay Jaffe wrote about his changes; he appears to be making less contact with pitches.

he's just maybe not as good as he used to be; more of a top 25 player instead of a top 5

stupid question but teams seem to be shifting something ridiculous this year - could that be affecting him/getting in his head?

Who are the top 5 players in MLB right now?

The Angels guy from Philly.

A couple of Yankees.

A couple of Red Sox.

And there you go.

A couple of Indians are probably both ahead of one of the Yankees and one of the Red Sox.

mtcal wrote:

pacino wrote:

Warszawa wrote:What the #$!&@ is up with Bryce Harper? If I didn’t know better I would think he sucks

his BABIP is historically low. some of that is obviously bad luck because his OBP is still there. His exit velocity is lower than it was when he was amazing. is there such a a thing as *too much* patience if he's letting hittable pitches go by and getting himself down in the count? not sure, but that's what I saw when he was facing us. he's pulling the ball at a 5% higher rate this year. Jay Jaffe wrote about his changes; he appears to be making less contact with pitches.

he's just maybe not as good as he used to be; more of a top 25 player instead of a top 5

stupid question but teams seem to be shifting something ridiculous this year - could that be affecting him/getting in his head?

mtcal wrote:

pacino wrote:

Warszawa wrote:What the #$!&@ is up with Bryce Harper? If I didn’t know better I would think he sucks

his BABIP is historically low. some of that is obviously bad luck because his OBP is still there. His exit velocity is lower than it was when he was amazing. is there such a a thing as *too much* patience if he's letting hittable pitches go by and getting himself down in the count? not sure, but that's what I saw when he was facing us. he's pulling the ball at a 5% higher rate this year. Jay Jaffe wrote about his changes; he appears to be making less contact with pitches.

he's just maybe not as good as he used to be; more of a top 25 player instead of a top 5

stupid question but teams seem to be shifting something ridiculous this year - could that be affecting him/getting in his head?

Stripes wrote:Trout
Mookie
Altuve
Ramirez
...

Monkeyboy wrote:

Stripes wrote:Trout
Mookie
Altuve
Ramirez
...

Ramirez is my fav non-Phillies. Man can rake.

1 wrote:Tyle Kucker

SixerLed3 wrote:The Astros just optioned closer Ken Giles to AAA.

Because, otherwise, Giles’ me-first antics Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park had nothing to do with beating Oakland in mid-July or the Astros repeating as back-to-back world champs.


It’s going to be interesting to see how Hinch – calm and cool, but more fiery than most know -- handles this.

There’s less and less of a place for Giles on the 62-32 Astros, who entered Wednesday holding a four-game division lead and possessing the second-best record in Major League Baseball.

I recently devoted an entire column to Giles’ season-long struggles.

Tuesday night at the ballpark, Giles embarrassed himself, his manager and his club – and nearly coughed up win No. 62, which eventually required 11 innings for the full W and featured one of the oddest “walkoffs” in recent baseball history.