Bryce Harper is Cooperstown bound, and he’ll get there having embraced a relatively straightforward approach. Aggressively selective and with a swing built to do damage, the future Hall of Famer isn’t big on hitting analytics or new-school methods. More than anything, he trusts his raw ability — which he has in great abundance — and basically goes out to bash. It’s hard to argue with his success. Now in his 15th big league season, and eighth with the Philadelphia Phillies, the two-time NL MVP has 373 home runs to go with a .280/.386/.519 slash line and a 141 wRC+ for his career. Moreover, the 33-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down. At the quarter mark of the current campaign, he has 10 round-trippers and a 146 wRC+.
Harper sat down to talk hitting at Fenway Park earlier this week.
———
David Laurila: You told me that you’re more so see-ball-hit-ball than a guy who puts a lot of thought into his craft. Can you elaborate on that?
Bryce Harper: “I take my routine into the cage and kind of let that play out. There are days in the cage where you’re going to feel good, and days in the cage where you’re not necessarily going to feel good. I just need to stick with my routine every day, the same routine, understanding what works for me. That’s kind of how I’ve always been. I’ve got little drills that I like to do, which keep me through the ball and in the same path. But video-wise, pitcher tendencies — all that kind of stuff — I mostly throw out the door. I don’t do too much of that.”
Laurila: That said, have you changed at all from when you first broke into pro ball? Stance, set-up, bat path, etc.
You Aren’t a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren’t yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren’t logged in). We aren’t mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we’d like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won’t bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn’t sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don’t be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you’ll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we’ve also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn’t want to overdo it.
Harper: “I’ve had to evolve. Guys are throwing harder. When I came up in 2012, one of the harder fastballs, Jonny Venters’, was like 98 [mph]. [Francisco Rodríguez] threw pretty hard. But now everybody is 95 to 100, up to 102. Each day you’re facing guys who are throwing really hard, from starters to bullpen. So, I’ve had to make sure I get to the baseball in a certain way, staying on plane. High heaters. Making sure that I’m on plane to get to baseballs thrown at a high level.”
Laurila: You need to do that without cheating on fastballs, otherwise you’re going to get beat by a secondary…
Harper: “Sure. The great equalizer has always been the changeup, and that pitch is coming back a lot more. A lot of lefties are starting to throw that more often, whereas when I first came up, Cole Hamels was a unicorn. Right? He would throw the sinker down and in, and tunnel the changeup off of that. Nowadays, a lot of guys are throwing hard, but they’ve also got good secondary stuff. They have good offspeed, so like you said, you can’t really cheat on the heater. You have to be aware of their other pitches.”
Laurila: How are you going about that without cheating to the heater?
Harper: “Early, down, and through. That’s a big thing for me. Get ready early, get down on the ball, and stay through it. If I can do those three things and keep my mind on just going in that direction, that keeps me where I need to be, instead of thinking, ‘Hey, I need to change my hands here,’ or change something here. Everybody starts in a certain direction, but then we all end up in the same spot. So, for me it’s just early, down, and stay through.”
Laurila: What about staying on top of elevated fastballs?
Harper: “It’s not too much staying on top of the ball; it’s more or less just trying to get to the heater. If I get to the best inside fastball and hit it to left-center, I’m going to keep on everything. It’s kind of dependent on who I’m facing that day, or what the guy’s got, but if I can stay through the baseball in that sense, I’m good.”
Laurila: Are you ever looking to let the ball travel, or basically just trying to catch it out front?
Harper: “I want to enter the front window the best I can. That’s where I want to hit it. I want to hit the ball in the front window and… I use the phone booth reference a lot: Stay in my phone booth and not get too far this way, not get too far that way, but stay as even as I can and hit the ball in that front window as best I can.”
Laurila: A hitter once told me that letting the ball travel and hitting it out front aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.
Harper: “That’s a little too much for me. I just try to hit the ball out front. If I can do that, and do it the right way, I’m going to be OK where I’m at.”
Laurila: Outside of being older and more experienced, it sounds like you’re basically the same hitter you were when you got to the big leagues.
Harper: “I feel like I’m the same kid I’ve been since I was 10 years old. I’m just going out there and trying to hit the baseball hard. Obviously, you’ve got to change with the times. Like I said, guys are throwing harder, and there are tendencies, but it’s basically see the ball, hit the ball. It’s see the ball, hit the ball, hit it hard. Sometimes you hit it hard and it’s right at somebody. That happened to me twice last night. It’s baseball, the game we play. Nothing that happened yesterday is going to dictate the way I feel. For me, every day is a reset day. Every day is a new day. Like I said, sometimes you feel good in the cage, and sometimes you don’t. You’ve got to just go out on the field and let your natural ability take over, go out there and try to hit the ball hard.”
——
Earlier “Talks Hitting” interviews can found through these links: Jo Adell, Jeff Albert, Greg Allen, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Bates, Jacob Berry, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Justice Bigbie, Cavan Biggio, Charlie Blackmon, JJ Bleday, Bobby Bradley, Will Brennan, Jay Bruce, Triston Casas, Matt Chapman, Michael Chavis, Garrett Cooper, Gavin Cross, Jacob Cruz, Nelson Cruz, Paul DeJong, Brenton Del Chiaro, Josh Donaldson, Brendan Donovan, Donnie Ecker, Rick Eckstein, Drew Ferguson, Justin Foscue, Michael Fransoso, Ryan Fuller, Joey Gallo, Paul Goldschmidt, Devlin Granberg, Gino Groover, Matt Hague, Andy Haines, Mitch Haniger, Robert Hassell III, Austin Hays, Nico Hoerner, Jackson Holliday, Spencer Horwitz, Rhys Hoskins, Eric Hosmer, Jacob Hurtubise, Tim Hyers, Walker Jenkins, Connor Joe, Jace Jung, Josh Jung, Jimmy Kerr, Heston Kjerstad, Steven Kwan, Shea Langeliers, Trevor Larnach, Doug Latta, Dillon Lawson, Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Evan Longoria, Joey Loperfido, Michael Lorenzen, Mark Loretta, Gavin Lux, Dave Magadan, Trey Mancini, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Marcelo Mayer, Kevin McGonigle, Hunter Mense, Owen Miller, Paul Molitor, Colson Montgomery, Tre’ Morgan, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Daniel Murphy, Lars Nootbaar, Logan O’Hoppe, Vinnie Pasquantino, Graham Pauley, David Peralta, Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Brent Rooker, Thomas Saggese, Anthony Santander, Drew Saylor, Nolan Schanuel, Marcus Semien, Giancarlo Stanton, Spencer Steer, Trevor Story, Fernando Tatis Jr., James Tibbs III, Spencer Torkelson, Mark Trumbo, Brice Turang, Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Josh VanMeter, Robert Van Scoyoc, Chris Valaika, Zac Veen, Alex Verdugo, Mark Vientos, Matt Vierling, Luke Voit, Anthony Volpe, Joey Votto, Ryan Waldschmidt, Christian Walker, Jared Walsh, Jordan Westburg, Jesse Winker, Bobby Witt Jr. Mike Yastrzemski, Nick Yorke, Kevin Youkilis