For whatever reason, Bryce Harper has long been polarizing and a good portion of the baseball world often refers to him as "overrated." Signing a gigantic contract this past offseason probably didn't help matters on this front, nor did a slow start to his Phillies career. Right now, though, he's absolutely on fire as the Phillies are finally getting hot again.
Surely by now all baseball fans have seen the walk-off grand slam from Thursday night. On Friday, he provided the dagger in a win over the Padres, with a three-run homer:
The Phillies are now tied with the Cubs for the second NL wild card and Harper has played a big part in their four straight wins to move into playoff position.
He's all kinds of hot right now, especially in the power department. Let's bullet-point it:
- Harper has eight homers and 18 RBI in the last 13 games.
- He's hitting .306/.413/.672 in that span.
- He's hit six homers with 16 RBI in the past seven games.
- He has four homers and 10 RBI in the past three games.
As Dayn Perry noted in Star Power Index, Harper has been clutch all season, too.
The season-long line is now .254/.374/.496. The league average is .254/.324/.437. He now has 26 homers and 90 RBI, meaning he's on pace to end up with 35 homers and 120 RBI.
Not being Mike Trout isn't a crime. No one else is held to this standard, but somehow it feels like Harper gets slammed due to it. You might think he's overpaid (by the way, he isn't this season and he's making $11 million), but he sure as hell isn't overrated.
