Bryce Harper Plays Too Hard?

Now that Bryce Harper is in his second season and new exciting rookies have appeared on the scene, the wunderkind is expected to mature and round out his potential. One aspect of Harper’s play, one of Harper’s defining aspects, that has been under discussion this season is whether he plays too reckless and aggressive. Most people say Harper’s forceful style of play is an injury risk that would lead them to take Mike Trout as a franchise player over him.

Watching the Braves vs. Nationals game last night I watched as Harper flat out teed off on a fastball sending it deep to centerfield without any kind of showboating he watched the ball fly out as he put his head down and ran the bases like a professional. On his next at bat he was promptly hit in the thigh by rookie pitcher, Julio Teheran, this would have angered me to no end but Harper said his piece and headed to first base. The benches cleared and additional words were shared before the game resumed.

Harper’s aggressiveness has been compared many times to that of Pete Rose. Rose himself weighed in on this topic in an interview I read. “There’s a difference between playing hard and playing recklessly. And Bryce plays recklessly.” This is coming from the guy who dislocated Ray Fosse’s shoulder in an exhibition game. Rose bruised his knee on that play and missed three games as a result. Nobody ever talks about that.

This year we have been treated to the overly aggressive and reckless styling’s of Yasiel Puig the Dodgers Cuban Rookie. I also caught the interview with Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly on PTI where Mattingly critiques Puig’s game saying he is exciting and that the weakest and most reckless part of his game is his base running and that he feels that Puig will sometimes seem to run until he is tagged. 

The misadventure that sticks out most in people’s minds is when Harper crashed into the Dodger Stadium wall. But there’s nothing wrong with Harper’s “mindset” or “style” that will have him colliding full steam with unpadded walls his whole career. He got a bit lost in the outfield which in that same interview, Rose pointed out, is still a fairly new position for him. Less than two weeks later, the mortal Harper may even have cost himself an important catch because the Dodger Stadium episode was still in his head.

If you remember Puig ran into the same wall and although he injured himself and missed a few games he did not miss a month like Harper did.

I have not seen Bryce Harper play recklessly this year. In fact, Harper has matured in much the same way people expected he would. Last year, he was prone to high-intensity, low-percentage throws when there were smarter plays available. Watching Adam LaRoche gave him a talking-to in the dugout after one error on an overthrow led to a run against Colorado last year. This year, he’s been throwing back to the infield more often instead of trying for every play at home. I believe that Harper has proved that concerns about his emotional maturity from the minor leagues were overblown. People will hopefully soon realize that he’s not a danger to himself physically, either.

I believe that luck has a lot to do with the fortunes of baseball and baseball players. The ball bounces in odd ways for a round object. Injuries are a part of all sports but playing hard should never be an option. Going all out day in and day out is the only way you can become a legend. Look at Sandy Koufax and his short career, pitching with an elbow that was really non-functional and he was unhittable. Or look at Eric Davis and his injury plagued career, the man was 6 foot 2 and 165 pounds during his playing days and played like he was 6’6” 240 pounds. Watching him try to run through walls to catch a ball or in the 1990 World Series where he actually ruptured his spleen? Who does that? The great ones do that’s who!