Hello! Welcome to the Phillies Beat newsletter. Todd Zolecki has covered the Phillies since 2003, including the past 13 seasons with MLB.com.
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Bryce Harper could not help but laugh as he recalled a conversation he had a couple weekends ago with an A’s player at Citizens Bank Park.
“Man, I grew up watching you play,” the player told Harper. “This is so crazy. This is so surreal. I can’t believe I’m standing on the field with you.”
“I was like, wow, that’s crazy,” Harper said Tuesday afternoon at Coors Field.
Moments like that happen more and more frequently these days. Harper is only 29, but he is old in baseball years. He reached a significant milestone on Tuesday, attaining 10 years of MLB service time.
It is a big deal. Fewer than 10 percent of players play a decade or more in the big leagues.
“It’s pretty cool,” Harper said. “When I first started, everybody said enjoy it. Right? Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the ups and the downs, the good and the bad. But just try to enjoy it the best you can because it goes quick. Looking back on it, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. But I can because there’s times when you want to jump off a bridge, right? There’s been an incredible amount of good, and some bad in there, too. It’s just part of it. But there has been just so many memories from DC all the way to here. It’s a lot of fun. I’m just so thankful to be here and still be playing.”
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Harper made his debut at 19 years, 195 days old on April 28, 2012, at Dodger Stadium. He has been playing long enough that a 22-year-old rookie today can say he has been watching him play since he was 12.
“It’s like Griffey, right?” Harper said, referring to Ken Griffey Jr. “Griffey was 19 when he got here. Justin Upton was 19. Juan Soto was 19. You had such a gap of guys who have watched you play for a long period of time. I grew up watching Griffey. He was very young entering the big leagues. The longevity of what he did was really incredible, and I was able to watch him a long, long time. I kind of look at it that way.”
Harper’s life has changed so much in 10 years. Back then, he played for the Nationals. He had a girlfriend, Kayla.
Today, he plays for the Phillies. He and Kayla are married with a son and daughter.
Asked what advice he would give his 19-year-old self, Harper said, “I was around so many good guys at that point. Rick Ankiel. Xavier Nady. J-Dub [Jayson Werth]. Chad Tracy. There were so many guys on my team. Even the first three years. I was with Mark DeRosa. Really big names that were veteran guys. They all told me to just try and enjoy it. J-Dub, of course, being the smartass that he is, said, ‘You’re going to be a really good player when you’re 30.’ I’m very close to that. But I think I’d probably just tell myself to enjoy it.”
Harper turns 30 on October 16.
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WHERE IS THE OFFENSE?
Nick Castellanos shared his thoughts this week about the Phillies’ slow offensive start.
“It just kind of feels like we really haven’t had that inning where we’re compounding baserunners — whether it’s through singles or walks — instead of everybody hunting the long ball,” he said. “Just spitting out thoughts and ideas. We’re brainstorming as well.”
There are several explanations for what is happening. They all might be right. If you look at expected metrics like xBA, xSLG and xwOBA, you can say the Phillies have been a little unlucky at times. Then there are fastballs vs. everything else. The Phillies entered Tuesday second in baseball with a .312 batting average against fastballs. Great, right? But the problem is they see fastballs only 51.3 percent of the time, which ranks 27th.
Conversely, the Phillies are hitting .171 against offspeed and breaking pitches, which ranks 25th.
Are the Phillies seeing more offspeed and breaking pitches because they hit fastballs so well, or because they can’t stop swinging at them? Their chase rate (swings at pitches outside the strike zone) is 31.5 percent, which is the third-highest mark in baseball. They are swinging at 36.4 percent of offspeed and breaking balls outside the zone, which is the second-highest mark in baseball.
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