Few sluggers in MLB are truly capable of hitting .300 with at least 40 homers and 100 walks over the course of a 162-game season.
You can probably count them with the fingers of one hand: Mike Trout, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Bryce Harper.
Add 15 stolen bases to that and Harper will probably be the only one capable of meeting the criteria.
The Philadelphia Phillies‘ slugger is currently not 100 percent healthy due to a partially torn UCL, but he just won the National League Player of the Week award with a marvelous hitting performance.
It looks like the injury won’t affect his hitting very much.
In The Best Shape Of His Life
In fact, you can see in his 162-game pace that he is in the best form of his life.
“#Phillies Bryce Harper is batting .314/.417/.633 with 122 runs, 181 hits, 54 doubles, 2 triples, 42 home runs, 105 RBI, 105 bases on balls, and 19 stolen bases over his last 162 games played,” MLB analyst Ryan Spaeder tweeted.
#Phillies Bryce Harper is batting .314/.417/.633 with 122 runs, 181 hits, 54 doubles, 2 triples, 42 home runs, 105 RBI, 105 bases on balls, and 19 stolen bases over his last 162 games played.
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) May 16, 2022
Those are some video-game numbers from one of the truly best hitters in the league.
That 162-game performance would rival some of the best sluggers in the steroids era: it’s simply an amazing achievement by Harper, who seems determined to win his third MVP award this season.
Perhaps even more than the individual accolade, Harper would like to take his Phillies to the postseason, but it will be extremely hard to accomplish in an extremely competitive National League landscape.
Now that he has help from Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, plus Alec Bohm, Jean Segura, Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia has a good chance if the rotation can perform as expected.
Harper will be there leading the charge.
