The main man of the phillies or the support actor? As long as they win, Bryce Harper doesn’t care
The Philadelphia Phillies run away with the NL East, and Bryce Harper is just a support player. Kyle Schwarber is the feeling of 50 Homer. Starting launchers are the main men. And two additions of the deadline of the Minnesota twins, the central defender Harrison Bader and the closest to Jhoan Duran, take their own star turns.
Some with the phillies wonder how all this is with Harper, alpha of Alphas, MVP twice, hero of the NLCS 2022. Harper is the shot No. 3 which strikes behind Schwarber, helping his teammate to obtain better launchers to strike. And although his operations are .852, not terribly below his career brand .906, even his manager, Rob Thomson, admits that he does not seem that the figure is so high.
So, Harper still feels like it’s his team? Is it important for him if it is not the case?
Harper, who will be 33 years next month, has laughed at questions.
“I think it’s everyone’s team here,” he said Thursday evening after the Phillies finished their balance of four games from New York Mets with a 6-4 victory.
“Kyle obviously has an incredible year, also in a contractual year. He will have this media threw around him. Other teams and organizations see what it does, the media see what it does. It’s great for our team. It’s also great for baseball.
“I have never been this type of guy where I wanted it to be my team or someone else’s team. Our main goal is to win. It is everyone’s state of mind. ”
On the basis of the way the phillies crushed the soul souls, it is tempting to proclaim them the favorites of the World Series. They were ahead of the dishes, 27-10, without the AS of the Zack Wheeler staff, who was released for the season, and without Trea Turner, the third basic player Alec Bohm, who should come back. Again, those who tried to get carried away with a good game or even four take place at their own risk. So many pretenders this season have experienced an emotional boost, good vibrations quickly turning into gross moods, then again.
Two weeks ago, the phillies were swept away by the food at Citi Field, reducing their division, he made four games and raising if they were heading for another discouraging conclusion. Since then, they have been 11-3. They increased their advance on the food at 11 games. And they helped Harper’s appetite for his favorite period of the year: October.
It’s not Harper’s best regular season. He spent more than three weeks on the injured list with inflammation of the right wrist. Its 25 circuits are half as much as that of Schwarber. And before spending 2 for 4 Thursday evening with a double and two points produced, he only struck .216 with a .761 ops in September.
However, Harper said about his season: “I’m happy. Obviously, missing (time) with my wrist and coming back from this, without knowing what I was going to feel, it is not a year that I want to have every year. But for the moment, I’m going to take it.
“I’m just trying to have a good three weeks and take this in the playoffs. You know that I like to play in the playoffs, lively lights, bigger moments, things like that. I am super excited for this opportunity.”
The confidence of the phillies at the moment, even without Wheeler, is striking. Nick Castellanos, reduced to a part -time right defender, said: “We have all the pieces and then some to win a world series.” The overall atmosphere of the team is resolutely different from that of last season at that time, when the Phillies were heading for a 30-28 finish in the regular season – and a slide of four games by the food in the division series.
Now, it is the dishes, losers of six consecutive, who resemble a battered club. Their advance for NL’s final final point on the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco is down to 1 1/2 games. They would lose a break in equality with the Reds but not the giants. And if they fail to qualify for a season of 12 teams with their payroll of $ 340 million, they will be one of the biggest flops in the history of major leagues.
On June 12, the dishes were 45-24, the best record for majors. Since then, there have been 31-47, the fourth worst. Another turnaround remains possible, in particular given the level of talent of dishes. But even if the start -up is the greatest reason for their collapse, whatever the Mojo they had last season, when they reached the NLC, seems disappeared.
Large stars create a different and sometimes uncomfortable dynamic. The big food stars, Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, are considered by those who have the club as good people. They work hard and surely want to win as much as Harper, Schwarber and Turner. But something appears with this team. And although it is easy to blame the addition of $ 765 million in Soto, it would be a too simple story. Soto seemed to be fine with New York Yankees last season. It is also in the middle of a basic season of 39 Homer and 31 fats, and is tied with Schwarber for fourth in the majors of OPs.
Chemistry can be elusive, difficult to capture, difficult to define. But whatever this quality, the phillies certainly seem to have it. Part of this stems from their last Hurrah mentality, knowing that Schwarber, the receiver JT Realmuto and the Ranger on the left Suarez are potential free agents. Part of this stems from their deadline additions, which have created special energy. And part of it comes from Schwarber, one of the most respected leaders and humble characters in the game.
Invited to describe the meaning of his 50th circuit, Schwarber said: “I guess I am a very unconscious baseball player.” He only knew after his night in four homages on August 28 that no player had five strokes in a match. He also did not know that only 33 other players had reached 50 in a season.
Not tense by the Chicago Cubs after the 2020 season, Schwarber understands the stockings that a player can live. Harper, who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16, was a center of attention all his career. Also used to that of the spotlight, it would be easy for him to be jealous of Schwarber. But Harper insisted that he was comfortable playing a secondary role. At least until the playoffs start.
“In the end, I’m still me, whatever it looks like,” said Harper. “Each evening I go there and try to be Bryce. I understand that a given night can be special for me. If I can play good baseball and do my job, that’s all that matters.
“When you start to do about you or me or something like that, things are starting to collapse. You don’t want it to happen. It’s a big team here. We have a lot of fun together. We come together on this same rope together. It was an explosion.”
And for Harper and the Phillies, even greater pleasure could wait for us.
(Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
