Bryce Harper's Explosion into Superstardom Making Fools of Early Critics

Critics live for guys like Bryce Harper. 

They have ragged on him for his youthful antics, his overbearing on-field personality, his gruff answers to media inquiries and his production as a major leaguer. Or his lack of it, in their eyes, through his first three seasons with the Washington Nationals.

The problem is those people—residing in the stands, press boxes and within Major League Baseball itself—expected Harper to be an immediate superstar, much the way Mike Trout was in 2012, which was also Harper’s rookie year. Because he was not, it led to an ESPN player poll naming him the sport’s most overrated player before this season started.

That is what comes with the job when Sports Illustrated dubs you "Baseball’s Chosen One” on its cover at age 16.

Now, nearly six years after that magazine cover and in his fourth big league season, Harper’s game is catching up to his hype. And his six home runs over the last three games, including a walk-off shot Saturday afternoon, have reintroduced the game to his superstardom—and Washington’s chocolate sauce celebration.

But even during Harper’s recent emergence that has pushed his home-run total to a National League-leading 11 and his OPS to 1.084, he has said things to ruffle feathers.

“We’re the team to beat,” Harper said, per the Los Angeles Times, after his three-homer day Wednesday, which pulled the Nationals to within a game of the .500 mark. “Everybody knows that.”

Regardless of Harper’s words, the critics have to start buying in. This 22-year-old is just too good not to. And he is still years away from his prime, which could make him the game’s scariest hitter going forward.

Before this season, Harper’s injuries were his top problem and possibly the biggest reason he has been a good-but-not-great player to this point. Harper suffered a left knee injury after running into a wall in 2013, keeping him out of 31 games. The following season he needed surgery on his left thumb to repair an ulnar collateral ligament, keeping him out of another 57.

Both injuries are quite capable of sapping a player’s offensive production, and Harper’s 2014 season was his worst yet. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Harper went into Saturday already being worth more wins this season than he was in all of 2014—and that was before his walk-off home run.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Harper’s maturation is more than just a powerful swing. He is becoming a more patient hitter in general. His 27 walks going into Sunday lead the majors, and his 20.2 percent walk rate before Saturday was third.

It is easy to see how this is happening when you look at the advanced metrics. FanGraphs tells us Harper went into the weekend swinging at 29.8 percent of the pitches he saw outside the strike zone, by far a career low. And while he is seeing about the same number of pitches inside the zone as he always has—around 38 percent—his swinging-strike percentage has dropped from 13.7 last year to 9.5 this year.

It’s amazing what a good hitter can do when he stops chasing bad balls.

“Going out there and just trying to have good ABs and not chase pitches,” Harper told the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga Wednesday. “That’s tough.”

When Harper is swinging this season, it is a less violent stroke than in the past. He is more balanced, giving himself a more stable base with which to produce power. This change is evident by his batted-ball stats at FanGraphs. 

There we see Harper’s ground-ball rate has dropped while his line-drive and fly-ball rates have risen. His percentage of hard-hit balls is also a career best to this point. That is a foolproof recipe for offensive success.

Year	GB%	LD%	FB%	HH%
2012	44.6	22.5	32.9	30.1
2013	46.7	19.9	33.4	35.6
2014	43.6	21.8	34.6	30.2
2015	35.4	23.1	41.5	37.9

“He’s that guy in the lineup that gets pitched so tough. ‘Don’t let this guy beat you,’” Nationals hitting coach Rick Schu told the Washington Post last week. “So in fastball counts, he’s getting off-speed. In 3-0 counts, he’s getting off-speed, 3-2 counts he’s getting off-speed. And he’s just being a lot more selective. I think that comes with maturity.”

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

It is the overall maturity of Harper’s game that is silencing his detractors, and there have been many over the last six years. From the time Harper skipped his final two years of high school to enroll at the College of Southern Nevada, right through this season, Harper has faced the hate with nothing more than potential to beat it back.

Now, he is fitting into his billing. He is becoming a feared hitter—one who can win games for his team in multiple ways. He is becoming a complete hitter, one of the best in the league.

This spring has been the biggest jump in Harper’s maturation process, and as it continues through the summer, the critics won’t have any choice but to go silent.

Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.