KANSAS CITY \u2013 Bryce Harper says he will be in the All-Star Home Run Derby \u2026<\/p>\n
If he can find the right pitcher to throw to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people have reached out and said they could do it,\u201d Harper said Sunday. \u201cThe thing is, the moment, you\u2019ve got the fans and all that stuff. Everybody can say they can do it until they\u2019re in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper said he\u2019s heard from some ex-players who are willing to pitch to\u00a0him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey throw batting practice to their kids, to high school and college guys,” he said. “I think I could trust a couple of them, but it\u2019s just hard for me not to be able to do it with somebody I\u2019m super comfortable with. It\u2019s a hard thing to think about. They may throw to you one time before you take the field to be in a home run derby.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big thing. You can\u2019t just pick somebody random. Also with it being the swings and not the timing on the clock \u2014 if I don\u2019t get any pitches I can hit, swing-wise I\u2019m in trouble. And I\u2019m not going to do something if I\u2019m going to have a half-mentality toward it because I\u2019m worried about the pitcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m going to do it, I\u2019m going to be full bore and very confident in winning it. I\u2019m not going out there just to have fun. I\u2019m going out there to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper won the All-Star Home Run Derby, beating out current Phillies teammate Kyle Schwarber, in Washington in 2018. His dad, Ron, was his pitcher in that event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super comfortable with my dad throwing to me my whole life, but he hasn\u2019t thrown in a while,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI don\u2019t even think he can get ready for it. It\u2019s a lot of pitches in one night. I don\u2019t want to put him in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper has some time to find the right pitcher. The Home Run Derby will take place a week from Monday at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
Schwarber, who leads the majors with 30 homers, is expected to be in the Derby, but hasn\u2019t announced anything official yet. Major League Baseball generally put out an official announcement in the days leading up to the event. The Phillies have had two winners, Bobby Abreu in 2005 and Ryan Howard in 2006. If both Harper and Schwarber compete, their chances of having another one will be good.<\/p>\n
Harper and Schwarber are two of five Phillies who will be in the All-Star Game. Outfielder Brandon Marsh was elected a National League starter by the fans. Pitchers Jhoan Duran and Cristopher Sanchez were both selected. Sanchez, who pitches Monday and Saturday for the Phillies, could be in line to start the game for the NL.<\/p>\n
Harper, 33, was selected by Commissioner Rob Manfred as his \u201cLegend Pick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some might say the Commissioner was trying to smooth things over with Harper after they sparred over labor issues last summer, but Harper is clearly worthy of being in the game. Entering Sunday, he was 11th\u00a0in MLB with a .903 OPS. He was hitting .274 with 20 homers and a team-high 57 RBIs. He had played in every game.<\/p>\n
This is Harper\u2019s ninth time as an All-Star.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re older in the game or younger in the game, it\u2019s always special,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Commissioner called me and told me I was going to be his pick. He told me I had a great first half. Obviously, with the fan vote, it didn\u2019t happen, but he gave me the opportunity and I\u2019m definitely grateful for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I deserve to be in the game for the way I\u2019ve played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper\u2019s strong 2026 has come in the wake of Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski questioning whether he was still an elite player after last season.<\/p>\n
Is he?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThat\u2019s up to you guys to decide. Every year I get an opportunity to be great at what I do. I think the numbers speak for themselves right now.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY \u2013 Bryce Harper says he will be in the All-Star Home Run Derby \u2026 If he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,259266,82],"class_list":["post-783666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}