David Huzzard: Bryce Harper and putting the ball in play

If you've made it this far through the Internet. I'm certain that you're tired of reading about Bryce Harper's big day, but it isn't every day that a 22-year-old four-year major league veteran hits three home runs in one game. I'm also not going to write about that. I'm going to write about something far less interesting. History is exciting and when it happens for your team it can be fun to read about or write about, but you know the saying a picture is worth a thousand words? Well a video is worth a million and I, for one, find it far more exciting to watch the video of Harper's three home runs than to read about it, so I'm certain you do as well, and if you haven't seen the video yet open up a second tap on your favorite Internet browser and do so now. I'll wait.

Good, you're back. Now onto something I find fascinating about Harper. He isn't putting the ball in play. You're probably thinking, "That's crazy, he hit three home runs yesterday and has eight on the season. How is that not putting the ball in play?" The answer is when the BABIP gods descended to earth and gave Voros McCracken the DIPS tablets, they deemed that any ball hit out of the field of play isn't in play, along with a walk, strikeout or hit by pitch.

Harper has yet to be hit by a pitch but he does have 26 walks, 36 strikeouts and eight home runs in 125 plate appearances, meaning he isn't putting the ball in play 55.55 percent of the time, and that isn't even a real number. I mean it isn't. The five is repeating so it goes on for infinity, and as I learned in whatever grade math, that means it isn't a real number. The point is over half of Harper's plate appearances end in a walk, strikeout, or home run - outcomes that are otherwise known as the three true outcomes because they are what the pitcher has the most control over.

There is an elite club of players that whack the snot out of the ball, have a great batting eye and strikeout a ton, and many Nationals fan might remember that Adam Dunn was one of them. In his career, he hit a home run, walked, struck out or was hit by a pitch in 51.39 percent of his plate appearances. I'm sure there were a few times over a month and a few days Dunn was 4 percent above his career norms and at the ridiculous level that Harper is at.

I don't know if everyone remembers the exact career arc of Dunn, but he basically got run out of Cincinnati because he struck out too much, wasn't a .300 hitter and some other such nonsense. Dunn was a very good player for many years and was a fun player to watch when he was with the Nationals. It isn't the worst thing in the world that Harper might turn into Dunn, but it also isn't the best thing either. The big difference between the two is that Harper has never had a season hitting below .270 in his major league career and Dunn never had a season hitting above .267. Small difference, but not really. Dunn finished up as a .237 hitter and Harper has so far been a .270 hitter.

The other big difference - and this is a big one - is that Harper is at a historic pace when it comes to walks, and after today's performance, he's going to need to change his identity if he ever hopes to get another pitch to hit. Harper is walking in 20.8 percent of his plate appearances, which would give him 125 walks in 600 plate appearances or 145 walks if he manages to play in all 162 games. That's a total only eclipsed 11 players and I'm certain you'd recognize some of their names. The list of players to have exactly 145 walks in a season is impressive enough to give you an idea: Barry Bonds, Harmon Killebrew, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. That is quite a list, but Bryce Harper should be used to ending up on lists like this. After all Nats radio broadcaster Charlie Slowes was talking about impressive lists Harper has found himself on just before home run No. 3 yesterday left the yard.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.