Harper is not Trout's equal, but he's a lot better than his results so far this season. His problem is largely driven by his batting average on balls in play. He's got a .204 mark this year, versus .314 for his career. Now, a hitter's batting average on balls in play is not as predictable as a pitcher's, but players do tend to regress towards their own career norms. Sure, a player's "true" batting average on balls in play can change - foot or leg injuries, a re-worked swing, lots of things can do it - but there's still a trend there. So it's very likely that he's going to get at least some of that BABIP back.
Also, his low WAR total this season is partly the result of very poor fielding numbers. He's at -7 Rfield for the year so far. He's a better fielder than that, you shouldn't expect him to be that bad going forward.
I doubt that $400 million is on the table any more. Even if he's better than this, you can't ignore performance that is poor and recent (the worst combination). But someone is going to give him a lot of money, because all of the signs indicate that he is better than his recent performance would indicate.
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06-21-2018, 02:17 PM
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