Bryce Harper is an old school player at heart. He's not an analytics guy.
The 28-year-old Phillies all-star outfielder explained his view of analytics on Wednesday's 94WIP Morning Show.
"I don't really understand most of it for hitting and things like that," Harper told Angelo Cataldi when asked about analytics. "I've never looked at the numbers part. I've never been a big numbers guy.
"I think it just depends on the situation and what you're doing. I just never want to those the feel game of baseball. There's always that feeling that maybe something is going to happen and you need to stay this way or stay that way. I love the game, I love the history of the game. It's definitely a different aspect of the game now. Everybody is about it now and it's just different and those are the times we live in now with analytics and stats and computers and things like that. It's definitely different, but it's what we do now.
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"I'm not a big exit velocity guy. Any type of stat like that, I don't understand it, I don't get it. So, I mean I've always been old school. .300 [batting average], 30 [home runs], and 100 [RBIs] is always a good year, so I'm not really into anything else."
In March of 2019, Harper signed a monstrous 13-year, $330 million contract with Philadelphia. Now, entering his third season with the club, Harper has endeared himself to the fans as well as any free-agent across any professional sports maybe ever.
Cataldi asked Harper about his way of embracing of the fans, like wearing Phillie Phanatic cleats.
"I thought it was easy," Harper said. "I love doing that kind of stuff. I've taken it to a different level, the last five or six years of my career where I have done the cleats a little bit more, I have done shirts and things like that a little bit more. But the older I've gotten the more that I've just wanted to do it. It's super genuine, I'm not trying just to do it just to do it.