I don’t mean like, neutered. That already happened.
Oh boy it’s 8:46 am and this post goes up at 9:00. Hmm, what to do… [and then I got interrupted by a work call and now it’s 9:05, boy, 2025, man, it’s not fun for anyone that I know]
I could probably write three 2,000-word posts’ worth of content on Harris, but I won’t, because this post is already five minutes late. Fundamentally, Harris has seen a lot of evolution:
- In the minors, he was working as more of a speed guy — single-digit homers, ISO propped by hustle doubles, steals.
- When he first came to the majors, he was reoriented towards using his long swing and good coverage/extension to hit stuff that other guys would plain miss, and hard.
- That worked pretty well, but the Braves thought they could unlock more by getting him to focus on hitting stuff that was easier to hit overall, basically making him more of a “normal” hitter. His approach made him somewhat BABIP-dependent and streaky, but the tools were translating into a very good hitter whose lack of plate discipline didn’t matter in the face of the whomp he offered.
- And then we get to 2025, and it all fell apart, as Harris has made no gains in his plate discipline or swing decisions, but lost all the whomp.
Is he going to get back to anything pre-2025 at this point? That’s the question for you. The Braves broke this thing, and fixing it may not be relevant for 2025 anymore, but it is still relevant for every year after 2025, so they’ve got a lot of work to do.
Daily Notes
Record: 27-33
Yesterday’s wOBA and xwOBA: .176/ .278 (Season rank: 17th | 12th)
Yesterday’s opponent wOBA and xwOBA: .267 / .312 (Season rank: 15th | 14th)
Yesterday’s homers: 0
Yesterday’s homers allowed: 0
Record when out-xwOBAing: 18-12 (League: 666-242)
Record when out-xwOBAed: 9-21 (League: 242-666)
Record when out-wOBAing: 23-3 (League: 766-144)
Record when out-wOBAed: 4-30 (League: 144-766)
Record when outhomering: 13-6 (League: 483-139)
Record when outhomered: 5-17 (League: 139-483)