Statcast Says: Bryce Harper Isn't Lollygagging

On Sunday, the Washington Nationals' designated dimwit, Jonathan Papelbon, accused Bryce Harper of lollygagging, then choked him. Nobody should be choked, whether they hustle or not, but some MLB players, present and past, rushed to Papelbon's defense because of Harper's perceived laziness. And so we are having this conversation.

A few relevant facts: Harper is the best player on the Nationals, and in the MLB this year. He is having an historically great season. His WAR for the 2015 season, at 22 years old, is the 44th best WAR ever. EVER! I suppose it's logically possible Harper is playing historically well and still not running out ground balls—not that anyone should care if the dude with the 44th best season of all time is running out ground balls, but, yeah.

I asked our pals at MLB Advanced Media, and they were kind enough to send me the league-wide run times from home-to-first, including average time and average top speed, courtesy their Statcast tracking system. You'll never guess, but the very good baseball player plays hard.

Of the 348 players with more than 50 home-to-first trots, Harper has the 95th fastest average top speed at 18.18 miles per hour, and the 113th fastest average time to first.

This data is hardly conclusive, because no data will be conclusive on whether or not a player is trying his hardest at all times no matter what. However, this data does clearly tell us that Harper, when it comes to the ratio of average time to first base and top speed, is very representative of the average baseball player. So, if Bryce Harper is lollygagging, then so is most every baseball player. So, Papelbon, if you're going to choke Harper, you better start choking everyone.