Pitchers Approaching Harper, Trout Far Differently

The careers of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout will forever be linked. The game's top two prospects entering the season spur endless debate -- will Harper's pure power or Trout's five-tool game ultimately prove more valuable? So far in 2012, both are raking. Harper has a 141 OPS+ 125 plate appearances, and Trout has a 148 OPS+ in 129 plate appearances. While the 19-year-old Harper and 20-year-old Trout are each having historically great seasons for players not yet legally able to buy a brew, the way pitchers are approaching them couldn't be any more different.

With Harper having already popped four home runs and batting in the meat of the Nationals' order, pitchers are reluctant to throw him strikes. Trout, sitting atop the Angels' lineup, has seen many more strikes:

Player	Zone Pct.
Harper	43.3
Trout	51
MLB Avg.	48

As you might expect from those above numbers, Harper is getting plenty of off-speed stuff. In fact, he has seen to lowest percentage of fastballs (two-seam and four-seam) among all major league hitters with at least 100 plate appearances:

Player	Pct. Fastballs Seen
Bryce Harper	31.8%
Bryan LaHair	33.0%
Brandon Belt	33.9%
Ike Davis	35.4%
Ian Stewart	35.7%
Geovany Soto	36.1%
Cameron Maybin	37.3%
Carlos Ruiz	37.7%
Alfonso Soriano	38.2%
Pedro Alvarez	38.3%

Trout, meanwhile, has seen more fastballs than any hitter in the game with at least 100 plate appearances:

Player	Pct. Fastballs Seen
Mike Trout	62.8%
Alberto Callaspo	62.3%
Maicer Izturis	61.2%
Jemile Weeks	58.9%
Chone Figgins	58.9%
Humberto Quintero	56.9%
Juan Pierre	56.1%
Andy Dirks	55.9%
Vernon Wells	55.8%
Emilio Bonifacio	55.6%

So far, giving Harper off-speed stuff off the plate and Trout an abundance of in-zone fastballs hasn't worked for pitchers. Luckily (or should I say unfortunately?), opponents have a good 15-20 years to figure out how to return these prodigies to the dugout.