Bryce Harper is the reigning National League MVP. When Sporting News a sembled a panel of experts earlier this season to vote on the , Harper was second to Mike Trout, close enough that one vote could have swung things his way. Harper is 23 years old, a baseball wunderkind.

But the Nationals star is hitting .234/.378/.443 this season, drops of 96, 82 and 206 points from his line a year ago. Since May 14, when he entered the day with a 1.095 OPS, Harper has posted a .215/.338/.355 line with nine homers in 242 at-bats.

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The Nationals have not suffered for Harper's woes, as their seven-game lead in the National League East has made their best player struggling a footnote rather than a source of consternation. Still, what in the name Kevin Byard T Shirts of Adam Wainwright (slugging percentage this year: .452) is going on with Harper?

A look inside the numbers is revealing.

According to , Harper has been worse this year against all pitches other than cutters and sinkers, but has particularly struggled with four-seam fastballs, sliders and curveballs.

Meanwhile, according to , pitchers are particularly focusing on that fastball weakne s lately, with Harper seeing hard stuff 63.76 percent of the time in July the highest rate thrown to him in a full month since April 2014. Harpers average exit velocities on those pitches dropped to an average of 89.1 mph in July, only the second time in 10 months of tracking that hes been below 90.

Of even greater concern is that Harper may be hurting himself with his approach.

Last year, he cut his swing rate on pitches out of the strike zone from 35.4 percent to 27. percent, which is great. This year, Harper has been even more patient at the plate, but the big drop in Tennessee Titans Jerseys swings has come on actual strikes. Harpers rate of swings out of the zone has dropped further, to 26.5 percent, but his swing rate in the zone has fallen from 75.5 percent in 2014 to 72.5 percent last year to 66.3 percent this year.

Logically, you would think that this would mean Harper is getting le s favorable counts to hit in, and you would be right. Harper was ahead in the count at the end of 44.3 percent of his at-bats in 2015, compared to 41.4 percent in 2016. Harper, like most hitters, is better when hes ahead in Trenton Cannon Jerseys the count, with a 1.261 OPS in his career and 1.084 this year. But that small change in situational distribution is only part of the story.

The other part is that Harper has improved at making contact, to his own detriment. His rate of swinging strikes this year is 8.1 percent, a precipitous drop from his career rate of 11 percent and last years 10.8 percent figure. While Harper is swinging at fewer pitches out of the strike zone than he ever has, hes making contact on more of them 68.3 percent of those swings this year, compared to a 60.5 percent rate last year. Harpers contact rate on in-zone swings, 86 percent, is in line with his career rate of 85.2 percent.

When you swing at pitches out of the zone and make contact with them, the contact is le s likely to be good. Harpers hard-hit ball rate has dropped from 40.9 percent last year to 32.6 percent this year, with his line drive rate dropping from 22.2 percent to 15.4 percent. That means a rise in the rates of ground balls, pop ups and fly balls. The fly balls part isnt so bad, but with Jayon Brown Jerseys Harpers rate of home runs per fly ball dropping from 27.3 percent to 16.1 percent, you get another idea of where more outs are coming from.

Meanwhile, Harpers BABIP has dropped from .369 a year ago to .237 this year. Some of that has to do with Harper making softer contact, especially on ground balls, where its easy to shift against him, but some also has to do with luck.

Put it all together, and youve got the descent from being a unanimous MVP to a nightmare season. The good news is that, for as much as Harper has adjusted to make himself a more patient hitter, with a resultant decrease in strikeout rate from 26.3% in 2014 to 20% last year to 17% this year there is no reason to believe that he will be unable to make the nece sary changes to get himself out of a pattern of meekly putting balls into fielders waiting mitts.