Bryce Harper texts Kevin Long after games. Sometimes he texts him before games, too. Sometimes he has a thought about a change in his approach, or some mechanical tweak he wants to try. Sometimes, he has thoughts about someone else’s swing entirely.

“He’s a baseball junkie, and he wants more knowledge, more information,” Long said. “He wants to be the best he can be.”

Harper has said many times that he tries to get away from baseball when he gets home, that he’s not the type to flip on a West Coast game after his wraps up. But he always seems to know what is happening elsewhere — who’s having a good season, who’s hitting the ball well. He notices things about his teammates and opponents. In Long, he’s found an outlet, and the partnership seems to be working.

For much of his career, Harper has been as much his own hitting coach as anything. He got along with Rick Schu, took suggestions from Jacque Jones, and never acted like a man above help, even as he stuck to what had always worked. He consulted his father regularly, too. Ron Harper helped his son develop his swing in the first place, and he knows it best.

“I think if there’s something getting in the way of him being successful, we’re going to attack it. I don’t think he necessarily feels like he can’t be touched or can’t take a suggestion here or there,” Long said. “Certainly, I like his swing and he likes his swing.”

Long has the kind of track record Harper respects, a history of success and a long line of starters who can testify to his efficacy. Harper works with Long, and Long thinks the 25-year-old trusts him — which is saying a lot, because few men can be entrusted with a swing as valuable as Harper’s.

“He’s done a great job for us. I think he has something for everybody every single day of how to control your at-bats and how to go about it the right way,” Harper said. “He’s always trying to get us better in every aspect of our at-bats and he’s done a great job for us. We’re happy to have him.”

It was Long who suggested to Harper, mired in an uncharacteristic slump full of chased balls and missed strikes, that he come to hit on the field long before his teammates Tuesday. He and Harper had been working to help him feel more in tune with his swing, something he felt Harper could do best by hitting batting practice fastballs as far as he could. Some hitters need to focus on minutiae, work on hitting this pitch or that pitch, getting to the ball on this corner or the pitch on their hands.

“He’s going to get his feel and his swing that way instead of tinkering with it and trying to get pitches that aren’t strikes. I’d rather him take care of damage on pitches over the heart of the plate than worry about stuff he can barely reach or maybe put in play,” Long said. “And I like when he comes out early because he doesn’t have to rush through. There aren’t as many people in the stands. He can kind of take his time and go through the process a little bit more diligently.”

Harper takes his time at the plate. That part of his pregame work translates easily. But the other part, the swinging at pitches he can obliterate instead of reaching for ones he can simply “get to” is difficult. As Harper told reporters earlier this week, he wants to swing. He wants to hit. He knows walks help the team, but he knows he can help the team as much or more when he doesn’t walk. The statistics say he is as patient a hitter as one can find given that he leads the majors in walks by double digits. But he was probably the most impatient man in baseball as he went through a 5 for 37 slump over the past few weeks, during which he was walking so much that he stopped being willing to wait.

“It’s tough because he’s young. He’s used to going up there and people attacking him. He’s not used to seeing this few strikes,” Long said. “He’s got to really zero in on the heart of the plate, not really look for edges. He has to make sure he’s looking for pitches he can do damage [with], not give the pitcher too much credit. There’s so many times where they don’t want to pitch to him, and he’s got to pass the baton. He’s got to take first base and try to hurt them on the base paths.”

Whether because of the work done with Long, or the better pitches sent his way in the leadoff spot, Harper is 4 for 9 with two homers and a walk in his past two games. The former MVP is spending one of the more important seasons of his career breaking in a new hitting coach. Slumps loom larger in contract years. The hitting coach’s job is not to prevent slumps, which is nearly impossible, but to help hitters break out of them. Harper is tied for the National League lead with 10 homers, and leads the National League with a 1.062 OPS entering Thursday’s games. He and his new hitting coach seem to be working together just fine.

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