'Nonsense': Phillies superstar sounds off on first-round-bye haters

As the end of the Major League Baseball season draws closer, teams vying for a chance to win a World Series are slowly piecing together their rosters and preparing for what lies ahead. In the National League, the battle for the top two spots with a chance for home-field advantage throughout and a first-round bye is between the Milwaukee Brewers (95-61), who hold the best record in baseball, and the Philadelphia Phillies (92-64), who aren’t far behind. 

Achieving the first-round bye is essential for both, as it provides some much-needed rest to those players who have battled hard to this point. The Phillies need it more than the Brewers, as it will give one of their top bats, Trea Turner (hamstring), more time to heal up, while also giving their starters more time to rest.

Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper sounds off on those complaining about a first-round bye 

Many teams dislike waiting an extra few days before playing in the playoffs, as some feel it disrupts their momentum. Phillies superstar Bryce Harper stated in his postgame press conference Sunday that he is looking forward to getting a bye and some rest and said that it’s “nonsense” to complain about having some time off. 

"Yeah, I don't know," Harper said. "I mean, it's, it's worked for some teams, obviously, and there's other teams that have complained about it and things like that, but I don't think we're gonna be one of those teams., We weren't last year. I'm looking forward to having it, you know, I would love a couple days off, obviously. So, you know, looking forward to it, you know, we just got to play our game. I mean, I don't think it matters if you have a bye, or not a bye, a wild-card game or not a wild-card game. I can't stand the stance of teams taking, 'Oh well, if we had played.' I think it's all nonsense. 

"We just got to play our game, understand postseason baseball is a lot different than anything else. So just got to be in the right mind frame of going into game one of the DS, and get ready to roll."