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View Full Version : Bryce Harper the real deal?



ziggy
06-04-2009, 12:33 PM
Any Bryce Harper colelctors out there?

Check out the story and the video:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Bryce-Harper-punches-his-ticket-to-Cooperstown-a?urn=mlb,167844

suave1477
06-04-2009, 12:39 PM
I saw this on the cover of SI, supposedly he has some nasty stuff

flippin15
06-04-2009, 01:23 PM
wow thats unbelieable... we shall see if he lives up to that potential.... in the meantime let me get that high school jersey before it's worth way more than my budget!

yanks12025
06-04-2009, 01:37 PM
I would like to see him hit a homerun like that with a wooden bat and not metal. Also i'll put the early bet that he's on something.

flippin15
06-04-2009, 02:01 PM
I would like to see him hit a homerun like that with a wooden bat and not metal. Also i'll put the early bet that he's on something.


true, he might be on something... but there are those freaks out there that are just gifted. (Lebron James) I really hope he isn't on anything... he could be like the lebron of baseball....

suicide_squeeze
06-04-2009, 11:16 PM
He looks like he has what it takes......but it's way too early to tell.

He is absolutely advanced for his age group.....almost freakishly.

But as he get's up in the levels of competition, he'll find it a bit more difficult to excel like he does in a hitting exhibition.....sitting back and grooving fastballs.

One never knows....he could be the next Mickey Mantle.

Or he could have a mental meltdown, and be yesterday's news in no time. My well wishes to him as he seems like a genuine kid.

godwulf
06-04-2009, 11:31 PM
Can you think of anyone else who does that thing Bryce does with his front foot when he's batting? He doesn't just pick it up and put it down, he turns his foot completely backward, then brings it back to a normal position right before he swings. That's very strange looking.

PwKw13
06-05-2009, 08:05 AM
Can you think of anyone else who does that thing Bryce does with his front foot when he's batting? He doesn't just pick it up and put it down, he turns his foot completely backward, then brings it back to a normal position right before he swings. That's very strange looking.

I think B. J. Upton turns his foot in a similar way.

bigtruck260
06-05-2009, 09:52 AM
I hate to say this, because the kid seems SOOOO talented. But - here is a reminder that young kids are much more fragile than they think they are - especially pitchers. Remember this guy?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1997/weekly/catchingup/0811/index.html

rj_lucas
06-05-2009, 10:40 AM
Extremely quick release, but with a lot of torque on the rotator. As a pitcher he would have a short career. Do the kid a favor and get him out from behind the plate. Put him at a pivot position like short and he's golden.

Rick
rickjlucas@gmail.com

redoctober
06-06-2009, 12:07 AM
I would like to see him hit a homerun like that with a wooden bat and not metal. Also i'll put the early bet that he's on something.


What a pathetic comment yanks. Sorry, but that is an absolutely ridiculous comment about a good kid that you clearly know absolutely nothing about. Have you ever even seen him in person??

Get a life.

bigtruck260
06-06-2009, 02:30 AM
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What a pathetic comment yanks. Sorry, but that is an absolutely ridiculous comment about a good kid that you clearly know absolutely nothing about. Have you ever even seen him in person??

Get a life.


Kinda have to agree.

I just finished the article - and by all accounts, Bryce has been the best baseball player in his league since he was little - always playing several years up to be able to compete at his older brother's level. He had an amazing series when he was 12 years old - he went 12 for 12 with 11 homers. Doubtful his parents had him on PED's at that age.

About wood bats - there is a mention in that article about his power with a wood bat...just as impressive. Apparently, he puts on regular shows in wooden bat tournaments across the country.

I played baseball for 18 years - and against some great competition in several states, and I can honestly say that I rarely saw anyone hit a ball farther than 400-420 feet...even at the collegiate level. A 570 foot homer is impressive if you are taking an aluminum bat to a golf ball. The kid has power.

He also attends Bible classes before school and carries a 3.5 GPA - and volunteers within the community...

The only part I was concerned about was the fact that he was willing to forego his final year of HS in favor of a GED (in order to get into a jr. college and eventually drafted earlier than if he finished HS). Nothing against the GED, but with his GPA, there is no doubt he would be an All-American at a D1 school - education should be a priority. Too many times, athletes get hurt, etc. and have nothing to fall back on. Then again, Boras will be his agent (right now he is an advisor ;) ) and a nice signing bonus will all but guarantee a long vacation from the daily 9-5...and if he gets injured terribly, he can relax and get his college in at UNLV.

Seems like a hungry kid that I would enjoy watching dominate in the MLB when his time comes.

Mr.3000
06-06-2009, 02:43 AM
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What a pathetic comment yanks. Sorry, but that is an absolutely ridiculous comment about a good kid that you clearly know absolutely nothing about. Have you ever even seen him in person??

Get a life.

Not that I condone Yanks comment...but do you know the kid personally? I'm guessing it would be fair to say that neither of you know this kid personally. And neither of you can say with 100% certainty whether he is or is not "on something".

Just my .02

yanks12025
06-06-2009, 10:57 AM
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What a pathetic comment yanks. Sorry, but that is an absolutely ridiculous comment about a good kid that you clearly know absolutely nothing about. Have you ever even seen him in person??
Get a life.

I think your out of line telling me to go get a life, i could say the samething to you for your pathetic statement about me. And im sure im not the only person that read the article about him who said i bet he's on something, im sorry that i have not seen any 16 year olds who the body of a 20 year old especially from snickers and yoo-hoos.

redoctober
06-06-2009, 11:31 PM
Not that I condone Yanks comment...but do you know the kid personally? I'm guessing it would be fair to say that neither of you know this kid personally. And neither of you can say with 100% certainty whether he is or is not "on something".

Just my .02


Great point, but actually, while I would not consider it a "personal relationship", I am very familiar with Bryce and have followed his situation for a bit, as I live in LV as well. I obviously cannot vouch that he has not "used", as I have not been with him 24/7. However, I have no doubt that the kid is on the up-and-up. The SI story was not over the top -- actually accurate, however hard it may be to believe.

It is absolutely ridiculous that Yanks would make this leap with absolutely no knowledge.

So, I stand by my comment..."Get a life Yanks". You are out of line to make this assumption. Know what you are talking about before posting crap in the future.

redoctober
06-06-2009, 11:34 PM
I think your out of line telling me to go get a life, i could say the samething to you for your pathetic statement about me. And im sure im not the only person that read the article about him who said i bet he's on something, im sorry that i have not seen any 16 year olds who the body of a 20 year old especially from snickers and yoo-hoos.


It is sad that the "steroid age" has brought us to these types of conclusions. In the future, you should know something about a person before making such a statement.

yanks12025
06-07-2009, 06:13 AM
How is it a absolutely ridiculous leap. The kid is huge for being 16 and is hitting 570 foot homeruns.

brianborsch
09-30-2009, 11:27 AM
So I guess Bryce Harper got his GED and is now attending a LV CC. He is now playing ball at the college level and will be draftable next year at age 17. I believe he is also currently playing for the 18U USA Team in the Pan Am Games? So the fast track has started for him. I don't know if it is the best path.

But I wonder if Harper is the real deal? He has shown he has a bunch of talent and potential, but those things translate differently for each person when they get into the professional ranks. I guess only time will truly tell us. I am curious what everyone's thoughts are now that he has taken the next step in his career and is soon to take an even bigger step into the pros.

nationals2k9
09-30-2009, 11:39 AM
Those that surround the local ball team talk about him like he's a done deal at #1 overall next year. My first thought is always "he's just 16 years old." That doesn't seem to matter to other people. It is fun to think about having a long-term catcher in line with a Mauer or Wieters but it seems to me that it'd be years from now before he appears in the bigs. We've all seen the video of his 500+ HR derby blasts and throwing guys out from his knees... but how that relates to the big leagues I'm not sure just like you.

AWA85
09-30-2009, 02:09 PM
The 16 year old thing can be thrown out the window because look at how many teams are drafting foreign players who are 16. The Reds for example picked up two of their top (yet far away from being ready) prospect Yoraman Rodriguez and Juan Duran I believe who were about 16 when they signed.

After that all star game and recently has been the first time I have heard a few negative things about the kid, but if I remember right he has three chances to succeed that many players do not. Catcher making him an all out elite prospect, Outfield because he can hit, and pitcher as final resort because he can throw 90's? I would take him, but who knows what he'll end up to be.

brianborsch
09-30-2009, 03:23 PM
What negative things have been said about him? I have only seen positive things. Outside of some comments on his egotistical comments. But he is a unchallenged 16 year old! If he wants to succeed he does need to curb the ego though.

GarkoCollector
09-30-2009, 08:32 PM
So what if he hits it that far with an ALUMINUM BAT? He doesnt get to use them in the bigs, so it doesnt matter.

brianborsch
10-01-2009, 04:52 PM
It states that he plays in leagues with wooden bats and cranks the ball just the same there. We'll see next year if the team who drafts him can even sign him!

Thus far for official game with Team USA in 2009 he is batting:

.200 in 25 AB's with 5 runs, 3 doubles 1 HR, 6 RBI's, 1BB, and just 1 K. At least he is not striking out too much, but he could stand to have better plate discipline or better hitting period. Still a very small sample.

The thing I noticed is that even with him opting for his GED early, he still won't be getting into the draft any earlier than other high-schoolers of the future as he was set to graduate from highschool at a later age than some early birds. At this rate he will be drafted at 17 and hopefully play his first minor league season at that age as well. Not different from some of our standard high-school draftees. Hopefully he can hang at the pro-level....

allstarsplus
10-01-2009, 06:32 PM
Bryce will be 17 this month and is a very mature kid. His older brother Bryan is a pitcher and has been a good mentor for him.

He has Boras as his "advisor" so it will be interesting to see this negotiation.

The Nationals have the 1st Draft pick wrapped up so let the speculation being in D.C. !!!!!!!!!! ;)

allstarsplus
10-01-2009, 06:41 PM
Will Harper be the next big thing?

Five-tool teenager could be the top pick in 2010 Draft
by Jonathan Mayo



He's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He's been called baseball's version of LeBron James. Scouts say there isn't much he can't do on the baseball field. At this point, if someone said Bryce Harper could come up with a comprehensive health care reform plan, people would be apt to believe it.

But will he be the No. 1 pick in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft? There's a big test, hopefully a season at the junior college level and a grand total of nine months before that final call is made. But there's little doubt teams picking at the top of the first round will be watching his every move.

Who's No. 1?
These days, most are paying attention to the top of the standings and who's heading to the playoffs. Magic numbers up there refer to when a team will clinch a postseason spot. Turn the standings on its head, however, and it's a whole different "magic" number.

Heading into Saturday's slate of games, the Washington Nationals had a six-game edge -- lead doesn't seem to be the proper term -- over the Pittsburgh Pirates for the rights to the No. 1 pick in 2010. Their magic number to clinch the top pick for the second year in a row stands at 11 (any combination of Washington losses and Pirates wins totaling 11 means the Nats will pick first). The Kansas City Royals, Orioles and Indians round out the top five.

"I think our process is in place in that regard. It'll be the third time in my career I've picked 1-1," said Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, referring to Stephen Strasburg last year and when he selected Justin Upton No. 1 overall as the scouting director for the Arizona D-backs in 2005. "Our staff is prepared for it. We've done a lot of ground work in preparation for it.

"Last year's experience will certainly aid us in how to ramp up to get to the pick. Obviously, signing the pick we'll have to discuss at a later date." Last year, it was assumed early on that the "race" for No. 1 would be a Strasburg sweepstakes, and that's how it played out. Harper has been on the radar for quite some time, and it's been generally assumed for a while that he'd be anointed the top talent in his Draft class.

Passing the test
Of course, most thought that would be the class of 2011, after the ultra-talented catcher graduated from high school. Now that timetable appears like it will be pushed up one year, to this coming June. Harper, 16, enrolled in the College of Southern Nevada and is preparing to take his GED exam in October, a week after his 17th birthday.

If he passes that test, he'll have officially graduated high school and will thus be eligible for the Draft as a junior college student. Officially, Harper isn't on the school's baseball team just yet. But he's able to work out and partipate in the fall scrimmage season while waiting to see if he can officially become a JUCO prospect.

"He can practice and take classes," said South Nevada coach Tim Chambers. "In junior college, for fall ball you don't have to submit a roster to the national office because it's not games that count. He's allowed to play in those."

Right now, he's preparing to play for the 18 and Under U.S. National team in the 2009 COPABE Pan Am "AAA" (18U) Championships, to be held in Venezuela later this month and into October. He's a veteran of USA Baseball, having won gold in Mexico last year in the same tournament for the 16 and Under level.

"Playing for Team USA, it's been my main goal all year," said Harper on Friday, the day he was officially announced as a part of the Venezuela-bound roster. "I played in Mexico last year, and there's nothing like the feeling of standing on the baseline hearing the National Anthem. I get chills every time. You put the USA jersey on and you feel it. You can have your high school jersey or your college jersey, but there's nothing like wearing that USA jersey and representing your country."

Harper laying low
Prior to joining Team USA, Harper had slid into the background a little after taking a turn around the summer showcase circuit, going to USA Baseball's Tournament of the Stars as well as the acclaimed AFLAC All-American Game.

Scouts who saw Harper at AFLAC did voice some concerns. While the physical tools were all still there, he didn't make very good adjustments during the game and, to some, seemed a bit behind from where the bar had been set. Was it just one bad day? Was it the weight of the expectations, the hype taking its toll? Or maybe it was just a question of him needing to take a step back from everything to recharge the batteries.

One thing seemed certain: he needed a break. So, when Harper returned to Las Vegas, Nev., Chambers gave him a forced vacation of sorts. He didn't practice with the team. Media interviews were all but completely cut off. He wasn't asked to do autograph sessions.

He had dropped 20-25 pounds over the summer and Chambers felt he needed the time to take a breath, get his strength back and re-focus on just playing the game rather than trying to outperform those lofty expectations.
"He was at 180-185 pounds and he's supposed to be 205. He's back there now," Chambers said. "He was physically tired and, in my opinion, mentally tired, from the long summer and all the attention."

After some time to regroup, Harper got to simply be a student and a teammate at CSN. He's the first to admit that it was just what the doctor ordered.


"Going home, being able to rest, I came down here strong," Harper said. "I feel really, really good.

Managing the demands
Come the spring, all those distractions will come flying up again, and then some. It's likely that Chambers and the College of Southern Nevada have never dealt with the onslaught that's sure to come from teams, fans and the media.

"I think it's an aspect that's changed or added to how we evaluate a player," Royals assistant general manager for scouting and player development J.J. Picollo said. "Players in previous years, even 10 years ago, you seamlessly went into a pro career without the media attention. Now, you evaluate a player with the attention, you look at makeup. Will they be able to withstand the media attention? It is a question we have to answer: Will they be able to hold up to it?

With that in mind, Chambers and the program at CSN have been preparing to deal with all that comes their way, both positively and negatively. "We've already set a plan," said Chambers, who said the school has tried to work some things out with scouts to streamline the typical vision and psych tests performed on potential draftees, expecting the demand for Harper's information to be pretty high. "We expect it will be a circus out there. We're prepared for what's going to happen. It's going to be all about our team."


Chambers thinks the timing of Harper's arrival is perfect . A talented roster and teammates that are familiar to Harper -- including his brother Bryan -- could help alleviate the pressure.

"We've got a lot of local guys. They've all played together growing up," Chambers said. "He's got his brother picking on him there, too. He's just one of the guys.

"He fits right in. We're fortunate this is the most talented team we've ever had. We would've been very good anyway. He won't have that pressure to carry the team. That's kind of the plan. That's why we shut the media down, so he's just one of the other guys on the team. So it's not the 'Bryce Harper Show.' I don't think there's going to be any pressure in terms of that."

Can he live up to the hype?
In the 2009 Draft, it was all about Strasburg. He was the greatest pitching prospect of all time, good enough to step right into a big league rotation immediately. He would -- and ultimately did -- set a record in terms of a signing bonus. There were more people focusing on the Draft than ever before.
"The top of the Draft, it gets more and more attention," said Pirates scouting director Greg Smith, who, as of now, will have the No. 2 pick in the 2010 Draft. "Part of that is because of the money being such a big part of the dynamic. In Strasburg's case, last year, we're talking one of the better amateur players to come through the Draft."

There are those who are ready to anoint Harper with similar platitudes. SI called him "The Chosen One," after all. But while scouts will rave about his raw tools -- from arm strength behind the plate, to power and hitting ability at it, and even speed on the basepaths -- he's far from a finished product. There are things he does at the plate that make some pause, and not just from his performance at AFLAC.


He can be too aggressive, they say. His swing has morphed too much into a batting-practice, showcase-impressing kind of approach, others noted. Just being able to go out and play, now with Team USA and later with his new college team, might cure all of that. And, as one scout pointed out, with a player that young: "You always come back to the physical tools. He's got what a lot of other kids don't."

But is he the superhero he's been made out to be? The scouting industry sometimes can have a selective memory when it comes to these things. Harper is the latest young phenom, and the here and now is always what's going to stand out.

"You're always intrigued by the good young player," Smith said. "[Harper] put himself on the radar in the summer of 2008. I didn't realize he was that young. You're thinking, "He's the best player here and he's only 15. When you have a good young player, because he's good and young, you call him the best you've ever seen.

"Is he the best I've ever seen? No. Is he impressive? Sure. He's got a lot going for him. But I can't say he's better than, say, Alex Rodriguez as a junior in high school."

Perhaps a more important question than if Harper can live up to these expectations is if it's even fair to put them on his young shoulders to begin with. To be sure, some of it is self-inflicted. Leaving high school two years early to go to junior college and enter the Draft a year early, signing on with Boras Corp as an advisor, these are things that will paint a target on your back. This is something Harper knows. It's a challenge, he's stated in the past, that he's looking forward to meeting.

"It is a lot to handle," Rizzo said. "I had this discussion with Justin Upton a year or so back. There was a lot of hype when he was a sophomore in high school, working his way to being top pick.

"Any time a first-round pick -- specifically [an overall No. 1] -- comes out, they do so with a target on their back. Everyone knows he was [No. 1].

The opponents, they know, they want to make a name for themselves against them. It can help and hinder players in their development. It helps knowing people won't take him lightly. It also hinders: They're sometimes 17-18-year-old men who have natural maturation to go through.

Sometimes it's a little unfair to ask so much of a young person."

Jonathan Mayo is a reporter for MLB.com.