Bryce Harper – Baseball’s Golden Child or Pluto Nash?

Baseball’s been berry berry good to Bryce

Don’t get me wrong. I love hearing talk about a “can’t miss” prospect in any sport, particularly in baseball, as it holds an artistic, spiritual place in my life that other sports can’t match. But I have to wonder whether all the hype being heaped upon the shoulders of 16-year-old Las Vegas High School student Bryce Harper is fair to the young pitcher-catcher-third baseman – or warranted. At the very least, being on the current cover of Sports Illustrated is sure to remind some of the “cover jinx.”

Granted, there’s lots of evidence of Bryce Harper’s skill. He appears to be the very model of what Tommy Lasorda once called the “five-tool” player: He can hit for average, hit for power, run, field and throw. As a sophomore, Harper hit .626 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 115 at-bats. The barrage included 22 doubles, nine triples and 36 stolen bases. He also struck out only five times. I’d take him on my sandlot team for sure (and I am trying to start one, let me know if you’re interested).

But for each high school player who has been taken in the MLB draft and gone on to a successful careers, there are multitudes more who have gone on to 9-to-5 jobs with low pay and the occasional quick cash from pay day loans to help them turn the corner between paychecks.

Going deep

Sports Illustrated calls Harper “Baseball’s Chosen One,” and they give him top billing, over the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup coverage. Jesse Sanchez reports for MLB.com that Bryce Harper is already a legend in Las Vegas. It’s no wonder, as some of his accomplishments are already officially Ruthian: 570-foot home runs (!), 96 mph fastballs and that age – 16. SI calls him “the most exciting sports prodigy since LeBron James.”

Yet it’s all a day in the life for the humble yet focused Bryce Harper.

“I’ve watched him in his freshman and sophomore years and it seems to me that everybody knows what a big deal he is but him,” Las Vegas High School principal Debbie Brockett said. “He comes from an amazing grounded and humble family and we appreciate that. The kids treat him the same, like their friend, even though he’s in the spotlight.”

Mr. Hobbs, meet Mr. Harper

At 6-foot-3, 205-pounds, there’s no question that Harper has a Major League body. His left-handed swing is quick, sweet and free of mechanical flaws. It appears he can do no wrong between those white lines, and that includes his performances in combines and the Area Code Games. At a workout in St. Petersburg, Florida, Harper blasted the longest homer in the history of Tropicana Field (where the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays play). At the Area Code Games, all the youngster did was launch a 570-foot drive into Never Never Land, something that as a three-year old boy playing T-ball against six-year-olds, he had always dreamed of doing.

Every time he swings the bat, Bryce Harper appears to be making his dreams come true. Names like Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Justin Upton are being mentioned in the same breath as the Las Vegas native, who Sanchez reminds us is now “baseball’s LeBron.”

Stay in school, kid

It all sounds like sonic booms and knights slaying dragons so far. But what about when he has to face a Major League curveball?

Here’s where things become a bit… questionable. Ron and Sheri Harper – Bryce’s parents – want to make their son eligible for the MLB Draft in 2010 instead of when he would traditionally become available after his senior year (2011). The oily hand of pro super-agent Scott Boras is involved, and you know he loves the smell of money in the morning. Smells like victory for his clients. But there’s the little problem of the current Major League rule. From MLB.com, a high school player must meet these requirements in order to be eligible for the MLB Draft:

Generally, only those high school students in the United States or Canada who have exhausted their eligibility to participate in high school athletics are eligible for selection.

Somehow, I don’t think Harper will have exhausted his eligibility by 2010. Plus, lets look at the number of players who have gone straight from high school to the Majors since the amateur draft began in 1965:

1973 David Clyde, P – Westchester High School Texas Rangers MLB Debut: June 27, 1973
1978 Mike Morgan, P – Valley High School Oakland Athletics MLB Debut: June 11, 1978
1978 Tim Conroy, P – Gateway High School Oakland Athletics MLB Debut: June 23, 1978
1978 Brian Milner, C – Southwest High School Toronto Blue Jays MLB Debut: June 23, 1978

That’s it. Clyde was a fastballing flash in the pan, Conroy and Milner were “never was” types. Baseball is a tough business. Mike Morgan enjoyed an abnormally long Major League career, but he was never a great success. A solid four or five starter, perhaps.

“Nothing works perfectly”

As a bit of background, here’s how the Amateur Draft (called the First-Year Player Draft sine 1998) works, per MLB.com: “Teams selected players in reverse order of their previous season’s finish, with leagues alternating No. 1 picks in even and odd-numbered years. The draft was supposed to give weaker organizations first crack at top talent. But nothing works perfectly.”

That’s right, and when Scott Boras is involved, it doesn’t always work perfectly, either. Scott Boras has been tantalizing and terrorizing baseball for years with his consummate skill as a big-money agent. Players tend to love him, team ownership hates him. If Bryce Harper actually signs with Boras as a client, he will not be eligible to play college baseball, so the Harpers had better be sure before they leap. As I see it, I think Bryce Harper could use the emotional and baseball seasoning a college career can bring – plus he’d get a free ride via athletic scholarship anywhere, provided his grades are good enough.

Once you hit the Major Leagues, you’re thrown to the wolves. You determine whether you run with the pack or are run down by a pudgy prairie dog with revenge in its eyes. Be prepared, Bryce.

What does Bryce think?

The House Bryce Would Like to Help Build

“I’m going to play against you the way Pete Rose did,” he told SI. “I’m going to try to rip your head off. That’s just the way I am. Old school. If I could play for a guy like Lou Piniella or Larry Bowa, I’d love it.”

Sounds good so far. The kid is motivated. But that’s not all.

“(I want to) be in the Hall of Fame, definitely. Play in Yankee Stadium. Play in the pinstripes. Be considered the greatest baseball player who ever lived. I can’t wait.”

A long time coming

Sanchez writes that Harper’s high school coach Sam Thomas first saw him play when he was only six years old.

“I didn’t see him again until he was 10 when he played against my son in club ball game and he was so far superior to everybody else on the field that it was amazing to me,” Thomas said. “There is still no comparison. He has every tool that there is to play the game.”

Considering that Thomas has coached 30 players who have gone on to play college baseball, at least one who is in a Major League system (Sean Kazmar, Triple-A for the San Diego Padres) and played with a soon-to-be Hall of Famer (Greg Maddux), is seems he may just have an eye for talent. Thomas compares Bryce Harper favorably to the former ace pitcher Maddux.

“Both are the consummate competitor and they want to win more than anybody else,” Thomas said. “Greg had a tremendous work ethic. I say Bryce’s is second to none. Looking back, Greg was always working on things. Bryce does that.”

Writing the ending

How the Bryce Harper saga will play out should make for an interesting fable for sports fans and young players alike. Will it be gory and gristly like an original Brothers Grimm tale, or will there be a sanitized happy ending where Bryce Harper leads the New York Yankees (ugh) to 15 straight World Series titles? For his sake, I hope so. The world needs more of that and less mediocrity. Sure, cash advance and unsecured loans can help when we’re in a financial pinch, but gosh. It’s nicer not to need them. It’s nicer to be a contender.

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