The Tim Tebow of Baseball?

[AUTailgatingRules]

Watch the video embedded in this article

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

[AUTiger1]

Unfreaking believable!  The kid is only a HS Sophomore.   

[Jumbo]

I need him on my fantasy team now.

[AUTiger1]

If someone does not get this kid some lumber in his hands and let him start making the adjustment right now, they are doing him a huge injustice.  A kid that talented to will not have a hard time making the adjustment, but there is one to be made and he needs to go ahead transition into it and wean himself off the aluminum.  That is the only thing I see that he needs.

EDIT: Still Unfreaking Believable! I got my SI in yesterday and noticed he was on the cover. 

[Thrilla]

He's so good, he can skip high school.

Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:13 pm EDT

Why I mostly support Bryce Harper's decision to skip high school

By 'Duk

When big Bryce Harper made the cover of Sports Illustrated two weeks ago, I knew we'd soon again be hearing from the 16-year-old 'chosen one.'

But not quite this soon.

On Sunday, the sophomore from Las Vegas found his way into national headlines again when his father announced that Bryce will forgo his final two years of high school and use a GED to enroll in a community college this August. Though it more or less makes a mockery of our education system, the Harpers' plan would make Bryce eligible for the 2010 draft, where he could conceivably be the Nationals' No. 1 pick and eventually join forces with Stephen Strasburg to save Washington baseball from itself.

It's a controversial decision, to be sure, but Ron Harper says he and his son are prepared to hear from the inevitable haters.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"There are going to be critics. I can't worry about what people think," Ron Harper said. "People are going to see what they want to see and say what they want to say. I think this prepares him for life, playing the game of baseball.

"People question your parenting and what you're doing. Honestly, we don't think it's that big a deal. He's not leaving school to go work in a fast-food restaurant. Bryce is a good kid. He's smart, and he's going to get his education."

From my viewpoint, I'm not going to act like a truant officer on Harper's decision when viewed in a vacuum. It's quite clear that Harper has loads of talent, lives to play baseball and has been groomed to play professional baseball ever since he and his family realized that he was much better than everyone else. It's obvious he has that physical attributes to succeed and he'd be drafted in two years anyway, so why delay the inevitable? Is an 18-year-old really that much better equipped to handle the pressures of grand expectations than a 16-year-old? As much as people will want to say that Harper should stay in school like a normal kid, the truth is that whatever normal life he had disappeared the minute he showed up on the cover of a magazine at homes across the country. 

Plus, in an age when tennis and golf prodigies leave their families for top-flight academies before the age of 10 and future basketball studs are identified in the sixth grade, what's the problem with Harper setting out on a very defined career path? Being the top pick in the draft could net him $20 million or more, so making a play while the chips are on his side is just simply a smart move —  especially in the volatile world of baseball talent.

The problem I do have with it, though, is that there are no doubt thousands of delusional parents who will see this news and think that maybe it's a viable path for their nowhere-near-as-talented sons and daughters. While the Harpers can't make their decision based on what other lemmings might do, I hope the door closes behind them.

What do you think?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Why-I-mostly-support-Bryce-Harper-s-decision-to-?urn=mlb,170270

This dude is a fuckin' beast.

[AUTailgatingRules]

I just saw that too.  Hard to blame a kid for going after 20-30 million as soon as he can get his hands on it.  I won't make that kind of money in 3 lifetimes.

[Thrilla]

I just saw that too.  Hard to blame a kid for going after 20-30 million as soon as he can get his hands on it.  I won't make that kind of money in 3 lifetimes.

On top of that, he still plans on getting his GED.  More power to him.  I call first dibs in next year's fantasy draft.

[Jumbo]

He's going to be the #1 overall pick to the Washington Nationals Monday.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/draft/2010-06-06-bryce-harper-cover_N.htm

Likely top MLB draft pick Bryce Harper has 'growing up to do  
Bryce Harper, 17, who left high school after two years, has been called the LeBron James of baseball. Bryce Harper, who has primarily played catcher, is likely to be an outfielder or third baseman as a pro. The 6-3, 205-pound slugger hit .443 with a school-record 31 home runs and 98 RBI in 66 games at the College of Southern Nevada.  
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — His parents were in the stands. His teammates were on the field. His brother was on the pitcher's mound.
And Bryce Harper was all alone in his hotel room, crying his eyes out, says his coach.

Five days after being ejected and suspended from the Junior College World Series, Harper is likely to be the first overall pick in Monday's first-year player draft by the Washington Nationals. He would be the first junior college player chosen with the top pick, putting him in position to challenge the draft-record $15.1 million contract Stephen Strasburg signed last year with the Nationals.

"He might be the greatest amateur player of all time," says Tim Chambers, Harper's coach at the College of Southern Nevada.

yet as fans, scouts, coaches, players and the news media were reminded of last week in his final amateur game, Harper is just 17.

He is a kid who should have been completing his junior year of high school this month, going to the prom, hanging out with his buddies at the local mall and celebrating the idea they now can get into an R-rated movie without a parent or guardian.

Instead, Harper came to Grand Junction acclaimed as the greatest player since Kirby Puckett to participate in the 53-year tournament, which set an attendance record. Collectors were offering $1,000 for his game-worn jersey. Adults were lining the fence for his autograph. Kids were having their faces painted with his name. And the game's most powerful agent, Scott Boras, was saying he's more talented than Ken Griffey Jr. or Alex Rodriguez at the same age.

"I learned awfully fast that you never take your eyes off him, because there's a really, really good chance you're going to see something you've never seen before," Chambers says.

But as gifted as Harper might be on the field, the 6-3, 205-pound left-handed power hitter is a kid, and, yes, they can do the darndest things.

"We all did things we weren't proud of at 17," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo says.

Harper's likely final game as an amateur last week won't be preserved for the family album: He nearly set off a bench-clearing brawl by spiking the opposing first baseman running to first, glared at the home-plate umpire on a called strike and showed up the umpire by drawing a line in the dirt with his bat that prompted the ejection and an automatic two-game tournament suspension. He never played again, leaving his coach seething, fans angry and his teammates in tears.

"So many people came just to see this kid because you heard so much about him," says Richard Broadhead, 83, who proudly attests to attending virtually every junior college tournament game the last 40 years. "We all saw how much talent he had. We also saw he has some growing up to do. He had to learn a lesson."

Harper's actions hardly subdued talk of his immaturity, but with college and pro scouts on hand and the Nationals keenly watching every game, they all came to a unanimous conclusion that he will be a force in the major leagues.

"If you took a snapshot of that incident and didn't know the kid like we do, you might have a bad impression," Rizzo says. "But we know this kid. He's a high-strung, emotional 17-year-old. I like the fire he plays with. I like the fact he loves playing the game. He will learn to control his emotions."

Says Kevin Towers, a former San Diego Padres general manager and current scout for the New York Yankees, "Trust me, getting ejected from a JUCO game isn't going to stop the Nationals from drafting him. Not this kid. He's too special. The Nationals get Strasburg one year and this kid the next? That's how you build an organization.

"You're not going to do better."

Scouts noticed him at 14

Harper became a national phenom a year ago when he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The magazine touted his 570-foot homer in high school, calling him the LeBron James of baseball.

But people from his hometown of Las Vegas have known for a while that Harper seems destined to be a star.

"I started hanging out with him when he was 8," says Southern Nevada second baseman Scott Dysinger, 21. "I (am) four years older, but he always hung out with the older guys. He always acted older. Besides, he was better than us."

So good that Harper, his parents, Ron and Sheri Harper, and Boras, the family's adviser, decided after his sophomore year that Harper should quit high school, where he was an honor student, to get his general equivalency degree. He enrolled in college. And despite being the youngest on the team by at least two years, he hit .443 with a school-record 31 home runs and 98 RBI in 66 games.

"He's the best position player I've seen come through here," says Manny Guerra, a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals for 30 years. "I've known him since he was 8, and even then you'd say, 'My gosh, look how that ball comes off his bat.' "

Says Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer: "He was a known commodity in the scouting world when he was 14. People came to see his older brother (Bryan) play and would walk away saying, 'Wow, did you see his younger brother?'

"When I first saw him in '08, you saw a guy who already had a major league swing, a guy with incredible bat speed and a guy who plays the game hard, dirty and wants to win."

Harper, who has primarily played catcher but is likely to be an outfielder or third baseman as a pro, shrugs at the accolades. He doesn't fear greatness. He demands it. He doesn't want to just make the major leagues. He wants to dominate. He doesn't want to just end up in Cooperstown. He wants to be the greatest player ever.

Yet, as he reminds everyone, "I'm still a kid. I'm still thinking about girls and all that stuff," says Harper, a devout Mormon. "I still hang out with my buddies and have a good time on the weekend and play Wiffle ball in the street, go snowboarding, go to the beach.

"I guess I'm a kid living a dream, because that's what I'm doing right now. I've just grown up a little faster than everybody else."

Ejected, in tears, apologetic

That kind of passion left Harper sitting in his hotel room while his teammates were eliminated by eventual champion Iowa Western on Thursday.

A day earlier, Harper spiked San Jacinto first baseman Deric Hawkins running to first base in the first inning. "I thought it was a dirty play, but he came over later to apologize," Hawkins said. Harper also angered home-plate umpire Don Gilmore, staring at him after a called strike in his first at-bat.

In his third at-bat, Harper was out on a called strike by Gilmore. Harper looked at him, dragged his bat across the dirt as if to show him how far outside the pitch was and then was ejected. The video was on YouTube within hours. And since he was ejected earlier in the year, he was automatically suspended for two games.

Harper cried, apologized to his coach and teammates and couldn't sleep. He left a text for Chambers at 12:22 in the morning: "I love you coach! I'm sorry."

"If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what does," Chambers says. "Certainly, he shouldn't have done that. The umpire had a quick trigger.

"But I also thought his maturity showed up when something that dramatic happened on a stage like this. When he got tossed, he didn't respond. He just took off his spikes … and walked away."

If Harper is a prima donna or spoiled, surely his teammates wouldn't be fooled. Yet they paid tribute to him in the game after the suspension by wearing eye black running down their faces as Harper does. Dysinger wore Harper's jersey, No. 34, with Chambers telling officials that Dysinger's jersey got lost in the wash. His brother, Bryan, wore his cap and drew a 34 behind the mound.

"You couldn't ask for a better teammate, and we wanted to show our support," Dysinger says.

When Southern Nevada lost to Iowa Western — with the game drawing 8,500 fewer fans at Suplizio Field with Harper out of the lineup — the players actually were more heartbroken because Harper's amateur career probably was over. Bryan Harper, who started the game, was unable to speak for a minute, sobbing in a postgame interview.

"We wanted to play with him one more time," Bryan says, "and it sucks that it never happened."

But Harper is now set to take the next step, and he and the Nationals would have to agree to a contract by the Aug. 16 deadline imposed by Major League Baseball on all draft picks. In the unlikely event the sides can't reach a deal, Harper might return to the college ranks. His brother, Bryan, is expected to be drafted but also has a scholarship to South Carolina.

Ron Harper, a steelworker, vows that the millions Bryce Harper will sign for will not change his son. Maybe he won't be around to mow the yard and take out the trash, but he's still a kid. Their kid.

"I don't put him on a pedestal," Harper says. "That's everybody else doing that."