Who really is Bryce Harper?
Bryce Harper is an elite player in major league baseball currently, but when it is all said and done, what will he be known as? Will he be known as an unbelievably talented player that never put it all together or one who managed to find his very own plaque in Cooperstown?
Harper is a once in a generation player. He is an exceptional athlete and one of the most dynamic players in all of baseball. He was the number one pick in the 2010 draft and has been the face of the franchise ever since in DC. In his five-year career so far, he has struggled to put up back to back spectacular seasons. In his first few seasons, he would go on fire and then have an injury sideline him. In 2015, he won the NL MVP unanimously, the youngest player in the history of baseball to do so, but in 2016, his OBP and AVG were both 90 points lower than the year before. Even in a down season for Bryce, he puts up some very solid numbers, but he has the ability to be a Hall of Famer and therefore will need to be far more consistent to go on the path.
Harper’s ability can be compared to, similar to himself, two other former first overall picks: The number one pick in 1980, Darryl Strawberry, and in 1987, Ken Griffey Jr. Strawberry and Griffey’s career’s both started out similar but took completely different routes. Griffey became a first ballot Hall of Famer, getting 99.3 percent of the votes, meanwhile, “Straw” had a successful career having recorded a career bWAR of 42.0 but never truly put it all together, plus off field problems got in the way.
Here are some offensive stats for the three left-handed hitting outfielders in their first five seasons:
Harper: .279/.382/.501 121 HR 334 RBI 58 SB 657 GP
Strawberry: .266/.366/.525 147 HR 447 RBI 136 SB 670 GP
Griffey Jr.: .303/.375/.520 132 HR 453 RBI 77 SB 734 GP
The three players are not too far off in most categories, with Griffey having the most success by a slight margin earlier in his career. Of course when it comes to defence, Griffey is on a different level, but we will stick to talking about offensive stats here.
After five seasons in the big leagues, all three players had earned themselves four all-star appearances, with Harper and Strawberry earning the Rookie of the Year award in their age 19- and 21-year-old seasons, respectively. The Nationals right fielder along with “The Kid” both earned a Silver Slugger to their names as well, with Harper being the only one of the three to win an MVP in his first five years.
After those five years as noted earlier, Griffey rose and Strawberry put together only a few more productive seasons before declining rapidly. Griffey started at a younger age and possibly, that had an effect on injury history later in his career, which also could be a concern for Harper. But Griffey still produced solid numbers adding on to his elite tenure in Seattle.
The three sweet swinging outfielders, in their time were/are some of the most talented, most pleasurable players to watch on the diamond. They could do things others couldn’t and were all can’t miss prospects. Griffey lived out his expectations and although Strawberry had a terrific career, he fell short of his expectations. Where will Harper wind up?
Right now, Harper is going into his sixth major league season at age 24, and has already accomplished a lot. The 2016 NL MVP and childhood friend of Bryce, Kris Bryant is going into his third major league season and is a year older than Harper. Harper has so much career ahead of him, and truly could be great and once again find his name in conversation with Mike Trout for the face of baseball.
