Daily Zoot - 6/17/09 - The Prodigal Zoot

The Daily Zoot is all the news you needed yesterday, soon

-That gentleman, excuse me that boy, above is Bryce Harper. I call him a boy because he is only 16 years old. Bryce is the next "can't miss" prospect (can't is not totally accurate in this usage; Hideki Irabu, Michael Olowokandi, and Ryan Leaf say hello) . He is 6'3", plays catcher but sports a 96 mph fastball just for fun. That photo was taken at a homerun hitting showcase (I didn't know they had those either) in which he hit the longest homerun in the history of Tropicana Field the home field of the Tampa Bay Rays. Thats particularly impressive considering that the Trop is a place where grown men try to hit a ball as far as they can for a living-everyday. The ball went 502 feet, and would have gone further had it not hit the back wall of the stadium. 

Bryce was on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few weeks ago being touted as baseball's Lebron. At the time, everyone said, "well I hope this doesn't go to his head." Well it ended up going to his faster than anyone could have imagined. It went directly to his head, it didn't pass go, it didn't collect $200. This week, Bryce made the decision to drop out of high school (he just finished his sophomore year) and will take a GED program, in an attempt to make himself elligible for the 2010 draft, as opposed to the 2011 had he stayed in school. If he makes it, he will be picked by the National's (its not official yet because the season isn't over so its not definite that they will finish with the worst record, but they've been so bad this year they might get awarded the number one pick in the NFL draft as well)

We've seen this kind of thing before, but this is the first time with baseball. By all accounts, this isn't a need thing like it was with Brandon Jennings. Bryce has a 3.5 gpa, and even spends his free time doing community service (isn't that nauseating? not that community service is bad, I just don't think anyone should be so good at everything, its unfair to the rest of us) There aren't any rules against what Harper is doing, and on the surface it isn't a totally bad thing. He is going to get what amounts to a high school education. He will be able to make the pros, and that paper much faster than he would have had he stayed in school. But to me, like so many others who give their opinions unnecessarily, it just doesn't feel right.