Molly Knight and I are going live again tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern to watch Game 3 of the Phillies-Braves series … we’d love to have you join us. It’s a good time.
Our buddy Dan McGinn asked an interesting question the other day: Here I’ll put it into a poll, and then we can talk about it:
Let’s go over some ground rules here — Bryce Harper, I feel sure, will finish his career in Cooperstown. He’s a two-time MVP, he’s closing in on 60 WAR before his 34th birthday, and he’s been one of the defining players of his era. It feels wrong to call that a disappointing career in any way. We’re not here to diminish a great career.
But …
We are talking about a guy who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16.
We are talking about a guy who, at age 22, hit .330/.460/.649 with 10 or so WAR — that’s one of the best seasons of the century. It’s also one of the best age-22 seasons in baseball history … I mean, look at this company:
Highest bWAR seasons at age 22:
Ted Williams, 1941, 10.4 bWAR
Ty Cobb, 1909, 9.9 bWAR
Bryce Harper, 2015, 9.7 bWAR
Eddie Collins, 1909, 9.7 bWAR
Stan Musial, 1943, 9.5 bWAR
They are followed by Dick Allen, Alex Rodriguez, Joe DiMaggio, and Cal Ripken Jr.
We are talking about baseball’s Chosen One, baseball’s LeBron, a ballplayer with unlimited potential who, at times in his career, has seemed limitless. He’s going to the Hall of Fame. But did you think he’d be even more? Did you think he’d be in the stratosphere with Mays and Mantle and Aaron and Junior? Did you think he’d be a modern-day Musial or Williams or DiMag?
And if you did think that … is there something slightly disappointing about it all?
On Wednesday, in the Phillies-Braves game, we got the full Bryce experience.
