The Angels travel to Washington, in a game where two position players get more attention than the pitchers on the mound. Young stars Mike Trout and Bryce Harper face off for the first time in the regular season. They are this generation’s Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, two young stars coming to the majors nearly fully formed years before they hit their primes. They embody all the elements of a great player. Each owns a discerning batting eye that helps build a high OBP. When they hit the ball, they hit it hard, resulting in a high batting average. They can loft the ball for power as well as hitting singles through the infield. Great speed helps them on the base paths and in covering large swaths of territory defensively.
Harper, of course, is still developing as a player. He plays 2014 as a 21-year-old, and owns a .273/.353/.477 slash line. Despite an injury limiting him in 2013, he actually improved on his rookie of the year numbers from 2012. He’s off to a slow start power wise in 2014, but owns a .292 BA and a .352 OBP this year. Needless to say, the sky is the limit with Harper.
I also like that Harper has an attitude. There’s a little Barry Bonds there, Harper is willing to piss off opponents and maybe even his own teammates. He may end up not being very likable, but that never hurt the production of players like Ted Williams and Bonds.
Trout, on the other hand, is already the best player in the game as he plays his age 22 season. He’s already a career .300/.400/.500 player, hitting doubles, triples, and home runs. He reached base by a hit or a walk 300 times in 2013, with over 100 walks and nearly 200 hits. On top of all that, he swipes bases at an 88% clip, so even when he singles he can still put himself in scoring position.
Note that with this start, Trout has a chance to be the Greatest Player of All Time TM. It doesn’t take much imagination to see Trout breaking Roger Maris‘s single season AL home run record, or even Barry Bonds’s MLB record. Trout’s BABIP stands at .367 so more home runs and fewer strikeouts would give him a shot at a .400 BA. Batting third in a great lineup may lead to him setting both the runs and RBI records.
With these two in the majors, the next 15 years should be a lot of fun.
Update: Here’s more on the Harper attitude.
The level of Harper-bashing has gotten nauseating, both from fans who are claiming he’s a “failure,” and from long established clowns with columns like Thomas Boswell–who is apparently puzzled by the idea that someone with a shortened rookie season and an injury riddled sophomore year might have ordinary looking counting stats (as opposed to his impressive and–in bursts–occasionally awesome rate stats). It has a lot in common with the Puig bashing we’ve seen, albeit without the specific problems created by Puig’s harrowing backstory.
M. Scott Eiland » Yes. I’m not sure why this happens.