From Real Deal To Real Heel

The other day I wrote an article about how Bryce Harper was proving himself to be the real deal at class-A ball after he won the game for Hagerstown with a walk-off home run. Now only three days later Harper has made like a WWE hero and turned bad guy in a snap.

Getting hit is part of the game of baseball and it seems when you are a superstar you may get hit just a little more than others. Yet it doesn’t seem like Bryce Harper is OK with this fact. Harper was forced to leave Hagerstown’s Sunday match-up with Greensboro after being hit by a pitch and his antics Monday proved he wasn’t happy about it. In the 6th inning Harper received some redemption by hitting a HR but instead of just rounding the bases with integrity Harper decides to show a little affection to the pitcher. As he rounds third base Harper can clearly be seen throwing a kiss at the Greensboro pitcher, which is unacceptable at any level. No one should be granted a pass when doing something as stupid as Harper did, but what makes it worst is Harper is so young he has earned no ones respect. Just because you are a great player does not guarantee that your colleagues will respect you, as many MLBers know. A great example of this is Jose Bautista who has turned around his entire career over the past year plus. No one can deny Bautista is now a major threat when he steps into the batters box but on multiple occasions he has stared down opposing pitchers, which won’t win him many new fans. Harper is still young and all we can hope for is with age comes maturity.

Other S2S Notes-

Sometimes Spring Training isn’t as much of a fluke as many people think as these two players have shown:

• After hitting .412 with 3 HR and 8 RBI in Spring Training Yankees 1B Jorge Vazquez has kept his bat hot in AAA. Even after a slump Vazquez is still hitting .280 with 18 HR and 46 RBI in 53 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
• Mike Morse, who spent most of 2000-2009 in the minors, hit .364 with 9, yes 9, HR and 18 RBI in 21 Spring Training games. He is now on pace to set a career high in MLB starts and is well on his way to set career highs in all offensive categories with a .308 average 9 HR and 33 RBI through his first 44 games.