Kuzul

Bryce Harper isn’t invincible.

During the sixth inning of the Washington Nationals‘ road game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Harper was hot in pursuit of an A.J. Ellis fly ball to deep right field. Harper appeared to be in position to make a play on the ball, but just as he pulled up short, he met an unforgiving force.

The right field wall.

In a horrifying sight, Harper crumbled to the ground and lay motionless with his face in the dirt. Ellis rounded second base and stepped into third base safely, as Denard Span came over to hit the cut-off man.

More importantly, Harper rolled onto his back and one of the few things we could see was blood.

Harper didn’t just collide with the right field wall, but the scoreboard that is planted within the barrier. As soon as Span checked on him, he signaled for the trainers to come out and, before we knew it, one of the MLB‘s brightest stars was in trouble. 

According to Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post, it was as bad as it looked.

And Bryce Harper was nearly beheaded tonight (via @nevrfolow) twitter.com/Nevrfolow/stat…

— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) May 14, 2013

Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore has the latest on Harper’s condition:

Scott Boras: Harper had 11 stitches, no concussion. Jammed shoulder, but nothing immediate as far as orthopedic issues. Will have X-ray.

— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) May 14, 2013

All Dodgers players and fans showed great respect by keeping silent while Harper was down and eventually applauding him as he walked off of the field. Even still, the sight of blood is never a good sign, especially not in a sport like baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper has been the talk of Major League Baseball for years, long before he was taken with the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft. 

The slugger graced the cover of Sports Illustrated as a 16-year-old junior in high school when he was declared “Baseball’s Chosen One.” After winning National League Rookie of the Year at the age of 19 in 2012 and starting off like a house on fire this year, Harper’s stock is greater than Apple, Facebook and Google combined. 

Harper recently passed the 162-game mark for his career, a full season’s worth of games. During that span, which has covered April 28, 2012, through April 27, 2013, he has put up eye-popping numbers for anyone, much less someone who just turned 20 last October. 

He has hit .283/.354/.515 with 31 home runs, 77 RBI, 116 runs scored, 19 stolen bases and a very good 135-69 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Because of his rare ability, not to mention incredible work ethic and hustle on the field, Harper was the subject of an ESPN documentary that aired on Tuesday night called Bryce Begins. The title, at least to me, is a takeoff on the Christopher Nolan Batman Begins, which dove deep into the origins of the Caped Crusader to show how he became a legend to the people of Gotham City. 

Harper may not be donning a cape or boast the same detective and ninja skills that Bruce Wayne does, but he might be the best pure talent we have seen on a baseball field in a long, long time. 

Here are some of the stories that we took away from the ESPN documentary, as well as some reaction from around the web. 

What, Exactly, Is “Bryce Begins”?

It was a documentary filmed over the course of Harper’s rookie season in the big leagues and Opening Day 2013. It contained exclusive interviews with the star outfielder, Cal Ripken Jr., Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci, Ron Harper (Bryce’s father) and many others. 

The purpose was to provide some context about what it was like to be the most-hyped prospect in draft history, some common misconceptions about Harper as both a person and player, as well as looking at aspects of his game. 

People will try to pick it apart as being self-indulgent, another way for Harper to put his face out there and try changing opinions about him. A lot of people don’t like him because they feel he is arrogant or cocky. That is addressed in the documentary, rest assured. 

You can’t possibly please everyone all the time, and Harper seemed to have an understanding of that in the film. He didn’t mind getting booed when he made his debut at Dodger Stadium last year, but spoke kindly of the Washington crowd that gave him a standing ovation just days later. 

Harper doesn’t try to sugar coat who he is, what he wants or how he will get it. One truly honest moment came near the end when he is accepting his Rookie of the Year award. He showed humility and grace in his speech, then acted like he had no idea what to make of it. 

Sean Furney provided the actual quote that Harper used when asked what that Rookie of the Year award meant to him. 

We get so worked up about who should be holding these plaques when the season is over, and here comes Harper, playing calm and cool, just saying that all it is is a piece of wood with some names on it. 

The Legend Is Born

Even before Harper was gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2009, he was becoming an Internet sensation thanks to his performance with a travel team and in a home run derby event held at Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field. 

It was at this event in 2008, which is chronicled in the documentary, where Harper famously hit a home run 502 feet. That was the first video of the young phenom that really started circulating on the Internet and made him into a viral superstar. 

As the documentary notes, that was when Tom Verducci initially got the idea to profile Harper in Sports Illustrated as a 16-year-old. 

One interesting note from the SI cover that Verducci talks about is how much backlash there was to putting a baseball player that young—not even in the pros—on the cover of a national magazine. 

Safe to say that Verducci and the SI decision-makers got the last laugh on that one. 

The Blown Kiss

The most infamous moment of Harper’s minor league career came in 2011, when he blew a kiss at an opposing pitcher after hitting a home run. That was the moment where a lot of articles started being written about how bad his attitude was on the field. 

Michael Hurley of NESN.com wrote after that game two years ago Harper “showed great immaturity” by staring at his home run and showing up the opposing pitcher:

“The kid, no doubt, will be great, but he needs to get a little less excited for his Single-A accomplishments. Pretty sure they don’t read those at your Hall of Fame induction.”

Yet very few outlets wanted to talk about the whole story, which was the opposing pitcher was running his mouth all game long. 

Did Harper have a poor reaction to the situation? Perhaps. But name one player who wouldn’t admire his handiwork if it came at the expense of an arrogant pitcher more concerned with talking than throwing the ball over the plate?

Bryce Harper’s Swing, Slowed Down

As great as Harper is, he does things in the batter’s box that no one could or should try to duplicate. His swing is very violent and aggressive, yet somehow he makes it work for him. 

My favorite part of the documentary was it showed Ripken and Verducci breaking down Harper’s swing in slow motion. We all look at it in real life and see how he is able to hit balls out, but it is only when you slow things down that you can appreciate just how impressive he is with the bat. 

Harper’s load as the ball is traveling helps him generate a lot of that power, as does his incredibly quick hips and hands. But his lower half is very unusual, as he gets out on his front foot and takes his back foot off the ground. 

If a hitting coach in the big leagues saw you lift your back leg in mid-swing and put it back down, they would say you looked like one of the worst hitters in the world. 

Tripp Atkinson noted that, because of Harper’s unique swing mechanics, you would assume that hitting was a real chore. 

That’s a big part of what makes baseball so special: Even when something looks completely wrong, it can work under the right circumstances.

“That’s a clown question, bro.”

You couldn’t have a documentary about Bryce Harper without touching on the most famous catchphrase baseball has seen in the 21st century. 

In case you don’t know the story, the Nationals were in Toronto for a series when a reporter asked Harper what kind of beer he liked to drink on the road. The 19-year-old dodged the obvious set-up question by providing the quote you see above. 

What made the moment even better is how quickly that became the motto for stupid questions all over the place. The documentary showed how it was actually a category on Jeopardy! and United States Senator Harry Reid from Nevada actually used it to respond to a question. 

Humble Beginnings

One thing that we tend to take for granted with athletes, especially with a player like Harper, who has been under the microscope for so long at such a young age, is where they came from. 

Harper grew up in Las Vegas with a working-class family, led by his father Ron. The documentary shows Ron with his ironworking crew doing their daily job. It then transitions into Bryce talking about how his father’s sense of self and work ethic inspired him to work as hard as he does. 

People who don’t like Harper want to think that he is spoiled and coddled, but this is clearly a young man who has done everything that was ever asked of him, and then some, to get where he is today. 

You can clearly see the love and respect Bryce has for his father, which has helped make him the person he is today. 

Conclusion

Whether you like Harper’s in-your-face personality or not, you have to admit that he is fun to watch. This documentary likely won’t change your opinion of him, one way or the other. If you liked him going in, you probably like him more now. If you didn’t, well, that is your prerogative. 

But don’t take a rare talent like Harper for granted. He has proven himself to be capable of doing things that very few players in history have. Love him or hate him, when you see greatness, you can’t help but keep watching. 

If you want to talk more baseball, feel free to hit me up on Twitter by clicking the link below.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Dear Bryce,

You don’t know me, but I feel like I know you well enough. Like many others, I’m a fan. Also like many others, I feel like I know you a little better now after having watched the documentary ESPN did on you. Bryce Begins was good stuff. A real humdinger.

It also got me to thinking that it’s high time I asked a favor of you, one that I believe most others in galaxies both known and unknown would find agreeable.

Do us all a favor and don’t ever change, bro. Always be yourself.

I can’t believe I’m sitting here asking you to never change. When you were still making your way toward the major leagues, I recall anticipating that you were going to be just another insufferable prima donna.

You remember the article Tom Verducci wrote about you for Sports Illustrated back in 2009? You know, the one that portrayed you as baseball’s LeBron James?

Yeah, that one. There were plenty of flattering words in there about your off-the-charts talent and your love of the game, but your own words painted you as being more arrogant than confident.

Seriously, what teenager actually says his goal is to be “considered the greatest baseball player who ever lived?” You sounded like you had no concept of how easily the game of baseball humbles people, no matter their talent level. Major League Baseball isn’t the NBA or the NFL. Even the best young players (i.e. guys like YOU) have to earn their way.

You also remember that the negative buzz was still building when the 2010 draft was getting closer. Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus published a scouting report that included some not-so-nice things in the “Makeup” section:

It’s impossible to find any talent evaluator who isn’t blown away by Harper’s ability on the field, but it’s equally difficult to find one who doesn’t genuinely dislike the kid. One scout called him among the worst amateur players he’s ever seen from a makeup standpoint, with top-of-the-scale arrogance, a disturbingly large sense of entitlement, and on-field behavior that includes taunting opponents.

“He’s just a bad, bad guy,” said one front-office official. “He’s basically the anti-Joe Mauer.” 

You saw that scouting report got picked up by Yahoo! Sports and subsequently digested by draft-eager baseball fans like myself, and you know we used it to form opinions. Who were we to disagree with the scouts, you know?

The negative buzz didn’t quit after the Nationals picked you No. 1 and you were thrust into the minors. There was that time you blew a kiss to an opposing pitcher after you hit a home run off him, which prompted Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk to write a “Bryce Harper needs to grow up” column.

And what was the deal with you telling MLB.com in early 2012 that you wanted to be like Joe Namath? You sounded like you couldn’t wait to get to the big leagues and then run wild. This time, it was Jason Reid of The Washington Post who was writing a “Bryce Harper needs to grow up” column.

When you got the call to the big leagues last April, we were all worried about you. You were only 19, and you hadn’t answered the question as to whether you were really ready for the big leagues or the life that comes with it. Honestly, I braced for a train wreck.

Before long, I found myself asking: Who is this guy?

It was like a switch had been flipped. You weren’t arrogant. You were confident, and it was a unique kind of confident. The right amount of swagger mixed with a shocking dose of humility. Turns out you had some after all. So much for scouting reports.

On the field, you didn’t always keep your emotions in check. But you didn’t let anybody push you to your boiling point either, even though there were some who tried pretty hard.

You didn’t charge the mound when Cole Hamels acted like a punk and hit you on purpose (your subsequent steal of home was a nice touch). You looked like the better man when Ozzie Guillen got ticked off about the pine tar on your bat. You didn’t punch Angel Hernandez’s lights out even though you had a reason to after he effectively picked a fight with you.

You didn’t look like a 19-year-old out there, Bryce. Nor did you look like a problem child. We were all tipping our hats.

You were pretty good off the field, too. Baseball writers can be a tough crowd, but you handled them far better than expected. You didn’t give them stock answers. At the same time, you didn’t give them any reasons to rip you. Not an easy trick, that.

The one time you did get snippy, you put a guy asking a dumb question in his place by telling him he was asking a clown question, bro. That was perfect, and it looks damn good on a T-shirt (I’m a proud owner of one).

Your swagger has shown through in other endearing ways. I loved the “Suns Out Guns Out” shirt. The eye black is ridiculous, but it fits. The mohawk is equally ridiculous, but it fits.

Your beard, meanwhile, is way thicker than most 20-year-old beards. Must be that Harper swagger.

Don’t lose the swagger, Bryce, but hold on to your humility too. That balance is going to be important. It’s going to keep the media on your side, which will ensure that you stay likable. Hence the reason it’s part of our agreement.

But our agreement isn’t that simple. A likable personality isn’t worth jack without the play to back it up. Your game has the same kind of balance as your attitude, and it needs to stay that way.

There’s the insane natural talent part of your game. That’s the part that allows you to crush the baseball on a regular basis, which is a sight that’s not getting old. Please do keep it up.

Then there’s the hustle part. You don’t play the game like an entitled superstar. You don’t loaf around the basepaths. You destroy them. You don’t jog after balls in the outfield. You jet after them. 

I’m confident that the first part isn’t going away. You’re a damn good hitter now, and you should be a damn good hitter for a long time.

It’s the second part I’m not so sure about.

You’re not going to be 20 years old forever, bro. You’re going to get old. Your body is going to break down. Your energy level is going to come down. It’s going to be a lot harder for you to keep hustling, and there are going to be days when you just don’t feel like doing it.

But you’ve gotta keep doing it. Plenty of guys are talented for a long time. Not that many guys are both talented and relentless for a long time. That’s Pete Rose territory. Derek Jeter territory. It needs to be Bryce Harper territory too.

Between maintaining your personality and continuing to play the game the way you play it, a lot is going to go into being Bryce Harper. Asking you to never change is no small favor, and I realize that. 

You brought it on yourself, though. When we were first introduced to you via Sports Illustrated, you told us you were going to be an all-timer. Ever since you arrived in the majors, you’ve demonstrated in more ways than one that you weren’t kidding.

Asking you to never change is asking you not to let us all down.

Best of luck, bro.

Yours truly, 

Some guy

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Major League Baseball has somewhat transitioned into a pitcher’s league—as we’ve seen an increase in perfect games and no-hitters the past few seasons—but the league still has its share of feared hitters that no pitcher wants to see in the batter’s box.

From on-base percentages to threats to go deep, each hitter brings an arsenal to the plate that has proven to overpower pitchers in the past.

So who made the cut for the 15 most dangerous hitters in baseball today?

Let’s find out.

Begin Slideshow

After six weeks of preparation, the Washington Nationals will play their first game of the regular season on Monday afternoon. Spring training is officially in the books after their final tune-up against the New York Yankees on Friday afternoon.

After a long, grueling spring which welcomed new faces such as new starting center fielder Denard Span, the Nationals will be able to reflect on their successes and failures of the spring in hopes to come together for a championship run.

Let’s take a look at the spring training stats of all of the Nationals’ starters in their lineup spots as projected by CBSSports.com.

Begin Slideshow

Get ready to see more of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper this year.

Literally.

Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times caused a stir last week when he reported that Trout, the 2012 American League Rookie of the Year, had reported to Los Angeles Angels camp at 241 pounds. That’s somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds more than his 2012 playing weight.

Earlier this week, James Wagner of The Washington Post reported that Harper, winner of the 2012 National League Rookie of the Year award, reported to Washington Nationals camp at 230 pounds. He’s listed at 215 pounds on MLB.com.

I’m already on record with my opinion that I’m on board with Trout’s weight gain. It’s perfectly harmless, and it could make him a more dangerous player.

I would now like to go on record with my opinion about Harper’s weight gain. I’m more than OK with it. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say I’m thrilled with it. The dude (or bro, if you prefer) needs the extra weight more than Trout does.

Harper and Trout share a couple of common reasons for why their weight gains are nothing to panic about. One is that they’re not going to weigh the same on Opening Day as they do now, as Trout is planning on losing five to 10 pounds during the spring and Harper is also planning on losing 10 pounds.

The extra bulk can also be forgiven because neither Trout nor Harper will be manning center field again in 2013. Both will be manning left field instead, meaning they’ll have less ground to cover. Carrying more weight shouldn’t have any sort of negative impact on their fielding.

But as much as it often feels like we’re talking about twin brothers when we talk about Trout and Harper, they’re not the same player. They have their differences, and therein lie the reasons for why Harper needs weight more than Trout.

One of the bigger ones is their height. Harper is listed at 6’3″ while Trout is listed as being two inches shorter, at 6’1.” Harper’s body weight is thus going to be more spread out than Trout’s, so he should be just as heavy, and it would actually be better if Harper were heavier by a few pounds. The type of player he is demands that he be on the heavy side.

Trout is a leadoff guy whose job is to get on base and score runs, and he can’t afford to lose too much speed as long as that’s the case. He can look to gain more power, but not to a point where his speed becomes a thing of the past. It’s a big part of what makes him a special player.

Harper is different. He showed off surprising speed as a rookie, but he’s much more of a power hitter with speed than a speedster with power, like Trout is. Harper’s top priority should be to nurture his power, and he shouldn’t worry too much about losing speed so long as he’s adding more power.

Harper’s place in Washington’s lineup demands that he have as much power as possible. He spent much of the 2012 season in the No. 2 hole, but he’s going to be a middle-of-the-order guy in 2013. His job will be to drive in runs, and power makes that job a lot easier.

Natural power is something Harper has plenty of, mind you. This is a guy who supposedly hit a 570-foot home run as a high schooler, and he had enough power to blast 22 home runs in his abbreviated rookie year. 

However, Harper wasn’t the most efficient home-run hitter in his rookie season. He only got the ball in the air 32.9 percent of the time, and his HR/FB rate was a modest 16.2 percent (see FanGraphs). 

A good fly-ball percentage for a power hitter is something over 40 percent. A good HR/FB rate for a slugger is upwards of 20 percent. Harper’s fly-ball rate wasn’t even good enough to crack the top 90 in the league (see FanGraphs). His HR/FB rate was about the same as that of Derek Jeter, who isn’t and never will be known for his home-run power.

For Harper to be a great home-run hitter, these numbers are going to have to get better. His added strength should be able to help, as he’ll be able to put more weight behind his already incredible bat speed and drive the ball with more authority.

We’ll know Harper’s an elite power hitter, however, when he starts driving the ball with authority in certain directions.

There’s nothing wrong with Harper’s power to right field. His splits (via FanGraphs) show that he had a 52.0 HR/FB percentage when he hit the ball to right field, which is right about where he should be on fly balls to his pull side. 

But most of Harper’s fly balls went to left and center fields, and he hit most of those with very little authority. His HR/FB to center field was a mere 10.3 percent. His HR/FB to left field was 5.7 percent. His high slugging percentages on balls to center (.558) and left field (.535) had a lot to do with his collection of doubles and triples to those fields, not home runs.

The good news for Harper is that he’s not far off from being a hitter with scary power to all fields. If you go to FOXSports.com and dial up his spray chart at Nationals Park from 2012, you’ll see that he made a couple of outs on the warning track in left field and a couple more deep outs in left-center and straightaway center. He made similar loud outs at other ballparks.

A little more muscle, and those balls may be over the fence, in which case we’d be sitting here talking about a guy who broke Tony Conigliaro’s home-run record for 19-year-olds.

Going forward, the last thing pitchers want to come to terms with is the idea of Harper as a sort of miniature Ryan Howard clone: a hitter who will go after a well-placed outside fastball and poke it over the left-field fence for a cheapie home run.

Harper has the talent to be that guy. And thanks to his offseason weight gain, he may now have the strength, too.

I felt comfortable enough before in saying that a 35-home-run season was in the cards for Harper in 2013. I feel more comfortable saying so now. In fact, he should be able to flirt with 40 home runs if his added bulk leads to greater power to areas other than his pull side. 

Harper is going to crack the 40-homer plateau eventually either way. And if he keeps putting on weight as his career moves along, projections of 50-home-run seasons to come are going to feel less like hyperbole and more like inevitability.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There will be several missing superstars from MLB in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Players such as the Los Angeles Angels Mike Trout and the Washington Nationals Bryce Harper have decided to forgo the third installment of the international event.

There will also be several international players missing from the fold. Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners and Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers headline two prominent baseball players who will not be participating in the WBC for their native countries.

Here is a list of 10 well-known major leaguers who will be sitting out the WBC.

Begin Slideshow

Once again, the NL East is stacked with talent from the top teams.  Despite the complete overhaul of the Miami Marlins after the disappointing 2012 season and the trade of Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey from the Mets, this is still arguably one of the toughest divisions there is top to bottom.

The Washington Nationals have made a prominent rise to the top, winning the division last year through an incredible core of young pitchers and hitters, most notably 3^rd-place Cy Young candidate Gio Gonzalez, fellow star pitcher Stephen Strasburg, and All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond.

Much like the quick rise of these stars, here are five players who will break out in 2013:

Begin Slideshow

It is very rare in baseball to see two game-changing players debut in the same year like we did in 2012 with Mike Trout and Bryce Harper; the last occurrence being in 2001 with Albert Pujols and Ichiro.

Both players were the undisputed best rookies in their respective league and have created a buzz about themselves that could easily create a fast track to Cooperstown. The question now is whether they can progress in 2013 or will one—or both—of them succumb to the dreaded sophomore slump?

It may seem cruel to openly wonder if a kid will fall flat on his face, but it is not unusual for players to get figured out by pitchers and fielders and not produce at the levels that produced all the hype to begin with.

For every Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, we have Joe Charbonneau and Kevin Maas.

That is not to suggest that either of these great players are going to fall off the face of the earth, but one great rookie season does not guarantee getting featured on SportsCenter the rest of their career.

For the Washington Nationals, Harper has a much easier road in duplicating his 2012 output.

At just 19, Harper hit .270, with 22 home runs and 59 runs batted in. He had 144 base hits, stole 18 bases and struck out 120 times.

With the Nationals’ lineup and their pitching staff, not only should Harper have plenty of opportunities to build on his rookie year, he should not be under tremendous individual pressure to do so. Most of the focus going into 2013 will be on Stephen Strasburg’s first full season in the Majors (hopefully).

While Harper will receive plenty of attention, there will be equal spotlight not only Strasburg, but retiring manager Davey Johnson getting one last World Series shot before calling it quits.

Frankly, this is the best chance Johnson has had to get to the World Series since the 1988 New York Mets, who fell short in the NLCS.

Sure, there will be pressure on Harper, but no more than on the entire team to match their division-winning effort from last season.

Trout, on the other hand, will be under a huge scope following his implausible rookie campaign.

In falling short of becoming the third player in baseball history to win the Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player award, Trout has captured the adoration of Southern California and sabermetric gurus alike.

Trout’s credentials were legitimate. He led the American League in runs scored and stolen bases and hit 30 homers and batted .326 as well. And if he had played a full 162-game season, he certainly would have had 200 hits.

Therein lies the problem. His first full season went so well, it is hard to imagine him getting much better.

Unlike Harper, any slump by Trout will be featured on ESPN and dissected by their never-ending parade of talking heads. He has played himself into the fishbowl—which I am sure is still an enviable position from his peers.

Unlike the Nationals, the Angels are not the best team in their league or division.

Trout does have the benefit of playing for one of the better managers in the game in Mike Scioscia and has arguably the game’s best lineup protector in Albert Pujols.

If Pujols is his usual self and if the Angels get hot early, the pressure will be off of Trout and the kid will just play ball.

Some have compared the entry of Harper and Trout in MLB to the emergence of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson to the NBA a generation ago.

It would be extraordinary to see these two stars turn into legends. But to expect that to happen without any hitches is simply not realistic.

How they adapt to the new pressure will be key for each going forward. For our sake, another summer like 2012 would be just fine.

*Statistics via Baseball-Reference

follow me on twitter@ronjuckett

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A

When Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper and Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout were named National and American League Rookie of the Year, respectively, Major League Baseball was the real winner. 

Trout’s victory was a foregone conclusion in June. He came up three weeks into the season and proceeded to have one of the greatest rookie seasons in history, hitting .326/.399/.564 with 30 home runs, 49 stolen bases and playing Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field. 

Harper’s win was not as predictable as Trout’s, though a strong September pushed his numbers into an area where it was really only a race between him and Arizona’s Wade Miley. Harper finished the season hitting .270/.340/.477 with a WAR of 4.9 (per Fangraphs). 

What made these seasons even more impressive was the age at which both players found success. Trout played most of the 2012 season at age 20, while Harper was 19 until October 16. 

The Rookie of the Year Award has different connotations to different people. To some, it should be about honoring the best first-year player without regard to their status and future upside. To others, there has to be some degree of future projection factored into the voting; otherwise, when you look back on the award, you are going to wonder what the voters were thinking. 

With the latter formula, it is still important to look at the season the rookie had, but you are also helping to elevate a young player who could potentially be one of the faces of the sport for the next decade. 

For example, in 2009, Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan beat a field of candidates that included Atlanta pitcher Tommy Hanson and Pittsburgh centerfielder Andrew McCutchen. Coghlan hit .321/.390/.460 with nine home runs in 128 games and was a poor defensive player. 

By comparison, McCutchen hit .286/.365/.461 with 12 home runs, 22 stolen bases and played much better defense at a more demanding position. But because voters fell in love with peripheral stats, they gave the award to Coghlan. 

Which player would you rather have today?

The point being that what players like McCutchen in 2009 or Harper and Trout in 2012 represent for baseball is something that can’t be taken for granted, and why Harper’s and Trout’s Rookie of the Year Awards are big deals. 

Baseball fans knew Trout and Harper long before they got called up. Both players have been at the top of prospect rankings for a long time. Trout burst onto the scene in 2009; Harper was the most hyped draft pick in history a year later. 

You need to keep the marketing machine going in baseball. The sport is far too reliant on the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs to draw huge television ratings. Instead, you need the voters to get the awards right so MLB can market its players to casual audiences. 

For the most part, the AL and NL Rookie of the Year voting has gone to the right players over the last five years, so it is hard to find much fault here. MVP voting is a different story entirely, but we won’t get into that. 

Harper and Trout were the right winners for Major League Baseball, both in terms of their production on the field this season and future potential, which should include many All-Star appearances and MVP trophies. 

Follow @adamwells1985

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com