Harper to AAA

7.8 really? I think I may have him beat and I'm almost 50. The Nats would have to be crazy to put him in CF, possibly they are just giving him experience. CF is the hardest OF position, and they want to see how he does. My impression from last years interview with Rizzo is they want him to play RF.

Actually, just checked PG and it was 7.9. But yes, ESPN reporting they want him in CF and would move Werth to RF.

That 60 time was from 2005. I'm not sure what his 60 time is, but he was at 4.1 home to first last year on a groundball to 2B on July 4th, according to Scouting The Sally (Mike Newman).

No way he is 7.8 or 7.9 these days. If he was even close to those numbers he'd still be a catcher.

This OP is very misleading. Bryce Harper is considered to have above average speed in professional baseball. Last year in 109 games between A and AA, he stole a total of 26 bases (19 in 72 games in A, 7 in 37 games in AA). This would translate to nearly 39 stolen bases in a 162 game season, which would place him near the top of the league leaders year in and year out (let's not lose sight of the coveted "40-40 club", which would theoretically be in reach with these numbers).

The 7.9 60 that Harper ran for PG was in '05, when he had just turned 13 years old. He also showed a 79 MPH fastball off the mound, a 2.10 pop time behind the plate and hit 2 HR's during the games at that showcase. In this particular event, he was still age eligible for Little League. As a 15 year old at another showcase in California he threw an incredible 87 MPH from behind home plate and had a 1.87 pop time, both nearly unheard of especially for a kid that age. Just two weeks later at the Aflac All-America Game showcase, this is the write-up PG gave for Harper:

quote:

Bryce Harper is a 2011 C/P/SS with a 6'3'', 195 lb. frame from Las Vegas, NV who attends Las Vegas high school. Then comes this one from Las Vegas. We did a story a while back about young Bryce Harper. It's all true! He is the #1 prospect in the 2011 class and that's not likely to change. Plus arm, no plus plus arm! Quickness and agility. Only a 2011 but probably the best high school hitting prospect in the country right now. Extreme power. Unlimited ceiling! Not sure there has been anyone to compare him to at the same age.

He is being groomed to play CF and obviously has the tools to do it for many years.

Agreed, but that's a big jump in speed to move into what would be expected to be the 6.5 or faster. Just found it interesting a HS catcher jumping to MLB CF.

quote:

Originally posted by Clemson896:
Agreed, but that's a big jump in speed to move into what would be expected to be the 6.5 or faster. Just found it interesting a HS catcher jumping to MLB CF.

Dale Murphy

I could tell Bryce Harper stories all day. When he was 15 he played in the WWBA 18U championship in Georgia. There were over 20 future first round picks in that event. Roy Clark, then scouting director for the Braves told us that Harper, the 15 year old, was hands down the best player there.

Not knowing how much Bryce has improved his running speed since his final high school season, I have a difficult time seeing him as MLB ave. for a CF. He does have great instincts, but he was maybe a tick above ave. runner in high school and well below ave. CF speed. He does have a ++ Arm and RF seems to be the spot for him.IMO. The old Sports Illustrated article had some holes in it. They claimed he was a superman type who could fly around the bases. Truth is, running was his weakest tool.

That said, there have been gold glove CF's who were below average runners at that position. It's hard to discount what Bryce is capable of. And it's always possible that he has actually improved his running ability over the past couple years.

jmo but.. Centerfield is a huge mistake by the Nationals. CF, like catcher, is a defensive position that grinds a guys offensive skills downward.
Put him in left or right and let him focus on being the hitter you are paying him all that money to be. Put some flyer out in cf that saves your pitcher's arms by turning into doubles into outs.

Rockies did this with Larry Walker, big mistake.

Maybe, they're putting him there to improve his range, get him used to tracking rockets and making throws from all sorts of angles, so he'll be that much ahead when (if) he plays lf or rf in the majors.

Their best other two OF's are Werth and Morse. None are the prototypical MLB CF but having those three bats in the lineup is putting their best foot forward. I would think he is a bit more agile than Werth, but they have talked about both options.

There have been plenty of good centerfielders in the ML's that were not speed burners--Andruw Jones, Jim Edmonds, and Gorman Thomas for three examples.

Werth seems to move very well. He looks to have above average speed. I can see Werth in CF.

I seen an article yesterday that said Davey Johnson plans to sent BH down to AAA to get a lot of work in CF and will be ideally be his position if and when he gets called back up this year. Johnson wants Werth in RF and by keeping BH Werth would have gone to CF and Johnson wants to keep Werth healthy and keep his bat in the game everyday and not getting beat up playing CF everyday.
It will also give them a longer look at veteran outfielders Ankiel,Bernadina,Carroll and Michaels.

Most outfielders will say that CF is the easiest to play. Of course, you still need to have the tools to play it.

The reason is that you can get a much better read off the bat in CF vs. RF or LF. Also, you don't get as many of those tailing line drives.

As far as injuries go, other than wear and tear because you will run the most I don't see CF as being any more dangerous than the corners. In fact, the CF only deals with the wall behind him, the corners deal with two directions because of the foul ball. And if you are playing at Wrigley, those most dangerous, bullpen mounds come into play.

BTW, Hard to believe that in this day and age, we would have a MLB stadium with bullpens in play.

PGStaff, I totally agree that from the perspective of reading the ball off the bat, centerfield is the easiest of the three outfield positions. It is also easier to pick up how the pitcher is pitching guys hopefully allowing for better positioning. Of course the thing in center is the vast amount of territory that needs to be covered, especially if one of the corners is in there mainly for his hitting ability. Some guys with great speed such as Bernie Williams were not particuarily great centerfielders because they still didn't get great reads off the bat and ran poor angles to the ball. The centerfielder needs to have a lights out glove because if a ball is in the air and the centerfielder calls for it, he has precedence over all other defensive players on the field.

As far as the original post about Harper being sent down, I think there was never really much thought by the Washington brass to keep him with the team out of spring training. Johnson did some talking but even he must see that Harper isn't ready from a hitting perspective. He struck out four straight times in his last game. He isn't quite ready to face the likes of Halliday, Hamels, and Lee on back to back to back days. He will get there but he needs more at bats. Some scouts truly believe he should have been moved to AA instead of AAA because he has not conquered that level yet. We'll see what happens although I think the potential to move in an upward direction from AA to AAA would have been better for his psyche than perhaps struggling at AAA and having to be sent DOWN to AA. Also he can work on the other nuances of learning centerfield and running the bases properly.

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He isn't quite ready to face the likes of Halliday, Hamels, and Lee on back to back to back days

Not many are!

Come on folks, he is not ready for the big field, he was just getting his workout and learning to be in a big league clubhouse and he would have been sent down regardless of what they decide to do.

No one knows which roster they will end up on until after spring training and a day before they get their ticket. For now he will do his practice with the AAA squad. In most camps, you will find players on all different levels depending upon who is needed where. The other day some of the AAA 40 man guys were in the high A game. Depends on who wants the other team to be exposed to a particular player.