The "Mike Trout vs. Bryce Harper" Debate is Dead

[SlinkyRedfoot]

.270
22 HR
59 RBI
11 steals
.817 OPS

.326
30 HR
83 RBI
49 steals
.963 OPS

which ROY destroyed baseball out of the gate and which didnt?

Trout's. No debate.

 

[HammerDown]

Agreed. Which also means there's time for Harper to shit the bed or get hurt and have another disappointing season relative to his potential.

Now you're confusing me. A few posts ago you were taking umbrage at the notion that Trout is the better of the two.

 

[Rock Strongo]

Trout's. No debate.

and thats my friggin point.

"they should have demoted harper"

yeah, i said that...

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

He's 22. Projection is not all that outrageous here. The cone of uncertainty is so wide here that it's pointless to compare right now. Harper is not exactly lacking in talent.

And even now, Harper has a Ruthian 216 wRC+. That's absolutely competitive with Trout in my book. Does he sustain it? Who the hell knows, but it's not entirely impossible with the talent he possesses. Point being the debate is far from dead, not that Harper is or even will be better.

Yeah. I would take Trout hands down right now, but like most knowledgeable baseball fans, I'm excited at the prospect of watching these two "compete" against each other for a long time.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Now you're confusing me. A few posts ago you were taking umbrage at the notion that Trout is the better of the two.

No, I took umbrage at the notion that the debate is dead, or that all Harper's done is "flip his hair."

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Right now Trout >> Harper and it's pretty clear at this point. When their careers are over who knows. Trout is living up to the hype and Harper not so much to this point.

22 years old. 1,800+ PAs. .284/.372/.507/.879/139.

I think most unbiased fans would disagree with you.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Both are good players but if I'm starting a franchise Trout is #1 in my book. Would take him over any other player in baseball at the moment.

I think you'd have to be a fool not to.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

It's almost like people don't bother to check Harper's 2015 stats. Good fucking lord.

Shit, even since he returned from injury last year. Combine those numbers with this season's and his slash is
.304/.407/.566/.973 over about 550 ABs. That's nothing to sneeze at.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

and thats my friggin point.

"they should have demoted harper"

yeah, i said that...

You have a hard time with quotation marks, don't you?

 

[Rock Strongo]

You have a hard time with quotation marks, don't you?

no, you have a hard time discerning the stated word from inferred idiocy sometimes.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

That's not why people don't like Harper. It's the constant hype since he came into the league, though his numbers up until the first half of this season were nothing in line with his press.

He's an immature douche who is easy to dislike for many reasons. The fact that he's finally put up some decent numbers over a 60 game stretch doesn't cancel out everything else.

I have no issue with people saying they don't like Harper. I can understand that. What I can't understand is folks who dislike him so much it leads them to say shit like "he's finally put up some decent numbers."

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

no, you have a hard time discerning the stated word from inferred idiocy sometimes.

Inferred?

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

.270 hitter with never more than 22 HRs or 59 RBIs surely deserves the 'Chosen One' type lauding.

You can say what you will about injury-riddled seasons, and you'd be right, but to use counting stats to evaluate a player's performance over those injury-riddled seasons doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

He certainly didn't have superstar numbers, but he was certainly better than you're giving him credit for. He had a .816 career OPS before this season, and to put that into perspective, there are more than a dozen All Star position players in 2015 with an OPS lower than that this season.

Perspective is important.

 

[Rock Strongo]

Inferred?

yes, you know...

to deduce or conclude?

deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.

see, me being the originator of the statement would be "implying" something. you, the reader/commentor would be inferring.

and based on the bold, thats exactly what you did.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

but... but... outdated triple crown stats!!!!

I don't mind BA -- it's not the first I'd look at, but it's not horrible -- but yeah, looking at HRs and particularly RBIs totals over seasons where a guy's been injured doesn't accomplish much.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

yes, you know...

to deduce or conclude?

deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.

see, me being the originator of the statement would be "implying" something. you, the reader/commentor would be inferring.

and based on the bold, thats exactly what you did.

"waaaah. don't put words in my mouth"

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Trout plays with Pujols and for the only franchise in MLB history who probably did more 'roids than the Oakland A's. So I'm thinking he'll be good til he's 52 (unless baseball institutes random, in-game testing, in which case he'll be the next Ryan Braun).

Hahahaha. The guy's neck seems as thick as his head.

I wouldn't be surprised that any or all professional athletes are juiced to the gills. I don't think any testing would stop it, though. Juicers get randomly tested and pass - the labs making the PEDs are just too far ahead of the testing methods.

Case in point, A-Rod served the longest PED suspension in the history of the game without testing positive. As I understand it, he had been tested on days that he actually cycled.

 

[Rock Strongo]

"waaaah. don't put words in my mouth"

now you know what infer is. congratulations.

 

[HammerDown]

Hahahaha. The guy's neck seems as thick as his head.

I wouldn't be surprised that any or all professional athletes are juiced to the gills. I don't think any testing would stop it, though. Juicers get randomly tested and pass - the labs making the PEDs are just too far ahead of the testing methods.

Case in point, A-Rod served the longest PED suspension in the history of the game without testing positive. As I understand it, he had been tested on days that he actually cycled.

They need to be tested within two minutes of an AB. Pujols is doing a cocktail of drugs that will keep his head shaped like a cinder-block and him on the field til he's at least played out the contract. After all, this deal was more about "a commitment to the Lord" than the $254,000,000.