Links for Wednesday…
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports presents a slideshow of ten trades he thinks would make sense.
- In another article, Morosi says Bryce Harper is "one terrible role model." Morosi contrasts Harper with Joe Mauer, who he says had an "uncontrived upbringing" but still became a well-paid star.
- The Mariners acquired minor league infielder Edgar Trejo from the Brewers for a player to be named later or cash considerations, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
- Over at RotoAuthority, I took a look at 2009's top position players and pitchers in terms of fantasy baseball earnings, and what rounds those players were drafted in.
- The Orioles are replacing farm director David Stockstill, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Tony Pente of Orioles Hangout first hinted Monday of impending front office changes.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post notes that March 31st at 2pm is "the deadline to release players with non-guaranteed contracts and owe just 45-day’s pay." The Yankees' Chad Gaudin is one example, though a year ago with the Cubs Gaudin had a guaranteed contract.
- In light of the news that the Giants are shopping infielder Kevin Frandsen, Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner explains why the Mariners acquiring him "seems like the most obvious move ever."
- Marlins president David Samson told Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post he'd like Hanley Ramirez to retire a Marlin. Fortunately, Ramirez is already signed through 2014.
This Harper bashing is so absurd. Morosi is an idiot.
— Morosi takes issue with Harper getting publicity. Did Harper call SI and demand to be on the cover? Did he beg for the media attention? No. The kid did nothing but play ball. He stopped doing interviews for a period of time. I’m not sure what Morosi wants Harper to do on the media front.
— He complains about Harper getting his GED after his sophomore season. Big deal. He has a strong academic background, passed his GED at 16, and is now enrolled taking college courses. How many parents would be disappointed in their kids taking REAL college courses as 17 YO’s? And seriously, it wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school. My senior year was a joke. I already had my college acceptance. It was filled with meaningless electives and half days. Would I have missed anything critical to my development? Doubt it.
— Morosi then chides Harper for being so young. Missing out on childhood and youth. He wants to close the loophole and force kids to be graduated from a 4 year high school program before they are eligible for the draft. Of course, that is an America only penalty. Kids in Latin America live in ML baseball academies from a young age. They get signed to crazy dollars when they are 16. Everything they do is baseball. Why no condemnation for international signings?
— Here are the realities. Harper could do NOTHING to further his baseball opportunities in HS. He was being walked every at bat. When they actually threw to him the ball left the park. The guy is a man among boys. Academically, he was a top student. Morosi would have this guy WASTE another 2 years. Jeopardizing injury and stunting his growth opportunities just so he could continue to make friends in HS and attend the Prom. So stupid. Instead, Harper is attending college classes, playing against significantly better competition, and getting used to a wood bat. If all goes as planned, in a few months he will be in line for a contract that will ensure that he never has to work again.
— So sick of the elitists journalists that are bent on telling everyone how they should live their lives. He cites Mauer as an example, but fails to realize that for every Mauer there are a hundred kids who tear an ACL in HS playing basketball, or see their skills regress, or make bad decisions while at HS that jeopardize their playing career. Sure, in a perfect world it would be great for Harper to experience life as a regular teenager. However, unless Morosi is willing to guarantee Harper $15m in case he gets hurt the guy should just butt out and let Harper do his thing.
Agreed, I thought Morosi was a clown after I read that article. Who is he to judge? Somewhere along the line he forgot that it’s still possible to make friends and have a good time in college.
And furthermore, does he take into consideration that this is what Harper wants to do? Of course not. He even says in the article that he’s never met him, or talked to him. So first off, how dare he publicly bash this kid? Apparently it’s wrong to do what you want to do nowadays.
Won’t somebody please think of the children!!!
I think Morosi’s concern is less with Harper specifically and more with the inevitable copycats.
I agree Tim. That said, the central point still stands. Morosi wants Harper (or other young talent) to assume a tremendous amount of risk just so they can stay in HS, beat up on mediocre talent, and presumably lead a “normal” life. That’s a crock.
There’s larger risk in them not panning out and becoming cashiers at Best Buy than them going through High School and getting injured.
Right, because after passing the GED and attending college most people become cashiers. He’s not a dropout. Did you even read the story?
First off, do you realize the worth of a GED? It’s not near the equal of a High School Diploma. Second, he will be dropping out of college; even if he does revisit his degree this would be 2 major strikes on his scholarly record.
Could he gain a reputable job in the event he does not pan out? Of course. But the resume does not look great to employers on paper.
I think you overestimate the worth of a high school diploma. If you have attended college, a GED is worth exactly as much as a high school diploma.
His resume would not look great? As a person who recently graduated college and landed a job, trust my interview experience when I say that employers could not care less about anything that happened in high school. Having a GED would not affect his resume. If the subject ever came up, being able to say, “I passed the GED at 16 and started attending college at 17” is actually very impressive and would make him stand out in the interview. Also, putting college on hold to pursue a baseball career would not hurt him. Professional sports provide plenty of opportunities to answer those “leadership” and “Tell me about a time when…” questions that come up during interviews.
Any other professionals want to comment on this?
From your overestimation of the worth of a high school diploma (when paired with a college degree) to your lack of understanding of the interview process, I assume that you are in high school. That isn’t a criticism by the way, your comments just make sense if you haven’t gone through college or the interview process.
Really? In Harper’s case the only thing that will prevent him from making enough money to retire on in a few months is a catastrophic injury.
Even if the kid doesn’t pan out he’s in line for $10m+ on his first contract. Throw in the fact that he is in COLLEGE and was doing great academically in HS and your argument makes no sense.
Look, even if a guy like Harper doesn’t make it in baseball there is no reason to believe that he couldn’t go back to school and earn a degree. He comes from what appears to be a strong family and has a good head on his shoulders.
All that said, how does staying in HS prepare him better for a ML career? Last year he played in 23 games. He had 90 PA’s. Was walked 35 times, and had almost 20 XBH. The guy hit a HR 570 ft (aluminum bat). Scored 6 times from 2nd base on a wild pitch. He guns people down from his knees at catcher. He was clocked at 96 on the mound. All while being a SOPHOMORE. How is playing out his Jr and Sr years going to help him?
BTW – his time in college so far … 420/514/864. 22 XBH’s in 88 AB’s. All while playing against much older players, with a wood bat, for a very good Jr College team.
I was addressing the copy cats.
But even with copy cats, if a kid is that good at baseball he should be able to showcase against the best. He made those choices for himself. With any sport there is a risk of injury and I believe that if someone is that good that they can take on college pitchers with a wood bat as a 17 year old… god bless them. I have a hard time doing it as a 22 year old with an aluminum bat! The guy is in school, furthering his education and making himself a better person… I see nothing wrong with what Harper is doing and if anything I respect him more than anything.
Simpson’s reference above. Still a stupid point by Morosi in my opinion, as if there needed to be a Bryce Harper for kids to want to copycat smashing homers like they are going out of style and graduating HS early. bjsguess pretty much nailed this one in my opinion. Let the kid play, and other children are going to choose their role models however they please: whether they are gangster rappers or stud ball player honor students. Morosi is just playing a version of Helen Lovejoy to get people talking about his random sports column, and it is working.
Harper, a jackass? Really? I would have never guessed. /sarcasm
I’m a huge Mauer fan, but giving him credit for attending Cretin Durham (his high school) is hilarious. They are the team that steals all of the talent from the surrounding public schools. They are pretty much the only high school in the Eastern halve of the Twin Cities that actually recruits players. Which just goes to show this article is ridiculously stupid. There is no reason to compare Harper to Mauer or insinuate he is a bad person because he graduated early to play pro ball earlier.
Also,
C’mon guys its fox sports jon and ken notorously portray a negative picture in almost all there articles
i mean for god sakes read the article linked, published by ken about the orioles in this post and note how it fails to mention how stockstill reportedly(via roch) got a extentsion and a pay raise…while your at it read any other article ken has written about the O’s recently you’ll see what im talking about