Bryce Harper Baseball Phenom Prospect Makes College Debut

[DeltaBrave03]

Bryce Harper made his College debut Jan. 29th. This is the kid who graduated high school after his junior year to enroll in a community college. He stole home on wild pitches from second base several times during his junior year, and currently holds the record for longest home run of 502 ft at tropicana field where the Rays play. He plays catcher, but has a 96 MPH fastball when he pitches.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1156215/index.htm

http://thenatsblog.com/2010-articles/january/bryce-harper-goes-1-3-in-debut-at-csnto.html

[Beninator]

It looks like he was using a wooden bat. I did not know that they used wooden bats in College baseball?

[Da Coach]

Correct me if wrong, but I believe the NCAA does allow players to use wooden bats if they want, but since metal bats perform better, most players choose them.

The NCAA also sanctions several summer leagues that use only wooden bats.

[DUBrave5]

Correct me if wrong, but I believe the NCAA does allow players to use wooden bats if they want, but since metal bats perform better, most players choose them.

The NCAA also sanctions several summer leagues that use only wooden bats.

It doesn't surprise me that he used a wooden bat since he will probably be a one and done type player. Did the MLB issue a new rule not allowing high school students to go straight to the Minors or something because I remember a teammate of mine got drafted by the Minnesota Twins after graduating in June of 06 and he ended up not going to college and went straight into the Minors. This kid will end up in the league anyways so he might as well get used to the wood bats I guess.

[SFP]

There was a reason he went to JUCO instead of going trough the draft and I believe it has to do with your graduating class year and living in the US when you can be in MLB draft. Guys outside of the US can sign a contract when they are 16 I believe. I hope he lives up to the hype.

[Beninator]

It doesn't surprise me that he used a wooden bat since he will probably be a one and done type player. Did the MLB issue a new rule not allowing high school students to go straight to the Minors or something because I remember a teammate of mine got drafted by the Minnesota Twins after graduating in June of 06 and he ended up not going to college and went straight into the Minors. This kid will end up in the league anyways so he might as well get used to the wood bats I guess.

I haven't heard about any MLB rule regarding HS students going straight to the minors. As with your example, Zach McAllister from IVC went straight to the minors after HS, and Zach is going to report to the Yankees Spring Training Camp in Tampa next week!

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x690806601/Yankees-invite-former-IVC-pitcher-to-spring-training

[Da Coach]

There was a reason he went to JUCO instead of going trough the draft and I believe it has to do with your graduating class year and living in the US when you can be in MLB draft. Guys outside of the US can sign a contract when they are 16 I believe. I hope he lives up to the hype.

That's correct. Players can be drafted out of high school, but if they aren't or if they refuse to sign, they cannot be drafted again until after their junior year if they attend a 4-year school.
However, if they attend a juco, they can re-enter the draft after their 2nd year. So it moves them up 1 year.

There have been many cases of kids having great freshman years at 4-year colleges, and they realize they can get drafted high, so they drop out of college, and transfer to a juco to get a year closer to the draft.

[BuB]

There was a reason he went to JUCO instead of going trough the draft and I believe it has to do with your graduating class year and living in the US when you can be in MLB draft. Guys outside of the US can sign a contract when they are 16 I believe. I hope he lives up to the hype.

I think you are right. According to this article he graduated high school in 2 years and enrolled in JC to be eligible for the draft this summer. That would be 1 year early for his class if he had stayed in HS.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/baseball/mlb/02/02/bryce.harper/

As far as wood bats go he is probably showing all the scouts what his swing is like with wood. It is also fairly common some JC leagues have all players use wood during their conference games.

[Beninator]

Article about Bryce Harper from MLB.com. As SFP said on an earlier post, there is a lot of hype on this kid. I also wonder if Harper can live up to the hype.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100204&content_id=8019020&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

The MLB article also answers the wooden bat question.

"The scouts are vigilant about stuff like that. Southern Nevada plays in the West Athletic Conference, one of the few to use wooden bats.

"Seeing how he does with that after swinging aluminum in high school is something we're very interested in," a scout says. "That, and how he handles adversity. He hasn't had any yet, and you definitely want to see him have to deal with it before he signs a contract.""