FantasySharks.com

You know, I have never wanted anybody to fail at anything until this ultimate warrior facepaint wearing douchebag came along... he took his d-bag act to a whole new level yesterday.

http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2011/06 ... her-video/

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punch me in the face....

I saw the written report - thanks for the video link which confirms it.

Not a fan of that kind of crap. The problem with rooting against him is his talent is as big as his ego.

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He's striking out 25% of the time in high A, I am interested to see what kind of K rate he has when he gets to AA with the elite pitching prospects that know how to control their breaking stuff. Not saying he isn't talented, but nobody is a sure thing in baseball. I am rooting for failure in this case. I'd love to have him loading a new tv into my truck at BestBuy.

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punch me in the face....

He's also walking about 16% of the time.

Bottom line is when he makes contact he hits it hard and he shows no bias towards RHP or LHP average wise but he definitely owns RHP when it comes to homers.

Your point is valid - he'll need to adjust to better pitchers as he moves his way through the minors.

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Really don't have any love for this kid. You see them in every sport, let's see what happens when he starts facing real peers.

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I'm thinking a 98mph heater to the kidney will be on the agenda early on.

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punch me in the face....

Rome would agree with you...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 3&comments

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Really?

You're rooting for an 18 year old kid to be a complete failure because he occasionally acts like an immature 18 year old jackass?

Can't get on board with that. It's up to his manager and his teammates to teach him that stuff gets people hurt, and it's up to him to accept and adjust to it. The fact that he hasn't figured that out after 3 months of professional baseball isn't enough to brand him as a selfish jerk-off for life.
Being immature in the minors at 18 can be overlooked and overcome. If he's still doing it in a decade, then it's time to change his name to Milton Bradley and ignore him.

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"If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."
-Mike McD, Rounders

I've known a bunch of 18 year old kids that aren't douchebags. All indications are it's this guys M.O. and not a short term thing or something that has developed over his 3 months in A-ball. He might prove me wrong, but I'd wager he makes Jeff Kent look like one of the good guys.

Edit to add:

Here's an excerpt from an article that Kevin Goldstein wrote for Baseball Prospectus in April '10.

"4.The Makeup: This should not be underrated. 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." How this plays into the negotiation or future evaluation is yet to be determined, as history has shown us that the bigger talent a player is, the more makeup issues teams will deal with. Bench players can't afford to be problems, but plenty of teams happily put up with difficult superstars."

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punch me in the face....

I wasn't suggesting he's not a jerk, just pointing out that being a jerk at 18 doesn't have to mean he always will be.

It wasn't long ago that Delmon Young was a bastard with an inflated sense of entitlement, but we've seen nothing since he joined the Twins that suggests he's a bad teammate or a bad guy.

Harper's still far too young to say this is who he is and he can't change.
And if he doesn't, fine. Not every player is going to be Joe Mauer or CC Sabathia. The fact that Clemens and Bonds were huge poops never made me want to watch them any less.

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"If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."
-Mike McD, Rounders

Delmon is the only recent guy I can compare him too and I don't recall hearing a whole lot of stuff about Delmon before the bat incident... Needless to say, a 50 game suspension will clear up a lot of attitude problems. The additional humble pie of being more "the next Dmitri Young" than "the next Ken Griffey Jr" has probably given him some perspective as well. Who knows, it's hard for me to root for a guy like that. I had the same opinion of Josh Hamilton once too, but now think he's one of the greatest stories in the history of the sport... so anything is possible.

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punch me in the face....

I don't need to root for his success, because there are plenty of other 18 year olds just getting into the sport with a way better attitude than this jackass. Jason Heyward got moved through at a very young age, and I never heard one peep about him being a jerk to teammates, opponents, anyone... if anything, he's probably one of the most well-spoken baseball players of his age and a great ambassador for the sport. When this jerkoff starts realizing how his attitude is negatively affecting the press he's getting, the treatment from his teammates and opponents... and especially his coaches/front office, we'll see how he adjusts.

Until a positive adjustment takes place, I refuse to root for him, because he's simply bad for the sport.

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I disagree completely.
You may not like him, but he's not "bad for the sport."

Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds were selfish jerks, but their presence was beneficial to their teams and to the sport.
Exceptional talent is never bad for baseball.

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"If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."
-Mike McD, Rounders

I see what you're saying, but we're going to have to agree to disagree here.

I'd rather watch a guy with a great heart and lots of hustle who's less talented, than a jerkoff who's more talented, but a terrible influence on the team dynamic.

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I still stop what I'm doing to watch Barry Bonds bat when MLB channel is showing games from 8 years ago. I don't recall ever feeling anything but annoyed while seeing David Eckstein convulse in the batter's box like he's having a seizure.

I watch sports to be entertained and impressed by athletes who do things I can't, not to feel good about nice kids having success. If I want to do that, I can watch the dvd of Rudy or Hoosiers.

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"If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."
-Mike McD, Rounders