Young stars can’t avoid the endless comparisons
Well, this won’t do anything to quiet those who insist on comparing Bryce Harper and Mike Trout at every stage of their careers.
Hours before Trout collected his 1,000th career hit on his 26th birthday in the Angels’ 6-2 loss to the Orioles on Monday, Harper deposited a fourth-inning curveball from Odrisamer Despaigne 400-plus feet into the right field seats for his 150th career home run.
Two oft-linked superstars reaching a pair of arbitrary milestones on opposite coasts on the same day isn’t all that surprising, but then there’s this strange coincidence: Harper’s home run on Monday came at the age of 24 years, 295 days.
Trout was the exact same age, give or take a few hours, when he hit his 150th home run on May 28 of last season.
Harper is the 14th player in major league history to hit 150 home runs before his 25th birthday, which is Oct. 16. His 150th home run came in his 759th regular season game, while Trout, who hit his 191st home run on Monday, reached 150 in 701games.
Among active players, only Albert Pujols (24 years, 212 days) and Giancarlo Stanton (24 years, 290 days) reached 150 home runs at a younger age.
Of the 10 nonactive players to reach 150 home runs before their 25th birthday, only Orlando Cepeda and Johnny Bench failed to hit 400 home runs in their careers. Eddie Mathews hit the most home runs (190) before his 25th birthday.
FanGraphs projects Harper to hit12 more home runs this season, which would give him 162 before he turns a quarter-century.
That would be the seventh-most home runs before age 25 all-time and two more than Trout, not that anyone is comparing the MVPs.
Angels outfielder Ben Revere, who played for the Nationals last season and will be lucky to reach 10 career home runs by his 35th birthday, tried to compare Harper and Trout earlier this year.
“They are the top two players in all of baseball,” Revere told MLB.com’s Bill Ladson.
“They have the same tools. They have power, plate discipline, great arms, they can run, steal bases, everything. They have God-given ability. They make the game look so easy. It’s tough to really compare because their games are similar.
“The two guys are fun to watch, I’ll tell you that.” MLB Network’s Mark DeRosa, who played for the Nationals during Harper’s rookie season, doesn’t expect the comparisons between Harper and Trout to stop anytime soon.
“The game’s gone young,” DeRosa said.
“Superstars: (Nolan) Arenado, Aaron Judge, the emergence of him. Manny Machado, one of the best players in the game. But I think the dust settles with these two boys. They’ll be forever linked. This is kind of who we look at, Mike Trout in the American League, Bryce Harper in the National League, and two different paths, and two different ways of going about it.”