Bryce Harper, OF, Nationals
What’s up: Everything about Bryce Harper screams superstar. He made his big-league debut at age 19 and has largely lived up to the hype. In this day and age of constant media scrutiny, that’s not easy. The right fielder leads the Nationals into LoDo on Monday night to begin a four-game series against the Rockies. Harper entered the weekend batting .400 with six home runs and five doubles. His on-base percentage was .515 and his OPS (on-base percentage, plus slugging) was a gaudy 1.333.
Background: It seems as if Harper’s been making headlines forever, but he’s only 24 and he’s off to one of the best starts of his career. On opening day, he hit a towering drive off Miami Marlins reliever David Phelps for the fifth opening-day homer of his career. It marked the third consecutive year Harper went deep in the opener. He tends to do things with flair. He hit two homers on Easter Sunday, including a walk-off bomb. He smashed two homers again Wednesday night at Atlanta, one a grand slam.
Saunders’ take: Harper has been in the cross hairs of the media ever since he made his major-league debut while still a teenager. That’s made him less than cuddly. But I admire him. Although he’s been knocked down a few times, he keeps coming back strong. After hitting 42 home runs and winning National League MVP honors in 2015, Harper stumbled last season, hitting a careerlow .243 with 24 homers. That seems to have motivated him. He worked out like a maniac during the offseason, putting on 15 pounds of muscle. He now weighs 230 pounds. Harper, along with the Angels’ Mike Trout and the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado, will define this era of baseball. Fans buy tickets to see these players up close and personal, knowing they have a good chance of seeing something extraordinary.