Natinals Draft Lebron

You may have heard of him - Bryce Harper - the next "Lebron" of the sports world. The Natinals drafted him first overall last night and hope he and Stephen Strasburg, who debuts tonight, can bring winning back to Washington. The hype has built-up around Harper since last summer when Tom Verducci wrote an article titled "Baseball's Lebron". He talked about how Harper hits 500 foot home runs, throws 96 MPH, has faster bat speed than McGwire in his prime and scores from 2nd on wild pitches - all at the age of 16. E:60 did a profile on Harper last summer that only helped fuel the hype.


Harper left high school 2 years early after receiving his GED so he could enroll in junior college and be draft eligible. He even chose a junior college league that used wooden bats so he would be more familiar when he went to the pros. In a 3 game span during the junior college world series he went 14-for-19 with 5 home runs and hit for the cycle the first game. He played 62 games in his 1 year junior college career and hit .444 with 88 runs scored, 29 home runs, 89 RBIs and 18 SBs. If you are unfamiliar with baseball statistics, that is insane.

Harper has played mostly catcher during his career but when Bud Selig announced his name at the draft he called him an outfielder and most baseball personnel expect him to make the position change because catcher is far too demanding and risky for someone so valuable. After going 344-466 in their 5 seasons in Washington, the Nationals hope Strasburg (21) and Harper (17) will form a duo that will make them relevant for the next decade.