Either/Or: Stephen Strasburg vs. Bryce Harper

I think Buster Olney said it best in his blog today that Strasburg is the next Lebron James of baseball

Because he is a position player. I’m not dealing with that attrition rate, especially when there are mechanical concerns as well. On talent alone, yes, Strasburg is better, but I don’t have confidence that he will be healthy on any kind of consistent basis.

I would take Anthony Rendon over both of them, however.

I see Harper as an average (maybe slightly below) defensive RFer with big time power and a strong arm, but mediocre contact ability. I definitely go Strasburg here, but putting Rendon in the mix would complicate matters for me.

I think Harper is going to be great. And if he becomes what he can become, he’d be my choice no matter what Strasburg becomes. The way I project them, I like Harper better even though I love Strasburg. But if you held a gun to my head today, I’d take Strasburg because he’s safer and really, really good.

and its not even close

and I don’t really understand how people are hyping Anthony Rendon over either of them. I just don’t see it, in fact, I don’t even think I’d take Rendon #1 overall next year, Gerrit Cole and Sonny Gray are right there too.

…will dominate. And so should Harper… But Strasburg had to work hard to get where he’s at. But he’ll fit in. He was undrafted out of HS.

Harper on the other hand pulled an end-around to skip the normal process. He’ll be too young to get a beer with his teammates. He won’t be able to relate to a lot of them. How do we know we’re not looking at the second coming of Josh Hamilton (the bad version)? I don’t wish that on anyone, but if I have to choose between the two, I choose Strasburg and mostly for those unknowns.

I said Strasburg. It’s a great problem to have though.

I think its tougher to get a legit #1 SP than anything else in baseball, and there are no guarantees Harper stays behind the plate.

The Washington Nationals were an afterthought until they got Strasburg. He comes with super stuff and has building momentum for some time. When they get him, they know that he’s going to be in the majors within a year and instantly address their credibility and start upping those season ticket renewals. Every 5 days will be a happening in DC with him around.

With Harper, the bat is certainly impressive. The makeup questions and the likely two year gestation period in the minors will create a lapse in season ticket buzz. In the DC market, all I can remember is how everyone was saying how Wieters was going to be the next Joe Mauer. He still may be, but it takes time for ballplayers from their initial debut to make that transition to superstar. And in the meantime, Matt Wieters is not drastically impacting ticket sales.

Once every 5 days for the rest of this year, DC will be a center of the baseball universe. After his inital debut, I’d be shocked if anyone can maintain a Jason Heywardesque bout of sustained must see performances.

To call any pitcher “a guy who plays once a week” is a gross exaggeration. Without a calendar in front of me, I’d say there are about 25-26 weeks in season and most aces & #2s will have at least 35 starts in any given season so they’ll average about 1 1/2 starts per week.

As for the question at hand, it’s tough. Strasburg’s ceiling is almost as high as Harper’s but his floor is exceedingly higher than Bryce’s. So to me, that would be the deciding factor if you put a gun to my head. You could build a championship caliber team around either one of them, I believe.

If you want to toss in Rendon to muddle things up either further, go right ahead Gore. The Owls have their schedule online with links to every box score so you could find all the starters he’s had to face so far. He’s putting up video game numbers at a major college program. He’s got it all: power, patience and athleticism. I guess I would put him second but that’s still no slight to Harper. There are no real losers in this group.