Jun 9th 2010, 14:14:52
And on Bryce Harper, he certainly seems like one hell of a player as well, but there's some risk there too (of course, there's always risk in the MLB draft), but the kid skipped a couple years of high school, taking the GED so he could jump into JuCo to play against better talent.
Some people have been talking about him as someone who may burn out early because of it. Not sure I believe that, but the MLB draft is so crazy in where the best players come from, that you simply can't assume anything until the player is in the bigs and succeeding.
After all, the best player in baseball, Albert Pujols, was drafted in the 13th round. Mike Piazza, one of the best catchers baseball has ever seen - 62nd round. Meanwhile, there are players like Bryan Bullington, 1st overall pick in 2002, who has a career line of 0-6 with a 5.57 ERA in a total of 16 games player in the big leagues.
Harper seems like as close to a sure thing (outside of Strasburg) as you see in MLB, but you never know. Baseball has way more burnouts/busts than the NBA or NFL.