Bryce Harpukkah: Day Three: Rookie for Rookies

As we enter the third day of Harpukkah, I thought we might consider Bryce Harper's career. Let's do so by comparing some rookies I got from selling off his rookie card. Keep in mind, I picked these up for about a tenth of the price I sold his card for.

First up:

Michael Young. Will Bryce hit over 2000 hits and have a career batting average over .300? That's quite a feat. To be fair, let's see what Young did in his first year of the minors. In 74 games he had 85 hits, 9 home runs, 58 RBIs, and a .308 average. This year, in 109 games, Bryce had 115 hits, 17 home runs, 58 RBIs, and a .297 average. Really, not too far off, and Young was only a few years older. But will Harper reach the established career Young has put together so far?

Here's another rookie I bought with my Harpukkah money:

Tony Gwynn's rookie had been sitting on my want list for a long time. No longer, thanks to Harpukkah. Now let's see how Bryce measures up to a hall-of-famer. In his first year in the minors, Tony played 65 games and had 101 hits, 16 dingers, 56 RBIs, and a crazy .375 average. Not to mention 22 stolen bases. Oh, Bryce had 26 stolen bases. Oops, I guess I sold a soon-to-be-touted future HOFer rivaling Tony Gwynn. But I'll stick with Captain Video.

Really, this is a minor league card instead of a rookie, but so was the Harper card I sold. So this is a fair comparison. Except Bryce didn't throw 72 strike outs his first year in the minors. Instead, he struck out 87 times.

Now I don't mean to spoil the spirit of Harpukkah and turn this into Bryce Hate-ukkah. I just thought a comparison would be interesting, especially since I got all of these cards for about a tenth of what I sold Bryce's card for.