Brandon Crawford is Better Than You Think: Why Bryce Harper Is Not King of the Prospect Universe

Washington National's Bryce Harper was sent to play in the Arizona Fall League for the Scottsdale Scorpions, along with other prospects from the National's, Angel's, Giant's, Red Sox's, and Philles' organazations. From the way people have talked about him, you would think he is a Willie Mays on a team full of Eli Whitesides.

Bryce Harper, looking like he's king of the world.

The Scorpions had some other major prospects on their team as well, including (but not limited to) Angel's Mike Trout and Giant's Gary Brown. There was also a certain Giant's shortstop on the Scorpions that was deprived of playing time in the majors this season. This would be Brandon Crawford. Brandon Crawford came straight from A League to the Major Leagues in the wake of the Buster Posey accident. He started his career off with a bang by hitting a grand slam for his first major league hit. He wasn't played as often as he should have been because he wasn't the best hitter, but he got on base and had absolutely stellar defense. The Giants sent him to the Arizona Fall League to see how he would do hitting there, and then decide how they would use him for the 2012 season. This is how the batting averages for Crawford and Harper rounded out:

Brandon Crawford- 63 ABS/.317 AVG

Bryce Harper- 70 ABS/.314 AVG

Who ended up having the better average? That would be Brandon Crawford, not Bryce Harper. There was also a prospect for the Pirates, Robbie Grossman, who had 100 at-bats, and hit a whopping .370. But yet MLB Network wants to talk about how Bryce Harper has been tearing it up in the Fall League, while nobody talks about Grossman or any of the other twenty-five players who had a better batting average than Harper. In fact, Grossman even  had more home runs than Harper. Harper tends to draw more attention and hype than other prospects, not so much for his ability, but for what people think his ability is. Being a first round draft pick causes the media to follow him more than other prospects, and Harper also has a bit of a 'tude. He argues with umpires and shows up opposing pitchers, which attracts the media. He gets just as much coverage for his "talent" as he does his attitude. While he may become a good baseball player in the future, he is not currently making history whatsoever. There are plenty of other prospects out there who are playing better than he is, and baseball needs to give them some credit, too. Brandon Crawford is one of those people, and the Giants can give him his credit by handing him the starting job on Opening Day.

Let Brandon play!