Congratulations to Bryce Harper, who has taken home a prestigious award for the second year in a row! No, it’s not NL MVP, a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger award, or even an All-Star selection. It’s the honor of being voted most overrated player in MLB by his peers for the second straight year.
ESPN the Magazine polled 117 anonymous players, and 41 percent named Harper as the most overrated player in the game. Dodgers OF Yasiel Puig was second again, taking home 15 percent of the votes. The two were 1-2 in last year’s vote too, though the competition was much closer; Harper got 24 percent compared to 21 percent for Puig last year.
Though there was some anti-Harper sentiment among the players polled, 30 percent picked the Washington Nationals to win the World Series. Clearly there is a lot of respect for the organization and some of the offseason moves they made, such as signing Max Scherzer.
Oh, and remember all those debates about who the better player is between Harper and Mike Trout? Trout was voted the best player in the game with an overwhelming 61 percent. Looks like that conversation is over, at least for now.
Though Harper led this poll, we don’t think it’s an indication of his ability. Really this just shows us what we already knew: Harper is disliked by so many people (for many good reasons). The only reason he hasn’t lived up to his billing is because of injuries. The guy is awesome and will show it once he plays 162 games, which could be this season.
H/T Washington Post
