Baseball is one of America’s greatest pastimes and for good reason. The sport is storied going all the way back to the 1800’s and it’s largely filled with no-nonsense non-prima donna players like athletes in the other major sports.
But most MLB players get paid a lot of money and teams can afford to overpay because there is no cap, which means even marginal players can get those massive contracts.
But many anonymous players voted this MLB star as the most overrated in a poll from The Athletic.
Harper had a great year in 2015 when he went on to win the National League Most Valuable Player award where he hit 42 home runs.
But he has failed to live up to expectations since that year when he’s practically been above average – a far cry since many baseball analysts predicted he would become the “LeBron James of baseball” when he first entered the Majors.
The Athletic just put a poll out for anonymous players to vote for the most overrated player in the league and this is Harper’s second consecutive year in a row landing that title amongst his colleagues.
What’s even worse is that he won that title by a shocking 62-percent of players who responded to the poll. Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman finished in 2nd place with 4.1-percent. Think about that; 2nd place was a near 58-percent margin. That’s unbelievable.
Transversely, Mike Trout was voted by 40.2-percent of respondents to be the most intimidating hitter in the game.
Harper is a polarizing figure and although his game hasn’t lived up to the hype, it seems that maybe some players are probably jealous. There is no doubt that Harper rubs people the wrong way too and its been rather easy to vilify him.
Also, Opening Day did not go as planned and even Philadelphia Phillies fans might already be over him.
Harper grounded out to first base on his first at-bat and struck out on his second. That’s when it was reported that many fans booed him.
USA Today asked him if he had any comment on the poll and Harper simply responded, “I don’t really know what to say. I mean, I have no answer. I have no idea.”
Last year, he earned only 48.6-percent of the most overrated vote. His enormous contract might have a lot to do with the spike in percentage and why it would make sense that other players would be envy of a player they all think is the most overrated.
The pressure on Harper is on. Will he live up to the expectations and get out of this rut? We have 13 years to find out.