Gästeforum » we should automatically grant him the keys to the kin

Youve heard of counting your chickens before they hatch? Well, putting Bryce Harper anywhere near the top 100 -- let alone at No. 85 -- is counting your chickens before the eggs are even laid.Look, I get it. Harpers potential is huge. His ceiling is higher than the one in Yao Mings bedroom. Last year, as a 22-year old, Harper put up one of the greatest offensive seasons for a player his age. Im not going to regurgitate the numbers for you here because by now youve heard them plenty and seen them plenty. Suffice it to say, when you become the youngest unanimous MVP in the history of baseball, youve done OK.But just because a guy has one good year at the office (OK, one really, really good year) doesnt mean hes going to keep doing it over and over again. Sure, if you look at the roster of players who won MVPs at a young age, youll see lots of legendary names -- guys like Johnny Bench, Stan Musial, Cal Ripken, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. As youd expect, every one of those greats cracked the top 100, and with plenty of breathing room. But that same list of precocious players also contains names such as Don Mattingly and Fred Lynn, both very good players in their own right, but neither of whom even sniffed our rankings because their flames didnt burn eternal -- they werent good enough for long enough.I know what youre thinking (and by you, I mean our top-100 polling posse): Mattingly and Lynn werent blue-chip prospects like Harper. Donnie Baseball was a 19th-rounder. And although Lynn was a second-rounder, its still not the same thing as being the top overall pick, which Harper was in 2010. Combine the prime pedigree with the historic 2015 season, and presto, youve got a legend in the making. Or so it seemed.(Sound of needle scratching on record.)In case you havent noticed, the legend of Harper isnt going according to plan in 2016. Oh, he started the season well enough in defense of his MVP crown. Sure, you could argue that he didnt deserve to be named National League Player of the Month for April (see: Arenado, Nolan). But you cant argue that Harper -- with his 9 home runs, 24 RBIs and 1.120 OPS during that first month -- didnt come out of the gate mashing. But that was then, and this is now.Since April 27, Harper is hitting just .231 with a .378 slugging percentage. His average ranks 149th out of 159 qualified major leaguers over that time, and his slugging ranks 130th. Even when Harper isnt getting hits, his prolific plate discipline -- he set a franchise record with 124 walks last season and walked 45 times in his first 39 games this year -- has a huge impact on the game. But since May 19, he has drawn a relatively human 27 free passes in 50 games. During that time, his .347 on-base percentage puts him firmly in the middle of the pack (38th out of 82 NL players).On one hand, maybe its just a slump. A really extended, nearly half-season slump thats about to end. Maybe Harpers on the verge of busting out and going on a tear that will have his average north of .300 come October, and well all look back and say, See, we knew it was just a matter of time.On the other hand, maybe what were seeing this year is the real Bryce Harper. Maybe the .270-something that he hit in each of his first three seasons is more like the rule, and last years video game numbers were the exception. If thats the case, then the slash line were seeing offensively from Harper in 2016 (.252/.394/.477) is roughly equivalent to what we can expect in the years to come. For the record, its also roughly equivalent to what?Joey Votto?is doing this season. And with all due respect to Votto -- who, like Harper, is a former MVP -- his name doesnt appear anywhere on our top-100 list.Just because Harper put up one monster year doesnt mean we should automatically grant him the keys to the kingdom. Slow your roll. Let him do it a few more times before we exalt him to top 100 in the history of a sport that has been in existence for nearly two centuries status.After all, hes still only 23 years old -- well within the parameters of whats known in the poultry biz as a spring chicken. Its way too early to start counting him. Blake Jackson Jersey .J. Ellis hit two-run homers and the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 4-0 Saturday night. Drew Stanton Jersey . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. http://www.cheapbrownsjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-drew-forbes-jersey . After Gasquet beat fifth-seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia 7-5, 6-3, Tsonga followed up with a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2 win against sixth-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin in an all-French match. Robert Jackson Jersey .C. United of Major League Soccer. United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft. Jermaine Whitehead Jersey . Howard Ganz, an MLB lawyer, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos that Rodriguezs claims do not come "remotely close" to what is needed to overturn an arbitration decision in federal court. CHICAGO -- Miguel Montero waited for five hours before he got a chance to play. And then he had to face a crafty left-hander with the bases loaded.One soft liner made it all worth it.Montero hit a game-ending RBI single in the 13th inning, and the Chicago Cubs rallied for a wild 8-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.Its a winning team, winning attitude, Montero said. Thats (what) its all about. We never quit. We know we can come back anytime. Weve done it all season long, and we did it again today.Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo set the stage for Monteros clutch swing with consecutive singles against Jeff Locke (9-8), plating the tying run. After Ben Zobrist was walked intentionally, Montero dumped a 1-2 pitch into left for a big pinch-hit single.The major league-leading Cubs (83-47) dropped two of three in Los Angeles over the weekend, and then their flight to Chicago was delayed. They arrived early Monday morning, and still had enough in reserve to outlast the scrappy Pirates.They had to be tired today, but nevertheless played `til post-midnight with energy, manager Joe Maddon said, and I love it.Rob Zastryzny (1-0) got his first major league win despite allowing Josh Harrisons sacrifice fly in the top half of the inning. Jorge Soler and Willson Contreras homered for the Cubs, and Javier Baez collected four hits.Pittsburgh had won eight straight road games. It fell 1 1/2 games back of St. Louis for the second NL wild card.Nothing to hang our heads about, Harrison said. We went out there and gave it everything we had. We got contributions from a lot of different people. We just came up short.Gregory Polanco and Josh Bell helped the Pirates build a 6-3 lead with opposite-field homers against Jake Arrieta, but Contreras belted a two-run shot to center against Neftali Feliz in the eighth and Soler connected for a tying solo shot in the ninth against closer Tony Watson.Baez was thrown out at the plate to end the 10th and 12th innings. Catcher Francisco Cervelli made a nice lunging tag to get Baez on Rizzos inning-ending double play in the 10th, and then corralled left fielder Starling Martes outstanding throw in time to get Baez in the 12th.Youve got to do everything perfectly and in our case it was done, twice, Locke said.Rizzo, one of the leading candidates for NL MVP, also struck out with runners on the corners for the final out of the eighth.dddddddddddd But his single in the 13th drove in Fowler with the tying run.Bells one-out shot to left in the fourth was Pittsburghs first hit of the game. With two outs and runners on first and second in the sixth, Polanco drove Arrietas first pitch over the wall in left for a 4-3 Pittsburgh lead.Polanco also hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the sixth inning of the Pirates 3-1 win at Milwaukee on Sunday. He was batting just .138 (4 for 29) against Arrieta before his team-best 21st homer.Arrieta was charged with six runs -- matching a season high, also against Pittsburgh on July 8 -- and five hits in 6 1/3 innings. The ace right-hander went 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in his first four August starts, recalling his dominant second-half run to the NL Cy Young Award a year ago.I didnt pitch as well as I would have liked, he said. Obviously the two homers were kind of the dagger for me.ON SEPTEMBERActive major league r