[cspen]

Bryce Harper signed a big free agent deal with the Phillies because he didn't feel the National's offer was good enough. Not enough money or years. Washington is in the playoffs while Harper and the Phillies go home after the season ends to watch the playoffs on tv.

[Simpleton]

Bryce Harper signed a big free agent deal with the Phillies because he didn't feel the National's offer was good enough. Not enough money or years. Washington is in the playoffs while Harper and the Phillies go home after the season ends to watch the playoffs on tv.

Harper is laughing all the way to the bank lol.

[rjcj2017]

Baseball is not a team sport.

Players can be great while their teams are not.

See Trout, Mike for more on this.

In Harper's case, eh, I think the hype has outdistanced the production for the majority of the time he's been a major leaguer.

Don't get me wrong, I like to watch him play and collect his cards, but any individual player only gets to hit 3-4 times per game and may not even get to hit in the bottom of the ninth.

He could hit four homers and the team still lose 5-4.

So in that sense, no individual player actually has that much impact on a team either way.

[cspen]

I agree with everything you guys are saying but it tells me that the players don't really care about anything but money, not winning a championship. I know the Phillies could make the playoff for the rest of Harper's contract but they may also not.

[kerryandbeth]

I was watching ESPN early in the season and after 3 games they said that Harper expects the Phillies to have their best record ever in 2019. I cannot tell you more than 3 guys in the lineup!

So, he did care about winning...but he was seriously misled about the team's ability.

[cspen]

I would think with all the money they owe Harper that they may not have much money to build a team around him.

[rjcj2017]

To be clear, I think he is a very competitive player and cares about winning.

Though, you could make the argument that Harper had a better chance of winning by staying in Washington with Strasburg, Rendon, Turner, Soto, Scherzer, etc.

Baseball is just a game by nature that doesn't allow its stars to truly affect the outcome of a game.

Case in point ... Michael Jordan would take 95 percent of the potential game winning shots for the Bulls unless he passed to a more open teammate at the end of the game.

But, he had the ball in his hands to make the decision.

Harper can't hit a game winning home run if he doesn't even come to the plate in the ninth.

[jbissell]

I dont know. On paper, it seems like the Phillies have a pretty good team. If Maikel Franco, Scott Kingery, and Rhys Hoskins can get it together consistently, they might have a small window of contention. Realmuto is already a pretty darn good Catcher. The problem is that the windows of contention for Atlanta and Washington are already wide open.

[zeprock]

Harper is laughing all the way to the bank lol.

+1