My dad gave me his old baseball cards when I was a kid. One of these was a Tony Conigliaro rookie card (actually two, one of which I traded away for several other good, but lesser cards from the late 80s). When thinking about Bryce Harper, one of his major comparables is Tony C. Which makes sense. Consider - both reached the big leagues at 19, and what did we see by the end of their age 20 season?
Conigliaro: 249 games - .278/.348/.520, 56 Homers and an OPS+ of approx 135*
Harper: 257 games - .277/.353/.481, 42 Homers and an OPS+ of 125
With Harper there's less power -- which is odd considering most of the talk has been about his prolific power (but right field in Washington is a bit further out than left at Fenway too). And the other thing is by all accounts Conigliaro wasn't that great of a fielder - where as Harper fields and throws with reckless abandon.
Maybe a bit too much. Injuries are rough.
Tony C's career was cut short due to a terrible injury. I hope Harper's drive and determination don't make them parallel long term.
(* I don't have the ability to recompute Conigliaro's OPS+, but as it was 133 and 137, 135 is a good approximation)
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