so they still get drafted out of high school by team X and their rights are owned for "Y" number of years (for life?) but if they go to college they just don't take any money till they quit after their junior year or graduate, got it

No. Teams hold a player's rights for a few months. If they don't sign by then, they have to re-enter the draft or they become free agents (very rare).

What's Harper's ceiling in the majors? Being a hitter like Pujols? Or is that way too unrealistic?

He's one of, if not the best hitting prospect ever. Most scouts don't believe he'll ever be a really high average guy, but his power is absolutely off the charts, and he has a solid eye at a ridiculously young age. I don't think he'll ever hit for the average Pujols hits for, but he's going to hit pretty well, with huge power, and high OBP. Plus he's really athletic for his size and might be a plus defender for a while too.

adam dunn with a couple more years than dunn had to try to round out his game more than big donkey's

loooooooooooooooooooool

his ceiling is lebron james

you don't think so? maybe you underestimate the couple or three more years

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...ic_id=26016984

well maybe but

i agree with this. and best hitting prospect ever (potentially...probably) does not ever = an adam comparison imo. though i did just look at dunn's #'s and his 04-08 peak was a lot better than i remembered, so mebbe it isn't too far off.

i was thinking about this earlier today though when discussing labron with a friend and i thought of all the athletes in my lifetime that i can remember being hyped up from such an early age, with so much exposure, and all i came up with is labron, sid the kid, and now harper. these guys garner the attention for a reason and both are now the best players in their respective leagues (at least last time i checked into the nhl this seemed to be the opinion, could be off tho). i think harper's ceiling is incredibly incredibly high. can't think of a good comparison though. prob not pujolsian but pujols is one of the goat so i mean...

I dont think hes the best prospect ever (I think Trout>Harper), but he prob would be if he stayed at catcher

Anyway hes supposed to have the biggest raw power aside from Mike Stanton and should be an above average contact hitter, is a good runner and has a great arm/good defender in RF.

Nats are pretty stupid for not at least letting him try catching. If he's as good as advertised, he could put up Mauer-like value.

I did say "hitting prospect", and I definitely think Harper > Trout as a hitting prospect. I'm a huge Trout fan boy too, and he's going to be excellent, but a lot of his awesomeness will come from base running and plus plus defense.

The thing about Harper though is that for someone who has been watched as closely as he has, there's still some unknown because he's doing so much at such a young age. The kid isn't even going to be 20 until the postseason starts this year. He could easily end up being 6-3, 260, being moved to 1B earlier than we think and just mashing from the plate. Or he could stay at 225, and steal 25 bases a year and playing what will likely be pretty damn good defense. Nobody really knows.

However, at least IMO(which is based off other peoples opinions lol) it seems to me like Harper probably has the highest hitting upside of any player in this generation. If you wanted to talk about his absolute ceiling, he's the one guy currently out there who has the potential to put up Bonds like numbers if absolutely everything worked out properly.

What if he puts up Mauer-like knee problems?!!!

Yea isnt that, like, the whole reason they moved him?