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Minor league free-agent 1B Brett Harper was invited to spring training by the Giants.
…from what i can gather, the Mets made an effort to bring harper back in to the fold, but the player chose to pursue other options, such as the Giants, who do not have Mike Carp and Carlos Delgado in the organization…i can’t say that i blame him…it’s a shame, though, he would have been a nice guy to have in the system during the next year or so…
The 26–year-old Harper was picked by the Mets in the 45th Round of the 2000 amateur draft, but missed nearly all of 2006 with a back injury.
In 131 games for Double-A Binghamton last season, Harper bounced back to hit .296 with 24 HR and 88 RBI, while striking out 119 times in 476 at-bats.
In a report for MiLB.com, Jonathan Mayo listed Harper as the Mets minor-league position player of the year.
…i sent MILB.com’s Jonathan Mayo an e-mail asking him about harper, and whether i should care that he’s with the Giants now, to which mayo told me…
“While no one should lose sleep over this loss, it is a little curious why the Mets didn’t bring him back. Maybe they tried and he felt he had a better chance to make it to the bigs with the Giants, given their weak 1B options. But all the Giants did was give him an invite to big-league camp. I hope the Mets had offered the same and Harper just decided the grass would be greener by the Bay…
“
I know Harper will turn 27 in late July, but keep in mind that he missed pretty much all of the 2006 season. Take his last two healthy years – ’07 and ’05 – and he hit a combined 60 homers in them…
“Will he ever be anything? Maybe not, but it might have been nice to have that kind of pop sitting in Triple-A in case Delgado falls apart.”
On March 1, Mayo, who is a Senior Writer for MLB.com, will release Facing Clemens, “A book that puts you right in the batter’s box against the The Rocket.”
For more, check out JonathanMayo.net.
I saw this the other day and I think this a huge loss for the Mets. They thought he had a bad attitude and kept him down too long. I would have left too if they had me in AA after puting up the numbers he did in 2005. Then he gets the injury and they prob. tell him he will be back there again?
I would not be surprised at all if he made the Giants team THIS season.
These are the little things that I talk about all the time that will come back against us.
Cubs just signed Lieber to 1 year deal…its down to Colon, Garcia, Lohse , Weaver, Livan.
Brett Harper is your classic Minor League Slugger who will never end up amounting to anything in the Majors. I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over this.
saw him some this past season,don’t lose ANY sleep!
Shouldn’t that ball on the cover of Mayo’s book be a chunk of a bat?
Yeah, Harper always confused me as of why he wasn’t with the club, and why he never got a shot in the majors. But then again, he fits into a long line of 1B’s in the Mets org that weren’t given a proper chance…one of which being Mike Jacobs (although they were smart to trade him). Craig Brazel and Justin Huber are two others that come to mind. I’m actually still annoyed that Huber got traded. He’s a little older at this point, and a liability at 1B, but he has a potent bat.
I thought Huber was a catcher?
Hopefully, this is a case where the Mets have more info than we do and they have a legit reason for not brining him back. Honestly, I don’t know much about him, but those are great numbers for AA.
Considering how bad the Giants are, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he makes the big-league club and actually gets to play.
I thought we still have Michel Abreu. He was 1b at AA or AAA 2 years ago with big power. Was very old for the league and a cuban player I think. He had visa issues keep him out of the US all year last yr but I think that is behind him now. I’ll refresh and revise after I go check on it now.
We have Abreu, as GWG mentioned above, as well as Mike Carp. If Carp looks halfway decent in ST, then I’d expect him to head to AAA. Starting the year at AA wouldn’t surprise me, but he’ll be in NO sooner rather than later.
1B?? Well, the Mets have Nick Evans and Lucas Duda deeper in the system and Carp higher up. Not a huge issue. It could be that he saw an opportunity, it could be that the Mets had other plans for the position, or both. Not a big deal. We wish him luck.