Bryce Harper: “giraffes are so legit!”

By Craig CalcaterraMar 14, 2014, 4:23 PM EDT
34 Comments

Every time I write or tweet about Bryce Harper I get a lot of people responding negatively. They hate him for some reason. Or at least he annoys them. I’m not sure how this can annoy anyone:

 

Before you say anything, yes, it’s a slow news day.  In other news, my friend Jeff Snider is the person who apprised me of this tweet. Here’s how our conversation about it went:

Jeff:  You follow Bryce Harper on Twitter?  Big news in this one:https://twitter.com/Bharper3407/status/444542359603531776
 me:  Bulls**t. Giraffes are frauds, man.
 Jeff:  Clown opinion, bro. SO legit.
 me:  Agree to disagree here, dude.
er, bro
 Jeff:  Yeah, dude is much more for dudes our age.
 me:  I know. I gotta keep it real. (do people still say “keep it real?”)
So, really, if you’re going to hate someone, hate people like us. We’re awful. Don’t hate Bryce Harper.

Rangers don’t plan to make qualifying offer to Adrián Beltré

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
By Bill BaerOct 22, 2018, 9:07 PM EDT
1 Comment

Rangers GM Jon Daniels said he doesn’t expect the club to make a $17.9 million qualifying offer to free agent third baseman Adrián Beltré, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports. Daniels has been in touch with the 39-year-old, who may retire.

Beltré battled hip and hamstring issues throughout the past season, limiting him to 119 games. He hit .273/.328/.434 with 15 home runs and 65 RBI in 481 plate appearances. Going by adjusted OPS, his mark of 98 — 100 is average — was his lowest in a season since 2009 with the Mariners. Beltré’s career average is 116 and he put up a 132 in 2017 and 128 in ’16.

Beltré appears to have some stuff left in the tank. He may not be an All-Star-caliber player anymore, but he can still hit at an average level and he is still an above-average defender. It’s just a matter of his body holding up to allow him to do what he needs to do. If Beltré does decide to re-up with the Rangers for 2019, the club will be prepared to move Isiah Kiner-Falefa or Jurickson Profar over to the hot corner as they did in 2018 in the event Beltré gets bitten by the injury bug.