Bryce Harper Is Threatening Mike Trout's Spot as MLB's No. 1 Star

We're into year four of the "Bryce Harper vs. Mike Trout" debate. And to one extent, it's still as silly as it was in year one. Harper and Trout are two different players, and Trout's three-plus years of excellence have established him as clearly the more talented player of the two.

PLOT TWIST: But that doesn't mean Harper's star power can't eclipse Trout's. And in light of what's going on with Harper in 2015, you do get the sense that his star is creeping up on Trout's.

How can we be so sure? We can't, really. Maybe Neil deGrasse Tyson has a way to measure star power, but we don't. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall.

But if we had to pick a tangible measurement of some kind, All-Star voting works OK. And according to the latest updates from MLB.com, here's where our two heroes stand:

• Trout: 2,371,435 votes
• Harper: 2,323,186 votes

Now, the only reminder you need that All-Star voting isn't a perfect reflection of star power is the fact that Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez is MLB's leading vote-getter. Try too hard to figure that out, and you'll end up in the ER with a crippling migraine.

At any rate, no, Harper isn't attracting as many votes as Trout is. But they're both doing extremely well, and the gap between them is really small.

That couldn't be more of a departure from what things were like a year ago. This time in 2014, Trout was outpacing Harper in the All-Star voting by over 1.5 million votes. That, certainly, was a sign of the times.

Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

At the time, Trout was following two MVP-caliber seasons in 2012 and 2013 with a year that eventually would earn him the American League MVP. He was also front and center on a Los Angeles Angels team that would win 98 games. Hence the talk of him replacing Derek Jeter as the "Face of MLB."

Harper, by contrast, was not in a good place.

The young Washington Nationals slugger was in the middle of his second lengthy disabled list stint in as many years, and he ultimately finished 2014 with a career-low .768 OPS and 13 homers. By the end of the year, he owned an .816 OPS and 55 homers in three seasons. Pretty good stuff, considering that these were only Harper's age 19-21 seasons, but not what everyone was promised when Harper was being hailed as possibly the best prospect ever.

But that was then. This is now. And if you've been paying attention, you'll know things have changed.

To be sure, Harper's star isn't catching up to Trout's because Trout has slipped from his perch atop the ranks of MLB's superstars. He still holds that honor, and deservedly so.

Through 54 games, Trout finds himself batting .289 with a .932 OPS, 14 home runs and eight stolen bases. Factor in how the defensive metrics are once again liking his defense in center field, and Trout is having his best all-around season since his epic 2012 campaign.

In short: Yes, the 23-year-old Trout is still one of the best young players baseball has ever seen. And if you go back to just 2012, he's been the best player in baseball by a mile.

No need to tell Harper. He knows what the deal is, as he recently told ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick: "I still believe Trout is the best player in the game, hands down."

But another thing Harper told Crasnick is that baseball is a "What have you done for me lately?" enterprise. He was right about that, too. And more than anything, that explains why he's breathing down Trout's neck in All-Star voting.

Harper is having an insane season. Just insane. His overall numbers took a dive after an 0-for-3 performance Thursday night, but at the start of the day, he was leading or co-leading MLB in the following categories:

• OBP: .471
• SLUG: .718
• OPS: 1.189
• OPS+: 221
• HR: 18
• BB: 45
• R: 43
• WAR: 4.4

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Without question, Harper has been the most dominant player in the league. Especially in May, where his dominance was downright Bondsian with a .360 average, a 1.379 OPS and 13 dingers in 26 games.

Where all this is coming from has already been broken down in depth here, there and everywhere. The CliffsNotes version is that Harper has gotten a heck of a lot more patient and disciplined, and he's also using an approach that emphasizes good swings over hard swings.

Cue Matthew Kory of FanGraphs to sum it all up:

"

It's quite a combination when you put it all together. When you put it all together, it looks like what you'd picture it would look like if someone were to make a leap in approach, in power, in how to attack a pitcher, and in understanding of the strike zone all at once. Harper has had his hot streaks before, but they weren't typically this controlled.

"

Regardless of the specifics, what's for sure is this: It's been an absolute blast to watch Harper play baseball this season. Nobody's been as fun to watch as him. Not Trout. Not anybody.

Obviously, this helps explain why we're talking about Harper's star eclipsing Trout's. His "What have you done for me lately?" narrative rules all others, and the specifics of it point to a 22-year-old who's finally figuring out how to make the most of one of the best bundles of talent the sport has ever seen.

Never mind a rising star. Harper is becoming the star he was supposed to be, and that's a pretty damn big star.

But at the same time, every good cake needs some icing. In this case, the icing on the cake is that Harper is just plain more interesting than Trout.

Rob Carr/Getty Images

Saying Trout isn't interesting isn't meant to mock him. It's just the truth. He has a sort of "Aw shucks" personality, and he generally doesn't do high jinks or antics. Between the lines, he's dynamite. Outside the lines, he's pretty much baseball's answer to that neutral guy on Futurama.

But Harper? He's different. He's basically the Han Solo to Trout's Luke Skywalker.

Harper's personality runs off his swagger, of which he has much. And while that generally wasn't perceived as a redeeming quality before 2015, it's no accident that not a single voice has been raised against Harper's swagger this season. Where it made him seem too big for his britches before, his swagger fits him now. He's made the transition from jack-A to bad-A.

You don't necessarily have to root for guys like that, but you can't help but be fascinated by their every move. And in Harper's case, you also can't help but be fascinated by his every word. Unlike Trout and many, many, many other athletes, Harper can actually give a good quote.

That's because he oftentimes lets his swagger speak for him, such as when he explained his huge season by telling James Wagner of the Washington Post, “This is what I was like in high school and college."

But Harper can also do more than just let his swagger speak for him. He's also forthcoming with questions about the actual mechanics of baseball.

For example, anyone who ventures to read the latest from Eno Sarris of FanGraphs will find Harper has plenty to say about hitting. Underneath his swagger is a great baseball mind, and he's willing to be an open book with it. Thus, he can fascinate the hard-core baseball fan in addition to the casual baseball fan.

Of course, Harper doesn't need to actually say anything to attract headlines.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

You'll know as much if you recently got a bunch of notifications from Twitter, Facebook, Team Stream or whatever about a selfie that Harper took. Here's thinking he could generate similar notifications even while standing quietly in a white room somewhere, as you'd eventually be updated on his glorious hairdo, his bulging muscles or his warpaint-style eye black. His physicality has long since become an extension of his personality and turned him into a walking meme as a result.

All told, Harper is the perfect kind of star for the year 2015. The way in which he's making a mockery of the opposition pretty much every time he steps on the field demands attention, and the man behind the numbers demands attention too.

None of this means Harper has caught up to Trout as baseball's biggest star just yet. If the All-Star voting is any indication, a couple of months of dominance doesn't overrule three-plus years of dominance, even if the latter was compiled by one of the most vanilla personalities in recent memory.

But for the first time since we started having it, the Harper vs. Trout debate has gone beyond being just an easy time-waster and space-filler. As far as star power goes, it's actually a debate worth having now.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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