Barry Bonds on Bryce Harper: “He is a beast. [But] he doesn’t compare to me yet.”

Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper is sitting on 99 career home runs. At 23 years and 177 days old, the defending NL MVP could become the eighth-youngest player to reach 100 career homers. Harper, the first overall pick in the 2010 draft, has had quite a good start to his career.

But Barry Bonds, baseball’s all-time home run leader, doesn’t think comparisons should be made between himself and Harper. Per MLB.com’s William Ladson:

“He is a beast. [But] he doesn’t compare to me yet. He has a long way to go [in order to be compared] to me. He is not even close to me. But he is one hell of a ballplayer. I watch him, I admire and I look at him and I’m in awe. You don’t see that often.”

To Harper’s credit, he responded to Bonds’ comments with praise. Via James Wagner of the Washington Post:

Bryce Harper on Barry Bonds, who had nice things to say about Harper: pic.twitter.com/3NxP5av2HV

— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) April 10, 2016

For what it’s worth, Harper has arguably had the better start to his career, at least offensively. To match Bonds, however, he’ll need to keep it up for another 18 years. A comparison:

	Age	PA	HR	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
Bonds	21-24	2388	84	117	.256	.345	.458	23.4
Harper	19-22	2143	97	37	.289	.384	.517	19.8

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