Phillies

Harper Watch 2019: Quasi-Omniscient Vegas Twitter Account Claims Deal with Phillies

By Russ Joy

Published: Jan 29th, 2019 · 9:40 AM EST

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You wanted Bryce Harper news?

We have… this:

Confirmed Report:
Bryce Harper has agreed to multi year mega contract with Philadelphia Phillies, source says deal was wrapped up pending medicals #Vegas has taken all Bryce Harper prop bets off the board

— Vegas Gambling Steam (@Pregame_Steam) January 29, 2019

Yeah. Really. I know, I know, what’s a random Vegas account got to do with the Phillies? It can’t be real, right? Well, that depends. This account nailed the news that LeBron James intended to leave the Miami Heat eight days before the national media:

*BREAKING* Miami Heat's star Lebron James has informed his agent he will not be returning to the Heat next year. Shocking stuff #NBA

— Vegas Gambling Steam (@Pregame_Steam) July 3, 2014

Not impressed? I figured as much. How about Gordon Hayward leaving the Jazz for the Celtics?

Breaking:
Source: Gordon Hayward has agreed to terms with Boston Celtics@wojespn @TheVertical @ramonashelburne @daldridgetnt #IBN

— Vegas Gambling Steam (@Pregame_Steam) July 4, 2017

This came four hours before ESPN announced the move.

Could it just be a situation where someone running the account played the percentages correctly twice before? Yeah.

There was also this:

Kind of mischaracterizing what I said there. Point is that every day something new pops up, but reporters need to verify it first.

— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) January 29, 2019

I neglected to say in my original tweet that @ToddZolecki said Machado could still be in picture. Comment about being “on guard” was in regard to fluid process of free agency and reports being put out there. Nothing known to be close re: Harper specifically.

— Matt Rappa (@mattrappasports) January 29, 2019

Okay. Kevin went through the audio from Zolecki’s WIP hit to get the quote:

“If they’re going to make an announcement today, it will be just as surprising to me as it will be to a lot of people. I think obviously working the story, following the story since the beginning of the offseason, not within the last 24 hours, but I was told from somebody that the Phillies and Harper, there’s no movement on that. But I will say this – I’ve also been getting text messages from people that say, ‘hey, you probably should be on guard, something could be coming.’ I think it’s a lot of people that kind of know but don’t really have good information…”

Here’s the full audio. The quote is part of his first answer.

This needs to end. Seriously. Scott Boras’ weight within the MLB community has allowed him to hijack two consecutive free agencies and it’s nothing less than infuriating as a fan. How bad has it gotten? We’re so starved for news that a Las Vegas-based Twitter account has the Delaware Valley and sports talk radio scampering to their keyboards and Bryce Harper shrines. I imagine Bob has one in his closet that looked like Helga Pataki’s for Arnold…