By Rob Neyer

– National Baseball Editor

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Dec 6, 2011 – The answer, of course, is that of course Jayson Werth is a center fielder. If Davey Johnson writes your name in the lineup, you’re a center fielder, too.

What we really want to know is whether or not Jayson Werth should be a center fielder. Because the Washington Nationals seem to be considering the possibility. Seriously considering it.

MLB.com’s Bill Ladson:

The Nationals are giving serious thought to moving Jayson Werth to center field in 2012, and he could be flanked by Bryce Harper in right.

Washington entered the offseason looking for a center fielder. The team continues to have interest in signing Cuban slugger Yoenis Cespedes or dealing for a player such as B.J. Upton of the Rays or Denard Span of the Twins.

–snip–

“We put Jayson out there [late last season] to find out if we had ourselves a center fielder in-house,” Rizzo said. “We felt he played quite well out there. It doesn’t really [force us] to trade for a center fielder, because we feel we have a center fielder in house already.

In Davey Johnson’s press conference Monday, he said, “I talked to Jayson last season. He loves center field.”

Hey, I love center field. John Fogerty loves center field.  Alexander Portnoy loved center field. That doesn’t mean any of should actually be playing center field in the furshlugginer Major Leagues of Baseball.

If you believe Ultimate Zone Rating, Jayson Werth used to be an outstanding right fielder. Like, off the charts. If you believe UZR, Werth might have been the best outfielder in the majors from 2002 through 2008, inning for inning.

Since 2008? Not so much. UZR’s got him as decent in 2009, subpar in 2010 and just fair in 2011. Add those three seasons together — which actually makes sense, with fielding stats — and we’re looking at a right fielder who should, all else being equal, probably start thinking about first base in three or four years.

Instead, he’s thinking about center field.

Hey, it could work. If moving Werth to center means getting Bryce Harper into the lineup, it’s probably worth doing. Hell, it’s inevitable since the Nationals sure as hell aren’t going to be trading Werth’s massive contract anytime soon. In fact, I will argue that shifting Werth to center field will fail only if his defense is so awful that it’s awfully noticeable. Which it probably won’t be.

Read More: Jayson Werth (RF – WAS), Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — There’s a video on the Internet of Bryce Harper.

Well, to be accurate, there are hundreds of thousands of videos of the most hyped power-hitting prospect in a generation. Some are favorable, others less so, but all chronicle nearly every move the Washington Nationals’ prized minor leaguer makes.

When it comes to being Bryce Harper – the 19-year-old most people seemingly love to hate, but love to watch play even more – a cellphone video camera is never far away.

The attention, director of player development Doug Harris said, is “significant.” Many people call him unspeakable things and hope for him to fail – perhaps because they’ve been watching him perform superhuman acts since before he was old enough to drive.

One talent evaluator watching the Arizona Fall League, where Harper is playing his second season, opined that he might be largely misunderstood – a player vilified for playing the game hard on every play in a time when that’s no longer the norm for every player. Even in the outfield, where he played exclusively this year for the first time, he rarely gets bored because “fans keep me in it and opposing bullpens keep me in it.”

But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t revel in it.

“I can’t say I don’t like the attention. I like it,” Harper said. “It comes with the territory. If people are talking about you, you must be good. If they weren’t talking about me, I’d be pretty [ticked] off.”

Awaiting his arrival

Ideally what they’ll be talking about next year is when the Nationals will be calling Harper up to the majors, though everyone in the organization declines to estimate when – if at all – it might happen.

He played 109 minor league games this season, 72 with Single-A Hagerstown and 37 with Double-A Harrisburg – all with the eyes of a franchise watching intently.

“I don’t really care what’s going on up in the big leagues,” Harper said, admitting if he did he might have to combat some frustrations that he wasn’t already there. “[I’m] in Harrisburg. [I’m] in Hagerstown. My head can’t be in Washington. It’s got to be in Hagerstown or Harrisburg. I keep my head out of that. I don’t really care. … Seeing those guys do good up there, I think that’s huge. We’ve got a lot of young talent coming up, [and] I’m excited to see what happens in the near future.”

How near, though, is the one question everyone wants answered.

“It would not surprise me if somehow he was in the big leagues next year at some point,” said Paul Menhart, the pitching coach for Single-A Potomac this past season and the Nationals’ representative on the Scottsdale Scorpions’ coaching staff. “He’s got all the tools that are necessary. He just needs the experience and the reps right now for the powers that be to really think that he’s ready. Right now, he’s well on his way.”

Room for improvement

So what’s left to get him there?

Story Continues ?

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© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Read More: Derek Norris (C – WAS), Rafael Martin (P – WAS), Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals season might have ended, but the Arizona Fall League is just firing up and the Scottsdale Scorpions roster has quite a few hot Nationals prospects on it to watch. The Scorpions will begin their defense of the AFL title Tuesday night against the Surprise Saguaros at 9:35 P.M. EST, but they will be doing it without the Nationals 2011 First Year Players Draft top pick, third baseman Anthony Rendon.

Rendon, once listed on the list of Nationals prospects that would be taking part in the AFL, will now stay behind in Viera, FL and continue in the instructional league while the Nationals send their 2011 third round pick left-hander Matt Purke at the conclusion of the instructional league. It is unknown at this time what the Nats plans are for the Rendon.

Rendon is said to have the best bat coming from the 2011 Draft and at one point it was said he was close to MLB ready. One has to wonder if the Nationals have just reevaluated or have seen something they don’t like and would like to season their prospect a little more.

Other Nationals prospects on the Scorpions include Bryce Harper, Derek Norris, Sammy Solis, Patrick Lehman, Zach Walters and Rafael Martin. This will be Harper’s second stint in the AFL and the first time he will journey through the League for a full season as last season he was put on the taxi squad.

The Washington Nationals set an attendance record on Saturday night in its home loss against the Philadelphia Phillies.

More than 44,000 fans packed Nationals Park in the Nation’s Capital in the second game of the three-game set. Unfortunately for Nationals followers, they were far outnumbered by the Phillies fanatics who traveled down I-95 to see their favorite team.

I guess the Nationals’ organization isn’t that concerned about it since a huge crowd brings in a lot of money, even if they are cheering against the home team. But for the Washington, D.C., sports fans who are very passionate about their teams, the sight of Phillies fans invading their home stadium can’t feel too great.

It’s not like this is Florida, where sports are a second-thought to partying on South Beach or visiting Disney World. This is Washington, one of the major cities in the sports-crazed Northeast. A city that follows the Redskins year in and year out despite the team not advancing to an NFC title game since 1992.

Yes, I know the Nationals have been pretty awful in their six-year existence. But you would think a passionate sports town like Washington would be able muster more than the Nationals’ average attendance of 24,000 per game this season.

I guess until hyped prospects Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper are regulars on the Nationals’ roster, the team will just have to rely on the Presidents mascot race and games against the Phillies to bring excitement to the ballpark.

Well even if they are rooting for two different teams, there is one thing Phillies and Nationals fans can agree on. Jayson Werth, who is currently batting .232 with 129 strikeouts in his first season with Washington, won’t be getting any standing ovations in the near future. 

This year, there was no Bryce Harper and no Stephen Strasburg. There was no No. 1 overall pick deemed once-in-a-generation waiting until the clock struck midnight to relent, get paid record sums and join the Washington Nationals.

But as the 2011 signing deadline for draft picks inched ever-closer the Nationals completed a coup of a different kind: perhaps the most impactful draft from start to finish in organizational history. In signing all of their top five picks in the 2011 draft, and 29 of their 51 selections, the Nationals took in an unparalleled haul.

Minutes before the midnight deadline, the Nationals locked up No. 6 overall pick Anthony Rendon to a four-year major league contract worth a total of $7.2 million — $6 million of it bonus money. They also signed No. 23 Alex Meyer to a $2 million deal, No. 34 Brian Goodwin for $3 million and No. 93 Matt Purke, once considered a first-overall selection, to a four-year major league deal worth roughly $4 million. No. 127 overall, Kylin Turnbull, agreed to a $325,000 deal about 2 ½ hours before the deadline.

All told, the Nationals spent an estimated $16.5 million on their top five selections in the draft.

“We’re the talk of the industry right now,” said Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo. “Before we signed these players, we had a minor league system that the needle was heading north in a big, big way. This just solidifies us, to me, as one of the great scouting and player development organizations in baseball. We feel really good about ourselves tonight.”

With good reason.

Draft experts were already crowing over the Nationals shrewd selection when they nabbed third baseman Rendon at No. 6 overall, where he fell to largely because of injury concern, and Meyer, a right-handed pitcher, in the first round. Those compliments only got more effusive when they tabbed outfielder Goodwin in the supplemental round and Purke, a left-hander, in the third round.

Even before the selection of Purke ESPN’s Keith Law and Jason A. Churchill called the Nationals top three selections an “unbelievable haul.” The ESPN experts also noted that, “if they get all four under contract, the Nationals will have one of the strongest classes on the draft.”

The Nationals locked up about $16. 2 million in the first four selections alone, including the first time Rizzo had ever doled out two major league deals in one draft, but it was worth it to Rizzo, vice president of player personnel Roy Clark and the Lerner family to make that commitment.

“This is my 27th year being involved with the draft and it’s the best draft I’ve ever been a part of,” Clark said. “As far as the number of impact players that we’re bringing into the system at once… I think this is a huge day in the franchise history of the Washington Nationals.”

“If you would have told me that we’d walk out of this thing and we signed everybody we wanted to sign, I would have doubted that it could have been done,” Rizzo said.

Rendon and Purke were injury concerns and their draft stock fell because of it, but the Nationals put both through a rigorous physical. Purke allowed the Nationals to give him an MRI-arthrogram on his left shoulder on a visit to Washington in July, as well as putting on two separate throwing sessions for them, and Rendon visiting with both Dr. Lewis Yocum and Nationals medical director Wiemi Douoguih to examine his right shoulder.

Rizzo met personally with both Purke and Rendon and felt the framework of a deal with Purke was in place once he departed from Houston, where he’d been negotiating with Purke’s representation, on Sunday morning. Rendon met with Rizzo and Mark Lerner in Los Angeles when the Nationals played the Dodgers. Both were deemed close enough to being major league-ready that the Nationals agreed to offer them big league deals. Rizzo did not meet with Meyer or Goodwin.

The Nationals have not shied away from spending big-time money on the draft, dropping nearly $14 million last year on four players: Bryce Harper, Sammy Solis, AJ Cole and Robbie Ray, the latter two later-round picks the Nationals signed for well over slot money. And this year was no different, a testament, Rizzo said, to the Lerner family’s commitment to bringing a winning team to Washington in the near future.

“I can’t stress enough that this ownership group has allowed me to be me — to be aggressive, go after these guys, get the best players available and worry about signing them later,” Rizzo said. “What they showed me in that room tonight, was, I can’t put into words. It was great stuff. You talk about the trust in a staff? They don’t talk about it, they show it. It was a huge night for us.”

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Baseball prodigy Bryce Harper is facing some scrutiny. He’s expected to be the franchise-saving superman at 18. He has drawn heat for some issues of his own making. He’s the only nationally known name in the low minors. Naturally, not one but two Washington Nationals executives drew a comparison with another baseball player who faced scrutiny, Jackie Robinson.

From Tom Verducci’s SI Piece.

“Jackie Robinson,” says Tony Tarasco, a former major leaguer and a Nationals minor league coordinator who has become Harper’s player-development Yoda. “You have to go back to Jackie Robinson to find anybody who goes through this much scrutiny. It wasn’t like this for [Stephen] Strasburg. Wasn’t like this for Alex Rodriguez.”

Jackie Robinson? Surely Doug Harris, the Nationals’ director of player development, with 21 years in pro ball as a player, scout and executive, would find a different comparable for Harper. Independent of Tarasco, Harris offered, “This is really unfair and it’s totally different, but if I can make a comparison to one guy that has been scrutinized like this, it would be Jackie Robinson. And it’s unfair because it was a different standard. He was under a microscope in an era when we didn’t have Internet, didn’t have cellphones.

“Now, Jackie Robinson had his life threatened. I’m not comparing Bryce to that. But as far as nonstop scrutiny? Absolutely. Day to day.”

Absolutely. Bryce Harper having a few baseballs thrown at him day to day, for being an immature dick, is surely analogous to Jackie Robinson facing the full brunt of America’s racism because of his skin color.

Consider the onslaught Bryce is under. Internet. Cell-phones. 24-hour media. Blogs! They didn’t even have ESPN when Robinson played. When Jackie wasn’t single-handedly confronting an actively hostile public, legalized segregation in the north and south and 300 years of history, he could really sit back and get some me time.

Bryce Harper chooses to isolate himself from his teammates. Many places Jackie Robinson went, the choice was made for him.

[Photo via Getty]

Read More: Ken Griffey Jr. (DH – SEA), Alex Rodriguez (3B – NYY), Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

Tonight, in Phoenix, the most talked about hitting prospect of the last decade will be showing off the skills that made him the top pick of the 2010 draft by the Washington Nationals. Bryce Harper will bat second and play left field for the U.S. team in the 2011 XM All-Stars Futures Game, giving the fans at Arizona’s Chase Field the chance to see the phenom who has already been promoted to Washington’s Class AA affiliate Harrisburg after tearing through the Low-A South Atlantic League while a member of the Hagerstown Suns.

Harper hit .318 in Hagerstown, with 14 home runs, 46 runs batted in, 19 steals and 44 walks. As has been noted many times before, Harper has tremendous power but also great plate discipline, and his speed makes him an asset on the base paths as well. It doesn’t hurt that he also has a cannon for an arm, and is showing improvement as he works to become a capable big league outfielder. Nationals fans can only hope the comparisons to Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez become reality for Harper.

Harper is not the only player representing the Nationals in the game. Right-hander Brad Peacock, now Harper’s teammate at Class AA Harrisburg, will pitch the second inning for the U.S. squad. Tony Beasley, the skipper at Harrisburg, is also at the game as a coach.

Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post will be live-blogging the Futures Game, and has mentioned Harper wasted no time showing off, crushing several batting practice home runs already.

Read More: Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

Washington Nationals phenom Bryce Harper made news on Monday night when he taunted a pitcher by blowing a kiss in his direction while rounding third base after hitting a home run. It set off a series of articles that brought the questions surrounding Harper’s maturity back into the spotlight. The Washington Nationals have taken this chance to address the issue.

ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that Harper’s entire team in Hagerstown was addressed about the incident, and it was used as a “teachable moment.”

Nationals source: Bryce Harper exchange used as a teachable moment for the whole Hagerstown team. It’s been talked about, matter closed.    

Nationals Director of Player Development Doug Harris confirmed the exchange and said the matter has been handled. Via Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.

Nats DOPD Doug Harris on Harper kiss: “It’s something we’re going to handle internally. For us, it’s a teaching moment.” He’ll play tonight.

Harris added that Harper is a “wonderful kid” and that everyone on the team should learn from that moment.   

By Rob Neyer

– National Baseball Editor

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Jun 7, 2011 – Three facts that will, with a little time and a modicum of writing skill, come together at some point in the next few minutes …

Fact #1 – Bryce Harper did not, after hitting a home run last night, “blow a kiss” at a pitcher.

Fact #2 – Stephen Strasburg, recovering from Tommy John Surgery, is throwing bullpen sessions, could pitch in the minor leagues in July, and might pitch in the majors in September.

Fact #3 – Just two weeks ago, Baseball America ranked Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon as the No. 1 talent available in the 2011 draft.

More facts? Really? You just can’t get enough of them? Okay.

At 18, Bryce Harper is not quite the youngest player in the South Atlantic League. He is the youngest player in the Sally League with 14 home runs, 42 RBI and a .342 batting average. What he did last night, after hitting his 14th homer, was offer the enemy pitcher a little long-distance smooch (video right here). Harper might not be the best of teammates, or people. He might be an arrested adolescent, and he might be locked in that state for a long while. He might also, in just two or three years, be one of the more destructive hitters on the planet.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Strasburg’s major-league debut, in which he struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in seven innings. Strasburg never enjoyed another game quite like that one. Before he got hurt, he did rack up 92 strikeouts in 68 innings. Exactly three pitchers in major-league history — Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Kerry Wood — have ever posted a higher strikeout rate in a season of at least 50 innings. Only one of those pitchers (Pedro) posted a better strikeout-to-walk ratio than Strasburg’s. He was, from the very moment he arrived in the majors, one of the most dominant pitchers anyone has ever seen.

Anthony Rendon likely fell to No. 6 in the draft because he spent most of this spring suffering from a shoulder injury that mostly limited him to DH duties. But according to John Sickels, “A healthy Rendon projects as an on-base machine with good power and excellent defensive ability at third base.” And considering that he’s an advanced college hitter, he might need just a year or so in the minor leagues before graduating to the big club.

And of course, the most important fact of them all: Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon are all percolating in the same Washington Nationals organization (or will be, if and when Rendon signs on the dotted line).

When it comes to young baseball players, there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Harper’s strikeouts or his immaturity might eat him alive. Strasburg might tear or rend something else; maybe humans just aren’t supposed to be that good. Maybe the five teams that didn’t draft Rendon were right about his shoulder, and he’ll never be the player he could have been.

But the Nationals have collected a trio of awesome talents. Which is all you can do, really. The rest is up to them, and the Fates.

Read More: Stephen Strasburg (P – WAS), Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

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The 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft starts tonight at 7, and you can catch it live on the MLB Network, if you have that already. The Nationals have a few early picks, and good opportunity to help themselves going forward.

Their first pick is the sixth overall. This is the first time in two years that the Nationals aren’t picking first overall, and it just so happens to be the first time in two years that a super prospect like Stephen Strasburg or Bryce Harper on the board, so that’s convenient.

Their next pick is later in the first round at 23, compensation for the Chicago White Sox signing Adam Dunn (retribution!). The Nationals can still get a real impact player here if they are willing to take a risk on a guy who might have some signability issues. They have shown in the past that signability isn’t an issue for them, and that they are willing to throw some cash at these young players. If they do it again, they could get a pretty good player here.

The Nationals also have the 34th overall pick in the Draft, which is also compensation for the Adam Dunn signing. That pick is part of what is known as the sandwich round pf picks that comes between rounds one and two. This is a round that is made up of completely compensatory picks. After that, the Nationals will have the sixth pick in every round from 2-50.

Read More: Ryan Zimmerman (3B – WAS), Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

The much-anticipated Hagerstown Suns game involving both Washington Nationals’ phenom Bryce Harper and superstar Ryan Zimmerman playing on a rehab assignment was not meant to be. In his first at-bat of the game, Harper was drilled in the leg by a pitch and had to leave the game.

Dave Nichols of Nationals News Network reports from Hagerstown.

Harper hit with the next pitch in the foot I think. Trying to walk it off but he’s limping hard and getting lifted. We think now it was higher than the foot, but hard to tell. Harper was in a good bit of pain but did limp off on his own power. 

It’s not clear how badly Harper is injured beyond this. Nichols reports that Harper is “walking gingerly” in the Hagerstown dugout. Harper has been on fire at Single-A Hagerstown thus far this season, with 13 home runs and 41 RBI in just 52 games played.

By Andrew Kinback

– Nationals editor

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May 12, 2011 – The Washington Nationals’ front office has always maintained one stance when talking about mega prospect Bryce Harper who currently is playing in Single-A ball with the Hagerstown Suns: Harper will move up in the system when he shows he is ready. That time might be nearing very soon, as Harper continues to absolutely shred the pitching being put in front of him in the South Atlantic League.

The 18-year old is currently hitting .396 with a .472 on-base percentage and a .712 slugging percentage. On Wednesday night, Harper went 4-for-5 with five RBIs against the Delmarva Shorebirds. He is also riding a 15-game hit streak and a 19-game on-base streak. He won the South Atlantic League Player of the Week last week. Put it all together, and you have a kid that is just cruising through the League and pasting any ball that is put in front of him.

The next logical step will be a call up, but when and where remains a mystery even to Hagerstown Manager Brian Daubach:

“That hasn’t even been discussed with me,” Daubach says. “But I’m sure Mike Rizzo (Nationals GM) and Doug Harris (director of player development) have a plan. They’ve just told us to keep working hard.”

Working hard, hitting hard and playing hard has never been much of a problem for Harper, and there isn’t any reason to think he won’t continue to do so no matter where he lands in the Nationals organization next.

Read More: Bryce Harper (CF – WAS), Washington Nationals

Bryce Harper’s stats suggest he may be ready for a promotion from Class A Hagerstown, but the Washington Nationals apparently aren’t yet going to elevate the first pick of the 2010 draft.

The Harrisburg Senators, the Nats’ Double-A club, open a four-game series against the Richmond Flying Squirrels tonight at The Diamond. There has been no indication that Harper, an 18-year-old power-hitting outfielder who is one of the game’s most heralded prospects in decades, will be among the Senators. Statistically, it seems the 6-foot-3 225-pounder is primed for a fresh challenge after about a month at Hagerstown.

For the South Atlantic League franchise, Harper is batting .377 in 30 games, with seven homers, 11 doubles, 25 RBIs and five stolen bases. From May 2-8, Harper went 12 for 24, and Tuesday he extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

“I do have a timeline (for Harper’s minor-league promotion),” Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said this week during his Washington radio show on 106.7 the Fan. “I’m not going to share it. …But we have an idea of what we’re doing and the time frame and the parameters that we’d like to see him get through, mileposts and that type of thing.”

Todd Parnell, the Squirrels’ vice president and COO, said he had heard nothing from the Nationals about Harper joining the Harrisburg club during this series. Parnell added that typically, he would not hear from another organization regarding plans to promote a player.

But in the case of Harper, Parnell said he probably would be informed in order for the Squirrels to prepare for more media, bring in more security and make other arrangements.

Parnell chose not to project how Harper’s presence might affect a Squirrels crowd, but said, “With the Nationals being so close … and I don’t think we’ve seen a phenom quite like Bryce Harper, as far as the hype and what everybody expects of him. This guy is bigger than Babe Ruth.”

If the Nationals promoted Harper one level at a time, he would next move to the Class A Potomac Nationals of the Carolina League. But based on his performance at Hagerstown, he could jump to Double-A Harrisburg.

Following this series, Harrisburg visits The Diamond on June 27-29, July 8-11 and July 21-24.

---

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(804) 649-6233

The Washington Nationals’ rookie plays his first game tonight for the Single-A Hagerstown Suns. Why all baseball fans should be excited.

If you are a Yankees fan, you might not care about Bryce Harper.

When you root for a winning baseball team, you don’t have to care about a rookie catcher-turned-outfielder who will take his first regular season professional swings this week for the Single-A Hagerstown Suns. If you are lucky enough to follow the Yankees, Phillies, Giants, Red Sox, Rangers, or any other successful team, you get to spend all summer thinking about a pennant race.

If you are a fan of a bad team, however, you don’t get that luxury. If you love a team like the Pirates, Orioles, or Nationals—who made Bryce Harper the first overall pick in the 2010 amateur draft—you need to find other ways of enjoying the sport.

Like sitting in the sunshine, for instance. Fans of bad baseball teams are quick to point out that simply being at the ballpark is a big part of the game’s appeal. Which it is. Baseball, with its manicured, perfected version of nature, is our national monument to Jefferson’s pastoral dream. Romantic pastoralism, however, can only take a fan so far. Especially when it costs ten bucks to park. We’re drawn to baseball because we love a good story. And the taut, fitful game in which we have invested so much of the national soul is perhaps the country’s greatest venue for telling stories to ourselves, about ourselves—be they stories of teamwork and sportsmanship, segregation and civil rights, or tacitly communicating the right way for an American to walk.

The most important story baseball tells, though, isn’t nationalistic, but universal. Ultimately, the greatest gift the game can give—the greatest gift that any game can give, really—is hope. Hope is why Bryce Harper matters to baseball fans, no matter where their favorite team sits in the standings. Hope is why the Nationals made the left-handed hitter their first pick, and it’s why fans around the country will pay attention when this 18-year-old plays his first game for the Suns tonight.

Harper, you see, isn’t just a prospect. He’s a phenom, and phenoms tell us perhaps the most hopeful story humans can hear. They tell us that we, as a species, are getting better.

Athletes are the literal embodiment of human evolution—forever going higher, farther, faster. Usually, however, that process is barely perceptible, moving by fractions of an inch or tenths of a second. The truly exceptional athlete, though, makes a quantum leap. Superior athletes don’t just improve records, they shatter them. Like Tiger Woods winning the Masters by 12 strokes, Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game, or Babe Ruth hitting 54 homers when no one had even hit 30. Athletes like that don’t merely win. They change how the game is played. In so doing, in transcending the limits of their sport, they show us that it’s possible to transcend the circumstances of our own lives.

Bryce Harper, there’s no question, has the mark of greatness.

In 2008, playing for a team in his native Las Vegas, Harper hit a home-run that his coaches measured at 570 feet. The deepest field in the Major Leagues, by comparison, is Houston’s Minute Maid Park, with a center field wall 436 feet from home. The longest verifiable home run of all-time, hit by Babe Ruth in Detroit, measured about 575 feet.

Harper was a high school freshman at the time.

In 2009, he was at the Tampa Bay Rays’ home, Tropicana Field. Hitting in a showcase event for young players, Harper drove a shot to right that smacked off the stadium’s back wall. They called that one 502 feet—the longest ball ever hit at Tropicana Field. In 13 years of Major League Baseball at the Trop, no one had ever hit the back wall—not Manny Ramirez, not Jim Thome, or a juiced-up Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi. Check out the video of Harper’s swings, and listen to the PA announcer go absolutely bonkers when he realizes what he’s seeing.

But, you might object, Harper was using an aluminum bat, which can increase a ball’s distance by five or ten percent. True. But he was also still just 17.

Harper’s sophomore season in Las Vegas, he hit an unheard-of .626. Sports Illustrated put him on the cover. ESPN’s E60 news magazine show did a segment on him. He left high school two years early, getting his GED, and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, making himself eligible for baseball’s June 2010 amateur draft. At CSC, where they use wooden bats like the pros—he promptly hit .443, with 98 RBI and an incredible 31 home runs over 66 games.

Need more?

In the district finals of the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series, Harper hit for the cycle. The next day was a doubleheader. In the opener, he went 2-for-5. Not satisfied with .400, Harper went 6-for-6 in the nightcap. Four of those six hits were home runs.

As expected, the Nationals made Harper the first pick of last year’s draft on June 7, and he signed a five-year deal worth $9.9 million. After batting .319 in the Nats’ fall instructional league, then .389 in 2011 Spring Training games, Harper was optioned to Class-A Hagerstown. Now a hulking 6’3”, 225 pounds, he could make his major league debut as soon as September, becoming the first 18-year old to play in the bigs since Alex Rodriguez made his Mariners debut in 1994.

Harper’s swing is certainly mesmerizing. The bat held high, front leg poised, hands back and loose, a wrist break so fast and smooth it’s over before you can see it start. No wonder that his coaches get a misty, faraway look in the eye when they talk about him. But every fan has seen plenty of Next Big Things become also-rans. Can Harper go from phenom to phenomenal?

ESPN’s David Schoenfield looked at every hitter who ranked in the top five of Baseball America’s prospects since 1990. About 80 percent have put together decent big league careers. Several turned out to be All-Stars. One, A-Rod, will go to the Hall of Fame. Of the 20 percent that can be legitimately be called flops, barring injury, there one overriding reason they fail: strike-outs.

At the high school, college and minors league level, most of the pitchers are mostly throwing fastballs. In the bigs, as Crash Davis famously said, they throw “ungodly breaking stuff” and “exploding sliders.” They also throw curves that go right-to-left, or left-to-right, and nasty off-speed stuff with backwards rotation that come out of a pitcher’s hand looking like a 100 mph fastball, then seem to fall off a table midway to the plate.

Being successful as a big league hitter ultimately isn’t an issue of physical strength—of great bat speed, eye-hand coordination, and reflexes—even though all those things are necessary to succeed. Intellect also plays a role. Harper will have to perpetually study pitchers, looking for tendencies and potential weakness. He will also have to control his sometimes fiery temper, and learn to deal with the inevitable failures coming his way. But greatness demands something more—some ineffable sixth sense—for drama, and for what the pitcher will throw next. The only way to know if Harper has that magic quality is to wait and see. One day, the country will see a player so good he will change baseball the way Tiger changed golf, Wilt changed the NBA, and Babe Ruth changed baseball. Bryce Harper looks like he might be that player. As fans, we can only hope.

April 5, 2011 – South Atlantic League (SAL) Rome Braves

Rome, GA – Washington Nationals top draft pick Bryce Harper will begin his professional career on Thursday night against the Rome Braves. Rome’s home opener begins at 7pm.

The Washington Nationals officially inked 17 year old Harper, a high school player, last August. The team, agreed to sign him for 9.9 million dollars. This is a rookie record for any position player besides a pitcher. Stephen Strasburg, also with Washington, holds the current record for a signed rookie.

The Braves play the Suns through Sunday before the Augusta GreenJackets come to Rome for a four game series.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

The Washington Nationals gave Jayson Werth $126 million to bat . . . second? Why pay a guy middle-of-the-order money and not hit him in the middle of the order? It’s actually a smart move by manager Jim Riggleman and the Nats.

Werth never has been the focal part of a lineup and doesn’t have the personality for that kind of spotlight. He hit .186 with runners in scoring position last year and is a .260 hitter in those run-producing spots — worse than his overall average of .272.

The Nationals clearly overpaid to get Werth, but that doesn’t mean they’re obligated to hit him third or fourth when he’s not that kind of a hitter. So give Washington credit for knowing his limitations, regardless of how well it pays him. Werth never was intended to be that kind of franchise hitter, anyway, but will look better in the Washington lineup when the Nats do add one or two such bats (an elite free agent such as Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols and uber-prospect Bryce Harper).

Meanwhile, if Opening Day is an indication, the Nationals could be looking at a slow start. Against Atlanta righthander Derek Lowe, four of Washington’s first five hitters (and five of the eight position players overall) were righthanded, and the Nats came up with nothing in a 2-0 loss. The Nats figure to open against six straight righthanded starters and eight in their first nine games — and then they get the Philadelphia rotation.

That schedule puts tremendous pressure on Adam LaRoche, who represents their only true lefthanded power threat. And LaRoche is a notoriously awful starter (.211 career in April).

Bryce Harper . . . please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Braves look good, for openers

Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez moved Jason Heyward from the second slot to sixth — which will cost Heyward about 72 fewer plate appearances this year, all to get Nate McLouth to the plate more. Hmm. The move looked good for one day, anyway, when Heyward hit his second Opening Day homer in as many big league seasons.

The Phillies already knew the Braves were a legit contender. (You can make a case that San Francisco never gets out of the first round last year if Martin Prado is healthy for Atlanta.) But that Opening Day win showed the Braves at their best look as good as anybody in the league.

Lowe showed his September run was no fluke. At 37, and thanks to the slider he embraced late last season, Lowe has become a strikeout pitcher — a most unusual late-career metamorphosis. After averaging 5.9 strikeouts per nine innings last season entering September, Lowe is averaging 8.7 SO/9 and is 6-0 with a 0.99 ERA in his past six starts. In other words, he is ace in every sense of the word but velocity.

Moreover, Prado looks comfortable in leftfield, Chipper Jones looks healthy and that Braves bullpen (Peter Moylan, Johnny Venters, Craig Kimbrel) has flat-out filthy stuff. Gonzalez made a big commitment to Kimbrel by giving him the ninth inning behind Venters even though two of the first three hitters were lefthanded. Kimbrel buzzed through a perfect inning with two punchouts. That reinforced Gonzalez’s notion that Kimbrel can be the primary closer whether the hitters due up are lefthanded or righthanded.

More thoughts from Opening Day

Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers looked almost unhittable against the Giants, particularly with the downward bite on his breaking ball. With nine punchouts, Kershaw tied the Los Angeles Dodgers record for strikeouts by a lefty on Opening Day (Fernando Valenzuela, 1986). Only one Los Angeles pitcher ever fanned more than Kershaw in the first game of the season: Don Drysdale had 14 in 1960 — while throwing 164 pitches in an 11-inning complete game. And keep this in mind as you wait for Stephen Strasburg to be The Next Big Thing: Kershaw, 23, is only four months older than Strasburg — and already has 506 career strikeouts.

• Most impressive display of the day? Ryan Braun of Milwaukee hit a 440-foot homer in the fifth in Cincinnati, then in his next at-bat busted out of the box on a routine single to left, allowing him to hustle into second when leftfielder Johnny Gomes bobbled the ball. Braun’s hustle created a run. Now that’s a ballplayer.

• Did you see the Dodgers snap a 0-0 tie in the sixth when Giants catcher Buster Posey airmailed a throw to third on a ball he blocked in the dirt? Watch home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom on the replay. He raises his left hand to call time and is reaching into his pocket with his right for another baseball — before Posey throws to third. Now that’s taking pace-of-game edicts too far. The Giants did not argue the play should have been dead.

• That left side of the San Francisco infield (Miguel Tejada and Pablo Sandoval) needed only one game to prove it looks like a disaster.

• Meanwhile, the San Diego middle infield of Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson will be fun to watch. They turned four double plays yesterday.

• Nice to see the Tigers gave $16.5 million to a guy who apparently can’t get six outs. Joaquin Benoit got six outs only once last year for Tampa Bay. Detroit overreached for him via free agency, then threw away a seventh-inning tie at Yankee Stadium by giving the game to Phil Coke, who does not profile as a legit left-on-left pitcher, instead of their huge relief investment. Eight of Coke’s 13 career homers allowed have been hit by lefties, including the game-breaker by Curtis Granderson yesterday. Apparently for $5.5 million per year Benoit (.144 vs. lefties last year) doesn’t do seventh innings. That’s not a knock on manager Jim Leyland. It’s a knock on how over-specialized the game has become.

The Washington Nationals gave Jayson Werth $126 million to bat . . . second? Why pay a guy middle-of-the-order money and not hit him in the middle of the order? It’s actually a smart move by manager Jim Riggleman and the Nats.

Werth never has been the focal part of a lineup and doesn’t have the personality for that kind of spotlight. He hit .186 with runners in scoring position last year and is a .260 hitter in those run-producing spots — worse than his overall average of .272.

The Nationals clearly overpaid to get Werth, but that doesn’t mean they’re obligated to hit him third or fourth when he’s not that kind of a hitter. So give Washington credit for knowing his limitations, regardless of how well it pays him. Werth never was intended to be that kind of franchise hitter, anyway, but will look better in the Washington lineup when the Nats do add one or two such bats (an elite free agent such as Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols and uber-prospect Bryce Harper).

Meanwhile, if Opening Day is an indication, the Nationals could be looking at a slow start. Against Atlanta righthander Derek Lowe, four of Washington’s first five hitters (and five of the eight position players overall) were righthanded, and the Nats came up with nothing in a 2-0 loss. The Nats figure to open against six straight righthanded starters and eight in their first nine games — and then they get the Philadelphia rotation.

That schedule puts tremendous pressure on Adam LaRoche, who represents their only true lefthanded power threat. And LaRoche is a notoriously awful starter (.211 career in April).

Bryce Harper . . . please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Braves look good, for openers

Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez moved Jason Heyward from the second slot to sixth — which will cost Heyward about 72 fewer plate appearances this year, all to get Nate McLouth to the plate more. Hmm. The move looked good for one day, anyway, when Heyward hit his second Opening Day homer in as many big league seasons.

The Phillies already knew the Braves were a legit contender. (You can make a case that San Francisco never gets out of the first round last year if Martin Prado is healthy for Atlanta.) But that Opening Day win showed the Braves at their best look as good as anybody in the league.

Lowe showed his September run was no fluke. At 37, and thanks to the slider he embraced late last season, Lowe has become a strikeout pitcher — a most unusual late-career metamorphosis. After averaging 5.9 strikeouts per nine innings last season entering September, Lowe is averaging 8.7 SO/9 and is 6-0 with a 0.99 ERA in his past six starts. In other words, he is ace in every sense of the word but velocity.

Moreover, Prado looks comfortable in leftfield, Chipper Jones looks healthy and that Braves bullpen (Peter Moylan, Johnny Venters, Craig Kimbrel) has flat-out filthy stuff. Gonzalez made a big commitment to Kimbrel by giving him the ninth inning behind Venters even though two of the first three hitters were lefthanded. Kimbrel buzzed through a perfect inning with two punchouts. That reinforced Gonzalez’s notion that Kimbrel can be the primary closer whether the hitters due up are lefthanded or righthanded.

More thoughts from Opening Day

Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers looked almost unhittable against the Giants, particularly with the downward bite on his breaking ball. With nine punchouts, Kershaw tied the Los Angeles Dodgers record for strikeouts by a lefty on Opening Day (Fernando Valenzuela, 1986). Only one Los Angeles pitcher ever fanned more than Kershaw in the first game of the season: Don Drysdale had 14 in 1960 — while throwing 164 pitches in an 11-inning complete game. And keep this in mind as you wait for Stephen Strasburg to be The Next Big Thing: Kershaw, 23, is only four months older than Strasburg — and already has 506 career strikeouts.

• Most impressive display of the day? Ryan Braun of Milwaukee hit a 440-foot homer in the fifth in Cincinnati, then in his next at-bat busted out of the box on a routine single to left, allowing him to hustle into second when leftfielder Johnny Gomes bobbled the ball. Braun’s hustle created a run. Now that’s a ballplayer.

• Did you see the Dodgers snap a 0-0 tie in the sixth when Giants catcher Buster Posey airmailed a throw to third on a ball he blocked in the dirt? Watch home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom on the replay. He raises his left hand to call time and is reaching into his pocket with his right for another baseball — before Posey throws to third. Now that’s taking pace-of-game edicts too far. The Giants did not argue the play should have been dead.

• That left side of the San Francisco infield (Miguel Tejada and Pablo Sandoval) needed only one game to prove it looks like a disaster.

• Meanwhile, the San Diego middle infield of Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson will be fun to watch. They turned four double plays yesterday.

• Nice to see the Tigers gave $16.5 million to a guy who apparently can’t get six outs. Joaquin Benoit got six outs only once last year for Tampa Bay. Detroit overreached for him via free agency, then threw away a seventh-inning tie at Yankee Stadium by giving the game to Phil Coke, who does not profile as a legit left-on-left pitcher, instead of their huge relief investment. Eight of Coke’s 13 career homers allowed have been hit by lefties, including the game-breaker by Curtis Granderson yesterday. Apparently for $5.5 million per year Benoit (.144 vs. lefties last year) doesn’t do seventh innings. That’s not a knock on manager Jim Leyland. It’s a knock on how over-specialized the game has become.

The Washington Nationals gave Jayson Werth $126 million to bat . . . second? Why pay a guy middle-of-the-order money and not hit him in the middle of the order? It’s actually a smart move by manager Jim Riggleman and the Nats.

Werth never has been the focal part of a lineup and doesn’t have the personality for that kind of spotlight. He hit .186 with runners in scoring position last year and is a .260 hitter in those run-producing spots — worse than his overall average of .272.

The Nationals clearly overpaid to get Werth, but that doesn’t mean they’re obligated to hit him third or fourth when he’s not that kind of a hitter. So give Washington credit for knowing his limitations, regardless of how well it pays him. Werth never was intended to be that kind of franchise hitter, anyway, but will look better in the Washington lineup when the Nats do add one or two such bats (an elite free agent such as Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols and uber-prospect Bryce Harper).

Meanwhile, if Opening Day is an indication, the Nationals could be looking at a slow start. Against Atlanta righthander Derek Lowe, four of Washington’s first five hitters (and five of the eight position players overall) were righthanded, and the Nats came up with nothing in a 2-0 loss. The Nats figure to open against six straight righthanded starters and eight in their first nine games — and then they get the Philadelphia rotation.

That schedule puts tremendous pressure on Adam LaRoche, who represents their only true lefthanded power threat. And LaRoche is a notoriously awful starter (.211 career in April).

Bryce Harper . . . please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Braves look good, for openers

Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez moved Jason Heyward from the second slot to sixth — which will cost Heyward about 72 fewer plate appearances this year, all to get Nate McLouth to the plate more. Hmm. The move looked good for one day, anyway, when Heyward hit his second Opening Day homer in as many big league seasons.

The Phillies already knew the Braves were a legit contender. (You can make a case that San Francisco never gets out of the first round last year if Martin Prado is healthy for Atlanta.) But that Opening Day win showed the Braves at their best look as good as anybody in the league.

Lowe showed his September run was no fluke. At 37, and thanks to the slider he embraced late last season, Lowe has become a strikeout pitcher — a most unusual late-career metamorphosis. After averaging 5.9 strikeouts per nine innings last season entering September, Lowe is averaging 8.7 SO/9 and is 6-0 with a 0.99 ERA in his past six starts. In other words, he is ace in every sense of the word but velocity.

Moreover, Prado looks comfortable in leftfield, Chipper Jones looks healthy and that Braves bullpen (Peter Moylan, Johnny Venters, Craig Kimbrel) has flat-out filthy stuff. Gonzalez made a big commitment to Kimbrel by giving him the ninth inning behind Venters even though two of the first three hitters were lefthanded. Kimbrel buzzed through a perfect inning with two punchouts. That reinforced Gonzalez’s notion that Kimbrel can be the primary closer whether the hitters due up are lefthanded or righthanded.

More thoughts from Opening Day

Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers looked almost unhittable against the Giants, particularly with the downward bite on his breaking ball. With nine punchouts, Kershaw tied the Los Angeles Dodgers record for strikeouts by a lefty on Opening Day (Fernando Valenzuela, 1986). Only one Los Angeles pitcher ever fanned more than Kershaw in the first game of the season: Don Drysdale had 14 in 1960 — while throwing 164 pitches in an 11-inning complete game. And keep this in mind as you wait for Stephen Strasburg to be The Next Big Thing: Kershaw, 23, is only four months older than Strasburg — and already has 506 career strikeouts.

• Most impressive display of the day? Ryan Braun of Milwaukee hit a 440-foot homer in the fifth in Cincinnati, then in his next at-bat busted out of the box on a routine single to left, allowing him to hustle into second when leftfielder Johnny Gomes bobbled the ball. Braun’s hustle created a run. Now that’s a ballplayer.

• Did you see the Dodgers snap a 0-0 tie in the sixth when Giants catcher Buster Posey airmailed a throw to third on a ball he blocked in the dirt? Watch home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom on the replay. He raises his left hand to call time and is reaching into his pocket with his right for another baseball — before Posey throws to third. Now that’s taking pace-of-game edicts too far. The Giants did not argue the play should have been dead.

• That left side of the San Francisco infield (Miguel Tejada and Pablo Sandoval) needed only one game to prove it looks like a disaster.

• Meanwhile, the San Diego middle infield of Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson will be fun to watch. They turned four double plays yesterday.

• Nice to see the Tigers gave $16.5 million to a guy who apparently can’t get six outs. Joaquin Benoit got six outs only once last year for Tampa Bay. Detroit overreached for him via free agency, then threw away a seventh-inning tie at Yankee Stadium by giving the game to Phil Coke, who does not profile as a legit left-on-left pitcher, instead of their huge relief investment. Eight of Coke’s 13 career homers allowed have been hit by lefties, including the game-breaker by Curtis Granderson yesterday. Apparently for $5.5 million per year Benoit (.144 vs. lefties last year) doesn’t do seventh innings. That’s not a knock on manager Jim Leyland. It’s a knock on how over-specialized the game has become.

The front office of the Washington Nationals had to be collectively holding its breath when 2010 No. 1 pick Bryce Harper(notes) had to be carried off the field Monday with an ankle injury.

The Washington Post reports that the X-rays showed no significant damage on the sprained left ankle of the 18-year-old. Harper is listed as day-to-day.

“From the little information I got, he’s fine,” manager Jim Riggleman said, according to the site. “He just rolled his ankle a little, and he’s fine.”

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Source: Washington Post

Related: Washington Nationals