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

In case you were looking forward to seeing Bryce Harper with the Washington Nationals in 2011, Mike Rizzo said that will not happen. Despite Harper’s torrid hitting for Single-A Hagerstown thus far, Rizzo said in an interview on “The Sports Fix” with Kevin Sheehan and Thom Loverro on ESPN 980 that Harper is not going to rise through the Minor Leagues this year.

“Yes, I have [ruled it out].” It’s not going to happen, because he’s not ready for it to happen.”

Rizzo said that Harper needs to “learn the nuances of the game of baseball,” and the team doesn’t want to set him up to fail. He added that Harper would likely play at every level of the team’s Minor League system before eventually coming to the Nationals.

“This is a player that I believe needs to touch every level of the Minor League system. Believe me: I have a very specific plan in my mind for Bryce Harper. It’s what I do for a living. It’s what I’ve done to get to being a general manager of a baseball team. It’s to develop players. Believe me: we’ve started to optimize his skill set and talent level, and we’re going to do the right thing for him by the long term.”