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Bryce Harper to Debut on Saturday


Michael

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I hope for nothin more but for him to struggle for the next few years. It's unfair to have both strasbug and Harper not including the other guys. That's what sucking gets you years later.

 

Hey, Rays did it to perfection.

 

Lol, true, but atleast we don't have to see them as much as the Washington.

 

Washington also seems to be collecting d-bags. Harper, Werth and Ive heard Strasburg can be a d-bag. Makes them easy to hate.

 

Have you really heard that about Harper? Just wondering cause I havent heard anything good or bad about him and am curious. When I look at him I dont really see it like I do with Strasburg. It wouldnt really be hard to believe since people have been hyping him up his whole life.

 

Yeah he's got pretty dickish tendencies. Last year after hitting a homerun of the grasshoppers he blew a kiss to the pitcher after rounding third. Jut little things like that. Reminds me of Nyjer Morgan but better.

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Here's a GQ piece about him. Kinda of recent. Basically the kids a stud and knows it. Plus he's been told he's on since he was a little kid. So you can kinda see where his attitude comes from.

 

Is Baseball Ready for Bryce?

 

Dear MLB: Please don't muzzle the most entertaining prospect since Babe Ruth. Thank you, fans everywhere

 

 

 

by Will Leitch

Photograph by Chris McPherson

April 1, 2012

 

Fuuuuuuck!!!" This is Bryce Harper—the erstwhile pastime's answer to LeBron James, Mozart child prodigy of the great game. The Washington Nationals' 19-year-old prospect is taking big cuts in an impromptu batting-cage session on the campus of UC Irvine, all for my benefit. I wanted to see the supposed perfect swing in action. I wanted to witness baseball's next Barry Bonds. And I'm suddenly a little worried that he's just broken his hand.

The man who had been tossing lobs to Harper is a contracted soldier of super-agent Scott Boras, whose offices are just a few miles west—and in small part paid for by the commission he received from the $9.9 million contract Harper signed at the age of 17. Indeed, though barely of voting age, Harper is primed to make more money through sponsorships than almost any ballplayer in the league, and his baseball re�sume� already has the ring of legend: the 570-foot homer he hit in Las Vegas, where he was reared, at the age of 15; the thump a year later, at Tropicana Field, that was, at the time, the deepest recorded at the Tampa Bay Rays' home field; the blistering speed that allowed him to score from second on wild pitches regularly in high school.

Harper's swing is so violent that in the cage, the bat cracks even when he misses. The trainer seems not so comfortable: This is his first time underhanding batting practice to Bryce, and he keeps hearing about it from the kid. ("My dad"—Harper's trainer since T-ball—"is better at tossing these.") He's also crouched four feet from the end of Harper's bat; one errant swing and the trainer's teeth might be scattered to Newport Beach. "When I hit the ball," Harper says, "I do want to hurt it."

Now that Harper's the one hurt, he takes a hop-step out of the box. Again: "Fuuuuuuck!!!" A violent toss of his custom-made Marucci bat—inscribed with LUKE 1:37 ("For with God nothing shall be impossible")—across the batting cage. "f*** it, I'm done." Harper shakes his hands vigorously and shoves them into a pile of infield dirt adjacent to the cage. "I didn't know I was hitting today, and I don't have my goddamned gloves," he says. "It hurts like a dick."

 

 

What makes Harper far more anticipated than your typical phenom is a sense that he not only recognizes the vastness of his potential but also feels plenty comfortable telling you about it. One minute he informs me that "baseball needs more superstars." The next, while discussing Albert Pujols signing with the Angels, he offers thoughtlessly, "Albert and I know each other and respect each other." In a sport in which "paying your dues" is practically in the job description—an institution that once made Michael Jordan ride around in a bus for five months—Harper seems to have emerged fully formed to piss off the baseball establishment.

On his way up, he didn't shrink from his sometime moniker, the LeBron of baseball. He poured vats of eye black on his face to make himself look like a professional wrestler. In a minor league game last year, after hitting a home run, he blew a kiss to the opposing pitcher. (Harper tells me, "It was an 'eff you' from the mouth.") That's the sort of business that will get a major leaguer a fastball in his ear. As Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt put it: "I would think at some point the game itself, the competition on the field, is going to have to figure out a way to police this young man."

In other words: Harper is awesome—exactly what baseball needs. He's essentially a throwback: a cocky, ornery cuss who can back it all up. Ty Cobb minus the racism and chaw, Lenny Dykstra before the bankruptcy. He tells me Pete Rose, a.k.a. Charlie Hustle, is his favorite player and that "I want to play the game hard. I want to ram it down your throat, put you into left field when I'm going into second base."

Respect is going to be the issue with Harper. Not because of his contract, not because of Schmidt, not because he's just 19—but because he plays baseball like he doesn't care about anything other than making sure someone else loses. After batting away my questions with Boras-trained noncommittals, he lights up when I ask him what he misses about being a "kid." "Playing football," he says. "I'm getting chills just thinking about it. That first knock of the game, you are going on kickoff and you are just trying to smack somebody just as hard as you can. That's how I play baseball. I want to hit you. I want to run your ass over. Sorry."

Back in the cage, Harper looks at his hand, and I wonder if a montage of World Series trophies and an endless self-replenishing supply of Annie Savoys is flashing past his eyes. Luckily, it's fine. But we could have avoided the whole scare if he'd only had his gloves. He lost them, he tells me, three days earlier, after a demonstration for some college coaches. Well, not lost them; they were stolen. One of the coaches, someone from a group of adult human beings, had waited until Harper wasn't looking and swiped the gloves, maybe hoping that the souvenir would one day become the relic of a legend. "You'll see those on eBay soon," Harper says, laughing.

 

Read More http://www.gq.com/sports/guides/201204/bryce-harper-mlb-baseball-preview#ixzz1tTMyrHxT

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Maybe another Gaby Sanchez close line to a Washington player is coming in the future. That would be sweet.

 

Except Harper would probably hurt Gaby moreso than the other way around.

 

Then we'll let Stanton do it. I don't wanna kill Harper though. Stanton might be a little much.

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Maybe another Gaby Sanchez close line to a Washington player is coming in the future. That would be sweet.

 

Except Harper would probably hurt Gaby moreso than the other way around.

 

Then we'll let Stanton do it. I don't wanna kill Harper though. Stanton might be a little much.

LoMo then.

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Can't believe he admitted to it...

 

 

Cole Hamels admitted after Sunday night's game that he threw at the Nationals' Bryce Harper on purpose.

Hamels struck Harper in the lower back in the first inning with a 92 mph fastball. It certainly looked intentional, and the left-hander acknowledged later that it was. "I was trying to hit him. I’m not going to deny it. It’s something I grew up watching. That’s what happened. I’m just trying to continue the old baseball. Some people get away from it." Harper had the last laugh, advancing from first base to third base on a Jayson Werth single before stealing home. Hamels could be facing a suspension.

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Sure, Harper's rep precedes him. He was kind of a showboat last year in the minors with the kiss-blowing and whatnot. Hadn't done anything to warrant getting plunked in the big leagues, but I was impressed with how he handled it. Very professional and stole home like he'd done it before. Didn't show Hamels up. I liked it. I get why Hamels wanted to do it with all the hype, but it was too soon IMO. He was stupid to go and admit it after the game.

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Yeah, it seems like Hamels just thinks that Harper is too much of a cocky douche. He's right about that, but that's not a good enough reason to plunk Harper.

 

I think MLB would be right to suspend Hamels for this. Give him something like 10 games so it's certain he misses at least one start.

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I don't blame Hamels for plunking him (it's part of the game)-but I think anyone who openly admits that they threw at someone on purpose deserves to be suspended.

 

If MLB doesn't suspend him then they're basically saying that it's OK to throw at people just because you think they have a big ego...

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