Kuzul

Scott Boras is at it again, and this time it concerns Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper.

According to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, Boras has laid out a case for a 12-year contract extension for Harper:

While locking up a franchise player for the foreseeable future is key, I think it’s still too early to do that for Harper. After all, what has he done other than win NL Rookie of the Year?

A 12-year contract would be suicide for the Nationals for many reasons.

Comparisons to Buster Posey

There’s no doubt that Harper is a great talent, but he still has a long way to go if he wants to reach the big bucks. Of course, Boras could be looking at Buster Posey’s nine-year, $164-million deal as a reference, but Harper is no Posey.

For starters, Posey has led the San Francisco Giants to two World Series titles, along with winning an MVP award (in addition to his NL Rookie of the Year). He batted .317 with 46 home runs and 191 RBI through his first three seasons, which includes a shortened 2010 after a collision at home plate ended his year.

When on the field, Posey simply helps will the Giants to wins.

Harper, on the other hand, is batting .272 with 40 home runs and 105 RBI in his career. Those are not exactly the numbers you want to see when you’re about to give a kid a 12-year deal.

Like any big leaguer, Harper has dealt with injuries and slumps this year. But just like with everyone else, it’s a part of the game. As an executive, do you give a player a huge contract when he’s coming off a year with filled injuries and struggles at the plate?

Not Even Arbitration Eligible

When I see that Harper isn’t even arbitration eligible yet, that makes me more hesitant to give him a long-term deal. In fact, he won’t be arbitration eligible until 2016.

He’s already under a cheap contract that pays him just over $2 million the next two years, so why not stick with that?

If I’m not going to have to pay a guy a lot of money (even in arbitration), why would I want to pay him more money in a long-term contract? Instead, I could wait and pay him $7-8 million in arbitration and then sign him to a long-term deal prior to his last arbitration year. It would save the Nationals money and would allow them to see what they really have on their hands before committing long term.

With Harper being one of the franchise players for the Nationals, they definitely don’t want to tick him off. But to pay him more money than they really have to early in his career would be a bad business decision.

What If?

Playing the “what if” game can be dangerous, but we’ve seen huge contract decisions come back to bite many teams in the you know what.

Just look at Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez and Carl Crawford. The list of bad contracts for star players goes on, but these three should suffice.

Howard has been good when he’s in the lineup, but that’s the problem…he can’t stay in the lineup. He keeps getting injured.

Then there’s A-Rod, who has a myriad of problems from struggles late last year and in the postseason, and the Biogenesis scandal. It was even reported by ESPN New York’s Wallace Matthews and Andrew Marchand that the Yankees were looking at ways to void his contract. It doesn’t sound like the Yankees have the same feeling now that they did back when they signed him to his latest contract.

Crawford has struggled with injuries as well, having played in only 123 games the last two seasons. And the year before that (his first in Boston), he batted .255 with 11 home runs and 56 RBI. 

In total, Crawford has gotten paid almost $55 million over the last three years and produced a .271 average with 19 home runs and 100 RBI. Talk about bang for your buck.

I’m not saying that Harper will turn into one of those three, but it could happen. And if it does, do you really want to be locked into a 12-year contract with him?

Long-term contracts that pay players big bucks do two things: make agents rich and prevent a team from making necessary moves years down the road.

Outside of Crawford (since he’s been traded), imagine if the Yankees and Phillies hadn’t signed Rodriguez and Howard to long-term deals. With injuries and poor play, they could have made the necessary moves to improve their teams.

Instead, those two players are getting paid to either watch or play poorly.

It all seemed good back when those contracts were given out, but like they say, “hindsight is 20-20.”

What Does the Future Hold?

In the end, Harper will eventually get a long-term contract for a large amount of dollars. After all, Boras is his agent and he has a way of doing that.

Funny thing is, he’s also Stephen Strasburg’s agent and will look to do the same thing for the pitcher.

However, the Nationals don’t need to rush to pay either extra money. Let both players get through their first year or two of arbitration and then approach a contract extension.

Giving out a contract prior to that is just like handing out free money. Why do it when you don’t have to?

Do you agree with me or think I’m full of it? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @chris_stephens6.

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When Bryce Harper was chosen by the Washington Nationals as the first overall pick in the 2010 MLB draft, he had played for most of his amateur career as a catcher.

In just three-plus years, it’s safe to say he’s picked up the nuances of the outfield fairly well.

On Friday against the Kansas City Royals, Nationals closer Rafael Soriano had given up three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull the Royals within one run, 11-10. With a runner on first and just one out, Justin Maxwell lofted a fly ball to short right field. 

At first glance, it looked like the ball would drop. But Harper was having none of that.

His tremendous play was a huge out, and Soriano was able to induce another fly ball to left fielder Tyler Moore for the final out.

But no question it was Harper’s valiant effort that saved the day for the Nationals. 

It was Harper’s comments following the game that indicate exactly how he approaches the game, and especially how he reacts when the game is on the line. 

It’s that attitude that has endeared Harper to his legions of fans in the metro-D.C. area, not to mention the many other sterling defensive efforts over the past two seasons.

The game-saving catch on Friday allowed the Nationals to pull back to the .500 mark, now 8.5 games out of the wild-card chase in the National League. 

If the Nationals were to pull a rabbit out of their hat and complete a stunning comeback, they can certainly look back at this catch as a turning point for sure.

Doug Mead is a featured columnist with Bleacher Report. His work has been featured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, SF Gate, CBS Sports, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle.

Feel free to talk baseball with Doug anytime on Twitter.

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Since his debut in late April of last year, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper has certainly garnered quite a bit of attention, both for his performance on the field and his all-out style of play.

On Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves, he got some attention he didn’t ask for.

Harper clubbed a solo home run to center field off Braves starter Julio Teheran in the bottom of the third inning, breaking a scoreless tie at the time.

During his next at-bat in the bottom of the fifth, Harper was drilled in the right thigh on a pitch from Teheran.

Harper jawed at Teheran and the benches and bullpens from both sides sprinted onto the field. However, order was quickly restored, no punches were thrown and the game resumed in quickly thereafter.

While the action on the field turned out to be nothing more than a gentlemanly quarrel, the official team Twitter accounts decided to do battle on their own.

The Atlanta Braves struck first.

Okay, the person handling the Braves Twitter account apparently thought it was funny to throw a Harper quote back in the face of the Nationals.

But in this case, it was the Braves who were clowned.

While the battle—or lack thereof—on the field could be classified as a stalemate, the Nationals were the knockout winners on Twitter.

Unfortunately, it was the only battle the Nationals would win. Harper ended up registering the last out of the night, striking out on a 99 MPH fastball from closer Craig Kimbrel as Washington lost the game, 2-1. The Nationals dropped their second straight to the Braves and have now lost nine of 12 games to their NL East rivals on the season.

But hey, they completely whipped the Braves in the world of social media.

Doug Mead is a featured columnist with Bleacher Report. His work has been featured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, SF Gate, CBS Sports, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle.

Feel free to talk baseball with Doug anytime on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Prodigious Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper sent a text message to manager Davey Johnson in which he implored to be put into the starting lineup. It was a rather bold statement by the 20-year-old star, as he told Johnson, “Play me or trade me.”

The text, which was sent on Friday evening ahead of Saturday’s contest against the San Diego Padres, was confirmed by CSNWashington.com’s Mark Zuckerman:

Johnson wasn’t about to go to the Washington brass to discuss a trade, so he had no choice but to grant Harper’s wishes.

It makes sense that the Nationals are being extra cautious with a player of Harper’s caliber and potential, though. After all, Harper had only one hit in the five games since he returned to the lineup from a knee injury.

As CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa reports, the club intended to give Harper the weekend off to ease him back into the lineup. Harper had tried to play through the injury previously and was unable to, resulting in a trip to the disabled list.

However, Harper was clearly having none of it—and perhaps the Nationals should be thankful for his insistence on playing.

In the game against the Padres on Saturday, Harper made good on his assertion that his health wasn’t bothering him enough to sit by accumulating three RBI in the team’s 5-4 victory over San Diego.

After the game, as documented by Zuckerman, it was apparent that Harper—at least publicly—was sticking to his principles, stating that he wasn’t exactly exaggerating or kidding in his text to Johnson:

I was pretty serious about what I said. I want to play. I want to play every single day. I think if he wants to put me in the lineup, then I want to be in the lineup. If he doesn’t, I’m going to try to make him put me in the lineup.

In any event, Johnson’s decision to call Harper’s number resulted in a victory for the team, as the Nationals improved to 45-42 in 2013—five games behind the National League East division-leading Atlanta Braves as the All-Star break approaches.

Speaking of which, Harper was named as a starter for the NL in the July 16 Midsummer Classic at New York’s Citi Field, as was revealed on a Fox TV broadcast.

Despite ongoing injury issues and a lackluster .263 batting average, the fans voted him into the game. 

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More than any other time in recent memory, Major League Baseball is inundated with young budding superstars. Mike Trout has established himself as the best of these young studs, but Manny Machado and Bryce Harper aren’t far behind.

I use 22 as the cutoff since that is the age the majority of college seniors graduate and enter the workforce on a full-time basis. It’s quite amazing that several players in baseball have already established themselves as big-time players when many others their age are just graduating college. (Note: To make this list, players cannot have celebrated their 23rd birthday yet.)

To compile this list, I took into account not only what each player has done to date, but also the potential they offer in the future.

Potential is measured by each player’s performance in the major and minor leagues and their overall package of tools or stuff.

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As you look at the next 10 slides, think about how much value each of these players have to their respective teams. Not just salary, but value. Even just the names tell you a lot—Bryce Harper, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Reyes and more. Teams can overcome injuries, but they cannot replace value in most cases and if you add in the value of time lost, it’s pretty clear that teams need to be doing more. 

That’s easy to say, but if injuries are “part of the game,” as some will try to infer, and since all injuries can’t be prevented, then finding solutions is rendered moot in their mind. That’s defeatist. If a team can’t hit, the hitting coach is going to be asked why. More and more teams have hired assistant hitting coaches for the major league team in addition to coaches at every level. Some teams even have a bunting coach!

For injuries, which has as demonstrable an effect on a team as a hitting coach, the simple solution would be to add one more assistant trainer. The ratio of two trainers to a roster of 25 seems manageable until you see how many man-hours are required per injury, and that’s before we talk about how much is required for immediate care, rehab and the administrative tasks. 

Another assistant trainer would add one-third more man hours immediately and, if a team simply called up its Triple-A trainer, there would be very little change since they should be familiar with many of the players and procedures. The reason teams do this simply can’t be cost. It can’t be availability either, since finding a competent athletic trainer for short-season ball could be done in an afternoon. 

Baseball is seeing a significant increase in injuries this season and I believe it’s the result of being penny wise and pound foolish. Lack of manpower in the medical staff, a lack of knowledge about biomechanics and predictive measures and little to no research on sports science is going to leave teams exactly where they are now, or worse, and that’s not a good place. 

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Old school baseball. It means no batting gloves, choking up on the bat and not being afraid to get your uniform dirty. Over the years, the game of baseball has lost some of that “tough-as-nails” mentality, as players hide behind body armor and pitch counts.

But even in today’s game, there are some players that embody the old-school approach, players such as Dustin Pedroia. The Red Sox second baseman is just one example of a player that is a throwback to yesteryear. Here’s a closer look at Pedroia and some other old-school ballplayers.

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Injuries have continued to plague some of the biggest names in baseball. With David Price the latest Cy Young contender to come up with a sore arm, Bryce Harper bouncing his head off an unprotected section of fencing and Ryan Howard limping again, we can only wonder about the hours that the medical staff is putting in.

And while those good men and women work 18-hour days, we’re left wondering if anyone else seems to care. I’ll pass on stepping back up on my normal soapbox here. You know the next stanza on your own by now. At some point, some team will realize the advantage it can gain.

In the meantime, we’re left trying to find where the advantages are in our own fantasy world. You’ll know if your favorite team is serious about managing injuries, but on a fantasy team, it’s a game of minimization and prediction. The simplest way to gain an advantage is to understand the severity and effects of the inevitable injuries, so let’s get to it.

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Over the last year, baseball fans have celebrated the rise of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout as the seminal players of the next generation. Both are dynamic talents with the potential for superstardom and possibly future tickets to Cooperstown.

Quietly, another phenom is emerging in Baltimore. While Harper and Trout were called up early in the 2012 season, giving them an entire summer to dazzle and amaze the baseball world, Manny Machado didn’t arrive to the Orioles until August.

Amid much less fan fare, Machado stepped into a contending team’s lineup, played a new position and contributed to Baltimore’s first postseason berth in 15 years.

Now, in his first full year in the majors, the 20-year-old third baseman is more than a contributor. Machado is an emerging star in the AL East, garnering high praise and knocking on the door of the elusive Harper-Trout conversation.

Before we answer the question of Machado‘s future, let’s first take a quick look at how great, not good, Harper and Trout have been.

While Steve Melewski of MASN did his best to give Machado an edge in their early careers, more context is needed to describe what Harper and Trout have done thus far in the big leagues.

Mike Trout’s 2012 season wasn’t just great, it was historic. Despite spending the first few weeks of the season in Triple-A, Trout was prolific enough to post the 21st-most valuable season in major league history. At 10.9 WAR, Trout’s 2012 belongs in the conversation with the best years of Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Willie Mays.

To put his value in perspective, the 10.9 single-season WAR was never reached by Alex Rodriguez, Rickey Henderson or Albert Pujols in any year of their respective careers.

Amazingly, Bryce Harper might be even better than that.

While Trout completed his age-20 season with all-time great value, if not a valid claim at being deserving of the AL MVP, Bryce Harper burst on the scene as a 19-year-old.

Last month, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs looked into Harper’s first 162 games in the majors. The results of his study were astonishing.

With a skill set and swing like Harper’s, it’s foolish to compare him to his young peers. His production is up there with former MVPs, current All-Stars and the best players in the sport. The fact that he played his first 162 games mostly at the age of 19 is astonishing, but even more so when you consider the numbers he compiled.

As Bill Baer points out at Hardball Talk, Machado is a tremendous young player but not quite as even as MASN‘s Steve Melewski makes it seem.

However, Machado‘s plays seems to have grown leaps and bounds from his short stint as a 19-year-old last season.

With a declining strikeout rate, increasing walk rate and stronger isolated slugging numbers, Machado is well on his way to exceeding expectations and projections placed upon him entering the season.

Of course, Machado, much like Harper and Trout, excelled off the bat. While that’s rare for very young players, phenoms and future stars tend to find a way to play well, regardless of age.

Machado‘s .445 slugging percentage in 2012 may not look outstanding on the surface, but it is when put in context. That mark was the fourth highest by a 19-year-old third baseman since 1920. Two of the three names ahead of him: Eddie Matthews and Jimmie Foxx. Considering those two combined for 3,375 RBI, it’s not bad company to start a career in.

Over the last calender year, despite not playing a single game above the minors prior to last August, Manny Machado has been the 10th-most valuable third baseman in the sport. Some names below him on that list: Pablo Sandoval, Brett Lawrie and Hanley Ramirez.

This much is clear: Harper and Trout look to be all-time great players. Machado is phenomenal, on the path to superstardom and deserving of accolades.

But he’s not quite in their class yet.

On the other hand, 2015 is more than enough time for Machado to catch up in the race for best young star in the sport.

In terms of value, a move back to his natural position of shortstop, coupled with Harper’s and Trout’s respective switches from center to left field, would enhance Machado‘s standing.

The comparisons to A-Rod weren’t for naught. If Machado takes over for J.J. Hardy at shortstop in Baltimore, hits like a corner infielder and fields as well at an up-the-middle position as he has at third base, his WAR could exceed Trout’s and Harper’s by 2015.

Furthermore, health and attrition will play a major role in value, counting stats and perception moving forward.

If Harper continues to run into walls and Trout gains more weight next offseason, Machado could be looked at as the safest bet to stay healthy and productive for the long haul.

Last fall, Machado‘s name didn’t belong in this conversation. Today, it does. For right now, it belongs third, behind Harper and Trout.

By 2015, expect Harper to be a notch above both Trout and Machado, but don’t count out Manny in the race for the AL MVP in a few seasons.

Does Manny Machado deserve to be in the Harper-Trout conversation?

Comment below, follow me on Twitter or “Like” my Facebook page to talk all things baseball!

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A couple weeks ago, I wrote an open letter to Bryce Harper asking him to never change. I made it clear that it involved him upholding his style of play, as Bryce Harper just isn’t Bryce Harper without the Tasmanian Devil approach to the game. 

I’m feeling conflicted on the matter now. In fact, I’ll be damned if I don’t feel a shred of responsibility for what happened to Harper on Monday night during the Washington Nationals‘ 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

You saw it, right?

If no, you can watch it here. If yes, well, you can re-watch it here.

It was a collision as weird as it was violent. Harper just seemed to have no notion of his whereabouts and then, BAM, face met fence. When he hit the deck and the blood started to flow, it looked bad.

The good news is that it’s not. Harper walked off under his own power, and the word from Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post is that Harper did not suffer a concussion. It was just a jammed left shoulder and a cut under his chin that required 11 stitches. He may only miss a game or two.

Go ahead and let out a sigh of relief, fellow Harper fans.

But now for the obligatory question, the very one that’s giving me second thoughts: Does Harper need to change his style of play before he pushes his limits too far?

If you ask him, the answer is no. He’d rather not, anyway:

Deadspin’s Tom Ley reacted to this by writing that Harper collided with the wall Monday night due more to recklessness than playing hard, which I can agree with. Hard as it was, it was certainly the most casual collision with an outfield wall that I can remember.

All the same, saying that Harper plays the game recklessly fits almost as well as saying that he plays the game hard. And either way, it doesn’t sound like he’s about to take a look in the mirror.

Because I practically begged him to never change just a couple weeks ago, that should be just fine with me. But even I realize that now’s a good time for Harper to take a look in the mirror, as the month of May has been a rough one in regards to his style of play getting him in trouble.

Earlier this month, Harper suffered a lat injury when he collided with the outfield fence at Turner Field trying to rob Tim Hudson of a homer. Less than two weeks later, there he was on Monday night losing track of where he was and going face-first into Dodger Stadium’s right field fence.

Harper should consider himself lucky that he didn’t suffer more serious injuries. Such things have been known to happen when outfielders collide with walls.

The name everyone—i.e. Amanda Comack of The Washington Times and ESPN’s Buster Olney—is bringing up on Tuesday is that of Pete Reiser. He was a promising young outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s, but he sabotaged his career with his tendency to run into walls.

Mark Stewart of SABR recalled the scariest moment of Reiser‘s career in 1947:

Chasing a ball hit by Culley Rikard of the Pirates, Pete snagged it on the dead run an instant before slamming into the fence. He held onto the ball for the out, but fractured his skull. The injury was so bad that he was given the last rites, and he lay in a hospital bed for five days hovering between life and death.

Reiser lived, but that was pretty much it for his career. He hung around in the majors until 1952, but he never again played in over 100 games in a season.

Granted, this was before Major League Baseball realized that padded outfield fences were a good idea, but even those aren’t 100 percent effective in preventing serious injuries that can linger.

Just take a look at Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. He hurt his left shoulder colliding with an outfield wall late last season and ultimately had to have surgery on it during the offseason. He’s been a wreck this season, hitting .277/.327/.348 with only one homer in 37 games.

But the question of whether Harper should tone it down obviously doesn’t just concern him running into walls. It has to do with whether he’s going to be able to enjoy the long, successful career that we all want him to have if he doesn’t start treating his body with more care. After all, it doesn’t take much to ruin an outfielder’s body.

This is a matter that calls to mind other cautionary tales. Ken Griffey Jr. was beat up and pretty much out of gas by the time he hit his early 30s. Ditto Andruw Jones, whose last truly great season came at the age of 29 in 2006.

Then you have guys like Jim Edmonds and Aaron Rowand.

Edmonds lasted pretty long for a guy who was always tossing himself around like a rag doll in the outfield, but his career also started later relative to Griffey and Jones. Rowand, who once broke his face in a collision with an outfield wall in 2006, got to a point where he was constantly dealing with nagging injuries. He’s been out of baseball since 2011, which was only his age-33 season.

Harper is more talented that Edmonds and Rowand ever were, and he’s at least as talented as Griffey and Jones were at his age (high praise, indeed). But he’s no more indestructible than any of them ever were, and goodness knows that he’s not going to get any more indestructible as he gets older. 

So, what then? Is the solution here for him to start loafing around in the outfield and the basepaths, a la Manny Ramirez or later-years Barry Bonds?

Let’s not go that far. Let’s only go so far as to play the Plato card. What Harper requires is moderation.

For him, that involves finding a happy medium between Pete Rose, who Harper told Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated is the inspiration for his approach to the game, and Derek Jeter. Rose was able to enjoy a long, successful career despite his all-out style, and so has Jeter.

But having watched Jeter for so many years, I feel confident in saying this much: The guy picks his spots.

Jeter’s extraordinary moments—such as his out-of-nowhere flip to home in 2001 and his into-the-stands catch in 2004—have tended to come not when the New York Yankees were up big or down big, but when they’ve been in situations when an extraordinary moment was needed.

Harper wasn’t in one of those situations when he got hurt on Monday night. The Nationals were up 6-0 and Jordan Zimmermann was cruising. If ever there was a time for Harper to be playing it safe, it was then.

Calling for Harper to embrace moderation feels lame. And heck, if that’s what I’m thinking, odds are you’re thinking it too.

But I’m a little stuck here between very much wanting Harper to be the bat-out-of-hell player he’s established himself to be and also wanting him to be the all-time great we know he has the talent to become. And since I just picked one side a couple weeks ago, I don’t want to turn around and jump over to the other side now just because it’s convenient.

However, I’d much rather watch a cautious and healthy Harper for many years than I would a reckless and constantly injured Harper for not enough years. I’m also assuming he’d much rather enjoy a long career than a short one.

If that requires toning it down, then so be it.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. 

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