Harper has sights set on Opening Day roster
VIERA, Fla. — Bryce Harper strides to the plate and an entire stadium grinds to a halt. For a moment, vendors fall silent and fans remain glued to their seats. Even the clickety-clack of computer keys in the press box fades like a radio signal passing in the distance.
So far this spring training, there have been few fireworks from the Nationals’ 19-year-old phenom. A couple of hard-hit singles — six in 20 at-bats entering play Saturday afternoon — but no extra-base hits and certainly no jaw-dropping home runs. Like the quiet stadium anticipating his every at-bat, the rest of Major League Baseball, too, is waiting to see what Harper can do.
A calf injury kept Harper out of the lineup for seven games earlier this spring. In reality, practical business sense will keep him off the major league roster for at least the first month of the 2012 season. A slow start in the minors could delay him further. But if Washington really intends to make a push for a playoff spot for the first time since the team moved here in 2005, there is a sense that Harper will be in the middle of it.
“I’m for sure trying to make this club. I want to frickin’ go up there, try to win,” Harper insists. “I’ve never had that mentality to say ‘Ah, probably not.’ Or ‘Nah, I don’t want to make the club.’ I’m shooting to be one of the top 25 guys on this team and get up there to D.C. and try to win. That’s my main goal.”
He has to think that way. Even general manager Mike Rizzo refused to concede earlier this week that the decision to send Harper to the minors is a foregone conclusion. That is the perception around the sport. But to give in to it could affect his performance on the field. That’s not something either side will allow. So Harper corrects any lingering misperceptions — he gave the impression in a CBSSports.com story last week that he’d accepted not being with the Nats on Opening Day — and says the right things. Even if all the while he’s driving his manager crazy with his impatience.
“My ADD kicked in there for a little bit,” Harper said of his lobbying efforts to get manager Davey Johnson to let him return from the calf injury last Tuesday. “It’s kind of hard to sit on the bench and just watch. So I was just trying to take as much as I could out of everything.”
Harper finally came back on Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. He started in center field that night and was in right field Thursday and Friday against the Yankees. Until the Nats’ center field situation is stabilized, it’s hard to get a read on where exactly Harper will play early in his career.
“I know because he’s a marquee player, a No. 1 draft pick, tremendous potential gifted athlete — it still goes back to what the needs of this ball club are,” Johnson said. “And it’s not about where Bryce Harper needs to play above the team. … I certainly don’t have my 25 [players] picked. Talk to a lot of my coaches and nobody’s really locked into a solid 25 yet. Is it OK if I just play a guy in center field and give him three at-bats and let him relax and play the game? We’ve got a ways to go yet.”
That’s an attitude difficult to square with Harper’s talent. But there are reasons to be patient. He struggled to adapt to Double-A last summer before catching fire in August. A hamstring injury ultimately cut short his season, but he returned to dominate in the prestigious Arizona Fall League against most of the sport’s top prospects. His opponents are well aware of Harper’s talent. Even in the spring, he must have to earn his stripes against the league’s best. Yankees ace CC Sabathia showed him no quarter in Friday’s exhibition game in Tampa.
“They’re kind of pitching [Harper] tough, too,” Johnson said. “Spring training, 3-2 breaking balls? Not really giving him much to hit with the fastball. So all that stuff you’ve been writing about him, maybe the pitcher’s been reading it.SDRq
