Bryce Harper may be only 19 years old and have enormous baseball potential, but he is not exactly the most lovable character. Harper marches to the beat of his own drum and doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks about it. That confidence likely has contributed to his success on the baseball field, but it also tends to irritate the people around him. Harper has struggled in the minors and would need to put in a ton of work to make the Nationals team this spring. If and when he does become a superstar athlete, however, he wants to live his life like Joe Namath.

“I’m going to be my own person,” Harper said in an interview with MLB.com. “There are a lot of professional athletes back in the old days that did what they wanted to do. That’s how I’m going to be. I’m going to prove myself on the field, so I can be that kind of guy off the field.

“I’m not a clown off the field. I just say things … I speak my mind and I think that’s good. If I speak my mind and people know the real me, then they are going to like me more. I’m not a liar. I say things I want to say. That’s how it is, I guess.

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The cute little puppy pictured above belongs to Washington Nationals super-prospect, Bryce Harper. Harper apparently got the puppy as a Christmas gift, and he shared a picture of the rascal via Twitter. Harper also said he named the chocolate lab “Swag.”

The same guy who blows kisses to opposing pitchers after hitting home runs would also name his dog Swag. Such a Bryce Harper thing to do it’s not even surprising.

Forearm bash to Nats Enquirer via Deadspin

D-bag alert: Bryce Harper is up to his old antics.  For a kid who’s only 18 years old, Harper has to have the most inflated ego in the history of professional baseball.  He may even have LeBron James beat, but that’s a discussion for another day.  Bryce is now playing Double-A ball — since he was no longer interested in Single-A — where he is hitting a mediocre .255 in 30 games.  Perhaps it’s the umpires.  Check out this Bryce Harper ejection video, courtesy of CBSSports.com’s Eye on Baseball blog:

Surprising? Not exactly.  This is the same Bryce Harper who thought he looked cool with this hairstyle and actually blew a kiss to an opposing pitcher after hitting a home run.  Even if he turns into a Hall of Famer someday, you have to wonder how MLB players will put up with him in the clubhouse.  People have advised Harper that he needs to check his ego, but at this point he doesn’t seem to care.

Bryce Harper continues to ooze with charm. In an interview with CSN Washington prior to his second game with Double-A Harrisburg, the Nationals’ super prospected acted like his typical cocky self. He says he lost focus playing for Single-A Hagerstown and said he was doing things he shouldn’t have been doing (what? like this?). Don’t take it from me, take it from Bryce:

Gotta love Harper. He tried to get jersey No. 34 from a teammate even though he’s only going to be with Harrisburg for a few months. He makes a request like that yet he won’t pay the $1,200 price? And then he butchers the kid’s name? Man, he makes it very easy to dislike him.

Bryce Harper is one of the most talented young hitters on the planet, but he comes up tremendously short in the respect department. We’re going to have to find some middle ground here because I have a feeling we’ll be covering Harper for the next 20 years and there’s only so many times we can sack him with the LBS Nut Bag.

Thanks to Eye on Baseball for the link