Nationals prospect Bryce Harper became a media and fan target when he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated at age 16 in 2009. Since then, he’s been ejected from the JUCO World Series, worn a faux hawk haircut, blown a kiss to an opposing pitcher, and named his puppy “Swag.” After that laundry list of offenses, it’s easy to see why he’s so despised and why he closed his Twitter account to avoid giving haters more ammunition.

The good news for Harper detractors is if you don’t like the guy, you’re not alone. During a radio interview on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philly Thursday, Washington D.C. radio host Chad Dukes called Harper a “douchebag.”

Dukes was talking with Tony Bruno and Harry Mayes about the Nats’ FU Philly campaign when he dropped the d-bag bomb on Bryce for repping the Dallas Cowboys in the land of Redskins fans.

Pay close attention around the :25 second mark in the audio below to hear it:

Yup, the kid is disliked even in his hometown. It’s really a shame too — Harper’s so good, I want to like him, but he makes it nearly impossible.

H/T The Nats Enquirer

Spring training is an important time for managers to be able to gauge what they’re working with. For the most part, rosters are predetermined based on offseason acquisitions and past performances. There are, however, a few spots that need to be filled with younger players. The winter months give managers and coaches time to evaluate players who are on the bubble, assuming the coaches don’t withhold information from the manager. Such is the case with Bryce Harper and the Nationals. Apparently Washington’s coaches are trying to curb manager Davey Johnson’s excitement.

“And a funny thing happened today,” Johnson said according to the Washington Post. “They were talking Rendon, LaRoche, Lombardozzi, Espi, damn near everybody over there. I asked them, I said, ‘I didn’t hear one word about Harper? Is he there?’ They said, ‘He’s okay, he’s fine.’ They don’t want to make a comment. Because they like him. They don’t want to try to influence me in any manner.”

Harper looks sharp, and the coaches don’t want Johnson jumping the gun. The prodigy is only 19 and struggled last year in the minors, but he admitted some of that was a result of boredom. The Nationals don’t want to bring him up until he’s ready, but Johnson’s argument is that he has a pretty good track record of unleashing young players.

“I had Dwight Gooden when he was 18 pitching for me in the Class AAA World Series,” he said. “Did I care that he was 18? I told the organization that I thought the best pitcher down below wasn’t in Double A. He was in A ball, in Lynchburg, a guy named Dwight Gooden. They let me have him for the playoffs, and he won two games. I knew he could flat-out pitch. I don’t look at age or color – you can either play or you can’t.”

The Nationals’ marketing department is certainly anxious to get Harper going, but he is young enough that the team can afford to wait. Johnson and the rest of the team would probably love the excitement, but the last thing you want to do is stunt his growth. If I had to guess, I’d say Harper will be in the minors to start the season.

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.

[Read more...]

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.