Apologies for not writing more. While I love this hobby, real life stuff has gotten in the way a bit. Nevertheless, I have completed three rounds of my NFL Mock Draft, should be doing at least one more round soon. Expect that to be up by this weekend if life doesn't throw any surprises my way. It should be a good draft, because so far we have no clue who is going where. That is fun. Makes for a better viewing experience.
Now, this is what I missed- the Wizards are in the playoffs and doing well, Syracuse basketball is over and may struggle next year, the Skins don't have a first round pick but picked up good free agents, the Caps fired Oates and GM GM, Donald Sterling is racist, Michael Pineda likes pine tar, The Undertaker lost at WrestleMania 30, the Ultimate Warrior passed away, and it looks like winter finally ended.
Oh, and then there are my Nationals... (grumble....)
Bryce Harper will be out until July with a torn thumb ligament. He got this sliding into 3rd while stretching out a double to a triple. Bryce Harper has always hustled. Never doubted that for a second. But Matt Williams, our inexperienced new manager, didn't see it that way this year. He benched the 21 year old and then publicly embarrassed him in front of the entire world by calling him out for not fake hustling out a routine grounder to the pitcher. I, for one, am incensed over the entire situation. The Nats already have a rash of injuries, and now the team loses Bryce for 2+ months.
It seems I am not the only one who is upset. ESPN writer Keith Law agrees with me. Here is his Insider column, for all of you.
Monday, April 28, 2014
The mishandling of Bryce Harper
The Washington Nationals went a little off the board this winter with the hiring of manager Matt Williams, a respected coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks and former All-Star who had a grand total of zero games of professional managerial experience.
That inexperience has shown all over the place, as Williams has demonstrated that he's in way over his head so far -- never more so than in his mishandling of the team's most talented player, Bryce Harper, who is now headed for surgery on his thumb and will be lost until at least early July.
Leaders do not make their points at the expense of their best subordinates, but that is exactly what Williams did when he chose to pull Harper from a game on April 19 because Harper didn't fully run out a routine ground ball back to the pitcher. Harper was coming off an injured quad and, from what I'm told, battling the flu on the day when he chose, wisely, not to run out a ground ball so routine that had the pitcher rolled the ball to first base he still would have had beaten Harper by a few feet. Asking any player to run that ball out shows an emphasis on superficial, meaningless behavior over actions that actually increase the team's chances of winning a game. No one ever scored an extra run by showboating for the cameras, but that is exactly what Williams wanted Harper -- who was injured and sick -- to do.
Harper singled out
Williams' tirade on "lack of hustle," directed at a player who is hustle incarnate, was a low point for the Nationals this season, but Harper's injury, which came as he tried to stretch a double into a triple by -- wait for it -- hustling, is a new nadir. It's bad enough that the inexperienced manager felt the need to heap dispraise on Harper in a public forum; it's worse that those empty criticisms might in any way have led to Harper taking more of a risk than usual and tearing that thumb ligament.
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| An injury suffered on a bases-clearing triple against the Padres on Friday will hold Bryce Harper out until at least early July, according to multiple sources. |
On April 20, a day after The Benching, Jayson Werth batted with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, checked his swing, and grounded out to first base … but clearly gave up on the play before first baseman Matt Adams threw the ball to pitcher Shelby Miller. Williams didn't bench Werth, didn't call him out during or after the game, didn't do anything. Why is Werth immune to criticism for failure to false-hustle but Harper gets publicly shamed for it?
Of course, after Harper's injury, Williams was quick to point out that Harper "plays the game hard." But that was always the case; it's just that Harper also plays it smart, and doesn't waste time with false hustle -- probably because false hustle has yet to win any team a ballgame. The entire incident has highlighted that the Nationals organization made a mistake in hiring a manager with zero experience in Williams, who spent the first few weeks of the season trying to figure out how far down in the lineup he could bury Harper.
Source of injuries
The Nationals took a calculated risk in 2010 when they chose to move Harper, who played catcher as an amateur, out from behind the plate immediately after signing him, removing him from the middle of the field and from a position he'd played since childhood -- and a position he played well. Although catcher is normally a more injury-prone position than the outfield, Harper's unfamiliarity with the outfield and with playing on a corner could have been a factor in several of his injuries in pro ball, including his collision with the outfield wall in Los Angeles last April.
The move to right field may have gotten Harper to the majors faster, but it put him at a position with a much higher baseline (replacement-level) against which we measure his performance, meaning that the Nationals may have left a lot of value on the table by shifting him to the outfield. It's probably too late to return Harper to catching -- although I don't doubt that Harper could do it, as he still has the athleticism and the arm -- so why are the Nationals so willing to further devalue the guy who should be the franchise player by claiming he doesn't hustle and perhaps driving him to overdo it in response?
Washington has to do without Harper for at least the next two months now, and there's no internal replacement likely to come close to his level of production. Before he returns, however, the organization has to come up with a better plan for managing their most valuable asset -- and if that means finding a manager better able to do that, so be it.
I wholeheartedly agree, Mr. Law. I may trust Matt the Bat coming off the bench, but so far Matt the Manager has shown himself to be a fool. Either he needs to learn fast, or he needs to dust off his resume.
