The Nationals are No. 1 in this week's WhatIfSports.com MLB power rankings.

Check out how Bryce fares among the league's best hitters with regards to average fastball velocity. Ya think veteran pitchers wanna strike this kid out or what?

This is about why the slot system is broken, but it's also a good reason not to care very much if the Nationals go way over their draft pool to sign Lucas Giolito. (Truth in advertising: this is from my own blog.)

It was a busy morning at FederalBaseball.com as we tried to get all the pine tar off of our computer before tonight's game just in case Joe Maddon tries calling us out. But didn't want you to miss Fangraphs.com's David Laurila's interview with Nats' hitting coach Rick Eckstein: "On plate discipline: "Everybody is an individual when it comes to that. Sometimes you want to go out and be a little more aggressive. Say the pitcher’s secondary is plus, where the deeper you get into counts the more you have to hit a tough split or a hard breaking ball. Sometimes your discipline is to be better earlier in the count, on fastballs. Other times, you’ll have a guy who pitches off his breaking-ball stuff, so you’re more disciplined to wait for something you can handle."

Nice rundown on some of the solid young prospects at Hagerstown right now

Fangraphs article on whether Harper's five strikeouts on Saturday should be a concern. I'd like to add that through Sunday, Harper's 18.8 K% on the season ranks 120th among the 226 MLB players with 150 or more plate appearances in 2012. (150 PA is where the K% statistic stabilizes.)

Cool article. Harper has been nothing short of spectacular since his call-up.

From NY Daily News' writer Mark Feinsand's article entitled, "Yankees' Alex Rodriguez knows how it feels to be Nationals rookie phenom Bryce Harper": "'I love big talent,' [Alex] Rodriguez said. 'I love unique talent. I’m just a baseball fan like you guys are. To see a 19-year-old do some of the things that he’s doing, it’s pretty darn special. I’m excited to see [Bryce Harper]. "'He’s the kind of guy I would pay my money to watch play. I’m sure well after I’m done, I’ll be paying my money to watch him play and break all the records.'" • Game time 7:05 pm EDT. Gio Gonzalez vs Phil Hughes. We'll be at Nats Park all afternoon...

Video of Harpers reponse to a reporter asking him if he was going to have a beer after hitting a homerun in Toronto last night.