Washington Nationals: Bryce Harper's AFL Debut.

Update: Bryce Harper's first AB came after a leadoff double in the Scorpions' second by Giants' '07 1st Round pick, infielder Charles Culberson, but it ended quickly as the Nats' top pick in 2010 popped up to short left on the first pitch Phillies' right-handed pitching prospect Josh Zeid threw him. 1-1 game in the third...

On October 16th 2009, the Nats' '09 no.1 overall pick, pitcher Stephen Strasburg, made his AFL debut with 3.1 scoreless Arizona Fall League innings pitched for the Phoenix Desert Dogs in which the then-21-year-old right-hander allowed 2 hits and 1 walk while recording 2 K's and drawing two DP grounders out of the Scottsdale Scorpions' hitters. Strasburg got 8 groundouts total in the game, threw 50 pitches, 32 for strikes, and hit 98 mph on the radar with his fastball. It's October 20th this year for the debut of the Washington Nationals' second-straight number one overall pick, Bryce Harper, who's starting in right field for the Scorpions tonight, and batting seventh in his own AFL debut against the Mesa Solar Sox, and for the first few innings at least, right-hander Josh Zeid, an '09 10th Round pick by the Phillies who recorded 9.3 K/9 in 43 appearances for the Class-A South Atlantic League's Lakewood Blue Claws in 2010. 

The only other Nats' prospect in action is infielder Stephen Lombardozzi, who's leading off and playing second for Scottsdale. In BP, however, it was Harper, of course, who caught the attention of everyone in attendance, with both Washington Post writer Adam Kilgore and ESPN.com's Keith Law tweeting live from Scottsdale about the 18-year-old slugger's batting practice HR's :

@keithlaw: "See the brick wall to the right of the batters' eye? Harper hit a ball off THAT in BP. http://twitpic.com/2zcmpn"

@adamkilgoreWP: "When Bryce Harper hit that home run Keith is talking about, two scouts looked at each other and giggled. #Nats"

So follow them (@AdamKilgoreWP) and (@keithlaw), fire up the GameDay feed and we'll update here as it goes along. Go Giants, and Go Harper Go...