• Losses to San Jacinto College-North on Wednesday and Iowa Western Community College on Thursday ended the season for the College of Southern Nevada and Bryce Harper, the expected no.1 overall pick in the 2010 Draft which takes place this Monday live from the MLB Network Studios in Secaucus, NJ. According to ESPN and Baseball America's Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick), the 17-year-old future C/OF reported via Twitter that the CSN Coyotes' ended the season without their biggest bat in the lineup:
"Bryce Harper's team bounced from JC World Series by Iowa Western. Harper didn't play after being suspended for arguing called 3rd strike..."
• Here a video of this problem child's antics in getting tossed out of the game...
• Harper's late-season suspension won't change his agent Scott Boras' sales pitch, as he told SI.com's Tom Verducci the other day in an article entitled, "Nats facing simple truth: Bryce Harper is too good not to draft", that Harper is just what every team needs:
"'The greatest commodity in the game is power,' says agent Scott Boras, who represents both players. 'Power arms and power hitters.'"
In 62 games and 215 at bats, Harper hit for a .442/.524/.986 slash line with 22 doubles, 4 triples, 29 HR's, 89 RBI's and 18 stolen bases playing against opponents that all had an age advantage on the 17-year-old. There's little doubt the Nats will make Harper the no.1 pick on Monday...No one with Washington's tipping their hand just yet though...
• DC GM Mike Rizzo did talk about his scouting past and previous drafts in his latest MASNSports.com blog post entitled, "Recalling 25 years in scouting & player development as the Draft approaches".
• In a post yesterday by MLBTraderumors.com's Mark Polishuk, in light of Cristian Guzman's adventures in right in Houston, the MLBTR writer revisited the David DeJesus trade talks with the Kansas City Royals, and included the Washington Nationals on a list of teams that might want to consider adding DeJesus' .300/.381/.465 slash line to their roster since it would represent a significant improvement over any of the right fielders the Nats have thrown out there this year and provide one other benefit:
"DeJesus' presence would eliminate the need to put Cristian Guzman in right as a defensive replacement, thus preventing critical errors like the one that cost Washington this afternoon."
Washington Post writer Adam Kilgore, (@adamkilgoreWP), explained the Nats' Skipper Jim Riggleman's decision,
"Jim Riggleman could have played Morse in right. Stuck with Guzman because he's faster and has played RF more (30 2/3 INN to 20 2/3)."
Can we please stop the Guzman in right field experiment? It's been a bad idea from the start, and putting a career-infielder in the outfield and expecting him to perform at the major-league level is asking too much.