Scott Boras, the agent for both of the Washington Nationals' no.1 overall picks in the last two seasons, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, made an appearance on Sirius/XM's MLB Network Radio show "The Power Alley" with Kevin Kennedy and Jim Duquette to talk about the contract his 17-year-old prodigy agreed to in the final moments before last night's midnight deadline for 2010 Draft picks to sign. Mr. Boras spoke briefly about what lies ahead for Harper now that he's officially a Nat:
Scott Boras: "Mike Rizzo and I have been talking a lot lately, [laughs], and a lot of late-night conversations, that subject is something that, I think we want to get Bryce into instructional league, and he's the type of player that I think you need to know, both personally, cause he's a very smart young man, and athletically, he probably has the body-type of a 22-year-old at 17. And so I think it's best that the organizational baseball people get a chance to look Bryce and then I think they're going to make some assessments and it's very likely that he may be far enough along to play in the Arizona Fall League."
DC GM Mike Rizzo had said much the same immediately after the Nats drafted Harper, answering a question about what plans the Nats had for Harper's development by explaining, that he thought Harper, "...would probably start off in our lowest level, in the Gulf Coast League. I think that’s a prudent way to get his feet on the ground in professional baseball, because as I’ve said many, many times, the rigors of the professional game, the everyday-ness of professional baseball is really the first thing that a professional player has to overcome."
Harper will be in DC to meet the press in the nation's capital next week, then it's time to get started.