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Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson’s leadership, Bryce Harper‘s rising stock, and Stephen Strasburg‘s arm appear to have the Nats on a fast moving ride to the 2012 Major League Baseball Playoffs. The team made some strategic and painful decisions, but it’s paying off. Barring any unforeseen events, the players are built for a run in the postseason.

Lets start with Bryce, Bryce, Baby. Harper is batting a shade under .300 and is a clear All-Star this year. There’s no debate there if he’s judged on the first half of the season.  He has 50 hits and counting. You have undoubtedly heard that the kid is 19 years old. It looks like he has the complete package.

Harper is more mature as a baseball player than most teenagers his age. He proved that when he told the reporter, “That’s a clown question bro’.” He didn’t step into the trap the reporter may or may not have been setting on drinking at a younger age in other countries. He handled it well, and for that he deserves recognition.

I’ll be honest. I’m on the bandwagon. If it isn’t his team, it will be soon. Forget about the age. he possesses the attitude of the great Pete Rose. Assertive and aggressive is a good thing if you’re a hot-shot major league baseball star. And yes, I said it!  Bryce Harper is a baseball star.

He clearly has the talent. He has a rough edge, when needed, and that’s a good thing. Many major league teams are looking for a Bryce Harper. The Nats were in the right place at the right time.

Harper reminds me of Pete Rose. They have a similar body type, an NFL cornerback mold. He’s medium height, with stocky shoulders, and rough. If you kids don’t know about Rose and Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse during a 1970’s era All-Star game, look it up. That’s what I mean by rough.

The Kid also has the confidence of a young Rose. He’s never intimidated. It doesn’t matter if it’s an opposing player, the media, or his own bat! He’ll keep coming at you at 100 miles per hour. Like Rose, he knows no other way: all-or-nothing. That’s usually the attitude of a winner. Which brings me to manager Davey Johnson.

I’ll admit, I didn’t like the way he came into the picture. Former manager Jim Riggleman was kicked to the curb. It smelled bad and looked even worse. But it’s the reality if everyone has moved on, and that’s a good thing. Johnson has definitely moved on and in a big way!

Johnson has the team looking like it’s playoff quality, and that says a lot given where they’ve come from over the past few years. Teams losing 100 games a year usually don’t turn it around like the Nats have, but that’s exactly what General Manager Mike Rizzo has done. He ignored the haters out there, and it paid off. And boy were there haters. If you lose 100 games in a season, the haters are part of the territory, unfortunately.

Johnson is one of the most respected baseball minds in history. He’s has the playing career to back it up. Those 1970’s Baltimore Orioles teams were some of the best in MLB history, and Johnson was the starting second baseman. He’s been there, and some.

The 1970’s Orioles had several 20-game winners, a Hall of Fame third baseman in Brooks Robinson, a fiery manager, and World Series accomplishment. Johnson knows how to win and that’s contagious with a young team like the Nat’s. The kids like rings. They like winning. They like championships. This group looks special.

Too bad it didn’t work out for Johnson as manger of the O’s. He got them into the playoffs in the late 90’s, but it wasn’t enough for Owner Peter Angelos. Johnson left, and the O’s went into a steep decline and only recently began climbing out of the cellar. I suspect Angelos feels he made a mistake.

Davey can pull out the World Series ring and show the kids what it looks like; what it feels like. That’s a lot. Many managers can’t do that, at least not yet. Pat Riley pulls out his Lakers Championship rings if he has to make a point. It is quite effective.

In the eyes of many, Strasburg may be the best pitcher in baseball, if not in the top 3. His commanding pitching style is something we don’t see that often in this league. They come around every now and then. He has “it.” Every team needs an ace, Strasburg is all that and a helluva lot more.

He throws in the mid-to-high 90’s and appears untouchable at times. The velocity is hard to contend with if you’re a hitter. How can anyone hit that? It seems almost impossible. Occasionally, he’ll have a rough outing, but very few teams have been able to hit his pitching with any consistency.

If you’re going to make it to the playoffs, you’ll need pitching. Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez are winning games. They’re on a roll and moving fast. With two solid signal callers and a couple of role players on the pitching staff, they look good to go.

Desmond, LaRoche, and the boys are red hot. it looks like a new team. Perhaps it was a matter of the team coming together, finally, with new, solid dugout leadership. It could be the continued development of a young dominating pitcher. Maybe it is the infusion of a young aggressive teenager into the outfield.

Perhaps it’ll be a combination of all of the above that has Washington D.C. fans gearing up for the playoffs in the Nation’s Capital.

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On Friday, Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jason Hammel dominated the Washington Nationals in a 2-1 Orioles victory at Camden Yards.

Saturday, Washington hurler Edwin Jackson returned the favor.

Jackson tossed 6 1/3 strong innings, as the Nationals beat the Orioles 3-1.

Jackson surrendered just one earned run on four hits, while striking out five on the night. With the victory, Jackson goes to 4-4 on the season and his ERA shrinks to 2.91.

Tyler Clippard picked up the save for the Nationals—his 11th.

Wei-Yin Chen took the loss for the Orioles. The rookie left-hander pitched five innings, giving up two earned runs on six hits.

With the loss, Chen is now 7-3 with a 3.38 ERA.  

Offensively, the Nationals got on the board first in the top of the second inning when Xavier Nady singled home Michael Morse. A throwing error by third baseman Wilson Betemit allowed Washington’s first baseman Adam LaRoche to score from second base.

LaRoche tacked on another run for the Nationals in the top of the fourth inning with a solo shot over the right center field wall—his 13th of the season.

Baltimore’s lone run came in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Orioles center fielder Adam Jones deposited a laser just right of the foul pole over the left field wall. Jones’ homer was his 19th of the season.

A bright spot for the Orioles, the team’s bullpen pitched four more scoreless innings in what has become one of the most reliable bullpens in baseball.

But on this night, Washington’s bullpen did not blink either, holding Baltimore scoreless in 2 2/3 innings of work.

With the win, Washington moves to 41-28. They hold a 3.5 game lead over the New York Mets in the NL East.

The Orioles fall to 40-31, and are now 2.5 games behind the AL East leading New York Yankees.

Baltimore and Washington will battle once again Sunday at 1:35 p.m.

Ross Detwiler (4-3, 3.34 ERA) will square off against Jake Arrieta (3-9, 5.83 ERA) in the grudge match of this three game series.

James Morisette is a featured writer for Bleacher Report. You can see his full archive here.

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There is no way I can hide my excitement.

Watching the Angels and Nationals play today will be equal to my tearing open a retail pack of baseball cards as a 12-year-old.

Last night I wrote a piece on Bryce Harper. In that story, I said I would be glued to my television screen when Harper makes his Major League Debut versus the high flying Los Angeles Dodgers.

When I first heard Harper was coming to the show, I could not help but feel for Mike Trout, who still had not gotten the call.

I could see Trout sitting at his locker in Salt Lake and screaming to the heavens, “What more must I do to get the call?”

To this Trout is right. He is hitting .403 with 31 hits and an OPS of 1.091 through 20 games with the Bees.

Apparently, the baseball gods heard Trout’s question and were like, “yeah, what the heck are the Angels thinking?”

Divine intervention or not, now that Trout has gotten the call, he has a golden opportunity to become the 2012 version of Buster Posey from 2010.

Never will I forget how Posey electrified the Giants, not only in spirit but in offense. After getting called up in May, Posey hit .305 with 18 home runs and 67 RBI in just 108 games. Nor will I forget Posey’s poised play during the playoffs. It was like watching a seasoned veteran on the baseball diamond.

Giving Tim Lincecum utmost credit, I have to beg the following question. 

Would the Giants have won the World Series that year without Posey?

Not sure.

Back to Trout, he can provide the spark the Halos critically need at a point they cannot afford to fall any further behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West. At 6-14, the Angels are already nine games back.

Should Trout excel, he will give the Angels much needed potency at the top of the lineup. 

In time the Angels can place Trout in the two spot of the batting order, smack between Bourjos at the top and Albert Pujols in the three hole. The Angels can also take the training wheels off Mark Trumbo by placing him in the cleanup spot. Or they could put Bourjos in the nine spot and put Trout up top. Either way, you keep speed back to back.

This gives the Halos the ability to combine bunting and scrappy hitting. This puts speed on base for the middle of the lineup to feast on. This will not only create nightmares for opposing pitchers, but it will also take pressure off guys like Howie Kendrick, Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells.

This speed meets power kind of offense excites baseball fans, as Texas Rangers fans can surely attest to.

It makes me want to go get a blaster box of baseball cards and go buck wild like a 12-year-old!

James is a huge baseball fan who loves to write and make new friends. You can follow James on Twitter by clicking HITHA!  

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The Washington Nationals are already the feel-good story of the early 2012 Major League Baseball season. They are tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the National League at 14-6, plus they have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

They have been winning despite the early season injuries to their top hitter from last year Michael Morse and the closer Drew Storen who have yet to see action this season.  

This early-season showdown between the Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles, the two best teams in the National League, is a marquee matchup. But early yesterday afternoon things became much more interesting and far more dramatic on a national scale.  

It all started when Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo announced that star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was going on the 15-day disabled list. He knew he needed a big bat to help the team’s struggling offense.

At around 5 p.m. ET yesterday, Rizzo announced that Bryce Harper would be called up to the Nationals from Triple-A Syracuse and the word spread as fast as you can say Twitter.

Considered one of the top prospects in baseball, Harper, the 2010 overall No. 1 pick in the MLB draft was selected at the young age of 17. Now at the age of 19, he is going to start in left field for the Nationals tonight. Oh, and by the way, Stephen Strasburg is pitching for Washington this evening to add yet another reason to watch.

The MLB Network announced that they would be airing the game nationally starting at 9 p.m. ET as part of their Saturday Night Baseball package. ESPN and FOX offices in Los Angeles are ready to report on all things Harper the moment he strides onto the green grass of Dodger Stadium about 6 p.m. ET.

Like the debut of his teammate Strasburg, young Harper will get the media crunch that is expected of a Sports Illustrated cover boy. You can bet that the MLB Network will be adding more Nationals games to their roster and ESPN had already scheduled May 6^th for Sunday Night Baseball as the Philadelphia Phillies are headed to town to face the Nationals in prime time.  

The Harper hype started yesterday on ESPN and the MLB Network and don’t look for it to die down anytime soon.

Locally, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the home of both the Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles are doing all they can to make sure that everyone in their four-state region from Harrisburg, Pa. to Charlotte, N.C. knows which channel on the cable system that MASN2 and MASN2-HD is on for tonight’s coming-out party.

Las Vegas, Harper’s hometown, is excited and there will be plenty of new Nationals fans making the trip over to Dodger Stadium. His debut in the majors was the top sports story on all the local television stations in Las Vegas, as well as on the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal sports section. The Vegas media will be making the trip to LA to cover the local hero. 

So, ready or not, Harper will be in the big leagues and you will be seeing plenty of him nationally and, of course, locally starting tonight.            

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It’s that time of year again in Major League Baseball.

Division leaders and Wild Card hopefuls dominate the headlines as fans across the nation begin to anticipate the excitement of October pennant chases. 

September is where legends cement their place, managers justify their contracts, role players previously shrouded in obscurity make their names known, MVPs and Cy Young winners bring home their hardware, headlines are stolen and franchise-crippling collapses are immortalized. 

The most exciting month of baseball’s regular season is where the pretenders and the contenders are finally separated as W’s, X’s, Y’s and Z’s begin to finalize the standings, granting a select few ball clubs the ever-so-elusive invitation to the sport’s most exclusive dance.

Lost in the hype, however, as disgruntled fans of hopeless teams begin to switch the channel over to football are their first glances at a brighter future. 

For those of us not lucky enough to construct our hopes around the boys in New York, Milwaukee, Texas, Arizona, Detroit or Philadelphia, September call-ups are all we’ve got left to give the tail end of the schedule some measure of relevance.

This is where the old Brooklyn Dodgers mantra of “wait till next year” becomes a battle cry, because unless your favored club is within a few games of a postseason berth, the future is your last resort.

Now, that’s not to say that next year’s prospects are looking too bright in every corner of Bud Selig’s empire.

In remote ball-playing wastelands, such as Houston, Texas and Baltimore, it’s going to take years of patience and good faith before the home team can even begin to see itself on the same page as the rest of its competition.

For these five clubs, however, grim outlooks need not be applied.

With the savvy dealing, creativity and patience of their front offices alongside the steady development of their promising talent on the farm, brighter days appear to be just on the horizon, merely awaiting a fresh 162 or two.

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Washington Nationals (2010 record: 69-93)

The addition of free agent Jayson Werth speaks volumes about the Nationals’ growth in terms of the perception of the team as it continues its journey towards baseball relevance. The trade-off from Adam Dunn to Werth may or may not make an impact on the field in terms of wins and losses, but it makes a clear statement about the possibilities for the future.

Sadly for Nats fans, that future is not now.

The team improved by 10 games last year, but it faces an uphill battle to hold onto those gains in the upcoming season. The club lost future ace Stephen Strasburg to a torn ulnar collateral nerve and consequent Tommy John surgery last August. He’ll miss most, if not all, of the 2011 season.

On offense, Dunn and Adam Kennedy departed via free agency, and the front office traded OF Josh Willingham to Oakland. Considering all of these developments in their totality, the best case scenario for 2011 would be maintaining the 10-game improvement achieved in 2010.

The team is very young and, under the best of circumstances, it is likely still at least a couple of years away from competing for a division title.

Notable additions: OF Rick Ankiel, 1B Adam LaRoche, LF Matt Stairs, RF Jayson Werth

Notable subtractions: 1B Adam Dunn, 2B Adam Kennedy, LHP Scott Olsen, RHP Joel Peralta, OF Josh Willingham

The Offense

Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez

Infield: Adam LaRoche (1B), Danny Espinosa (2B), Ian Desmond (SS) and Ryan Zimmerman (3B)

Outfield: Roger Bernadina (LF), Nyger Morgan (CF) and Jayson Werth (RF)

The offense finished 14th (of 16) teams in the league in runs scored last year, and the plight of the lineup became more acute this winter when 1B Adam Dunn left for the cozy confines of US Cellular Field on the south side of Chicago. It was further exacerbated when Willingham was shipped to the Athletics.

The club will be largely dependent on holdover Zimmerman and newcomers Werth and LaRoche. Zimmerman won the Silver Slugger Award at third base in each of the last two years, but he had Dunn as his running buddy in the lineup.

That responsibility now falls to Werth, who will face life outside Citizens Bank Park while trying to live up to the $126 million contract he received in free agency. The pundits are split on whether his power will translate seamlessly to a bigger stadium in the nation’s capitol.

LaRoche has bounced from Pittsburgh to Boston to Atlanta to Phoenix (and now) to Washington over the last three seasons, but he has averaged a .269 average and 25 HR in those three seasons.

The club’s fate will be largely dependent on the continued development of 24-year-old SS Ian Desmond and 23-year-old 2B Danny Espinosa to complement Zimmerman, Werth and LaRoche. They both offer a potential for a decent power and speed combination, but they’re young and nothing is assured.

Desmond showed growth in the second half of last season, offering hope for 2011. Espinosa’s batting average in 2010 was bleak, but it will likely improve as last year’s number was based on a dismal 27 percent hit rate.

Nyjer Morgan went into last year having had a dynamic second half in 2009, but some level of regression was expected as his success was based on an unsustainable 37 percent hit rate in ’09. He regressed.

The question is where he goes from here. His game is speed, and he can’t use it unless he gets on base more consistently. He doesn’t walk nearly enough to be an effective leadoff man, so he’s got to figure out an identity and then embrace it. Many of the same comments apply to Bernadina, as well.

Ivan Rodriguez’s skills at the plate are increasingly marginal and he offers little in the way of production. That said, he doesn’t really hurt the club, per se, so he’ll likely retain the lion’s share of the playing time behind the plate.

The Pitching Staff

Rotation: RHP Livan Hernandez, RHP Jordan Zimmerman, LHP John Lannan, LHP Tom Gorzelanny and RHP Jason Marquis

Closer: RHP Drew Storen

On the mound, with Strasburg lost for the year, it is essential that the bevy of young pitching prospects they have started integrating at the big league level develops quickly in support of veteran Livan Hernandez.

Hernandez had a nice comeback campaign last year, posting a 3.66 ERA, but he’s just not a No. 1 pitcher anymore. Zimmerman and Marquis are both returning from injuries and cannot really be counted on, yet the Nationals are counting on them to be productive in the No. 2 and 3 slots in the rotation.

Zimmerman looked good in his return from Tommy John surgery at the end of the year and is capable of becoming a consistent winner if healthy. He’ll be another year removed from his injury this season, so the front office is hopeful he will remain healthy and develop into a reliable No. 2 behind Strasburg.

Lannan struggled throughout the first half of last year and eventually earned himself a demotion to Double-A. When he returned he resembled the pitcher who showed so much promise in 2008 and 2009.

Marquis and Gorzelanny are back-end options in any major league rotation. Marquis is a ground ball pitcher who seems destined to pitch 180 innings, win 12 to 13 games, and post a 4.50 ERA with a 1.45 WHIP, plus or minus. Gorzelanny walks too many batters and, as a result, will always struggle to live up to the potential he occasionally flashes.

Storen should be ready to assume the closer’s mantle on a regular basis in 2011. He had a strong first half last year, followed by a rough second half, but the peripherals suggest his second half was largely a matter of bad luck (high hit rate, low strand rate). I expect he will have a solid campaign as Washington’s closer, and eventually develop into an excellent closer over the next couple of seasons.

Prediction for 2011: Fifth place (70-92)

The absence of Dunn and Strasburg will no doubt hurt the on-field product, but their losses shouldn’t be catastrophic. Werth won’t replace Dunn’s offense, but the combination of Werth and LaRoche should replace the productivity of Dunn and Willingham. There is no replacement for Strasburg, but a healthy Zimmerman should mitigate the impact of his loss.

Desmond, Espinosa and Morgan: two of them will take a step forward this season and help the offense improve, if only marginally. Lannan will win a dozen games. The 2011 campaign won’t be what it could have been with Strasburg in the rotation, but it should provide an ever-improving foundation for the organization as it looks toward a future that includes Bryce Harper, Derek Norris, AJ Cole and others.

Top Five Prospects

1. Bryce Harper, OF
2. Derek Norris, C
3. AJ Cole, RHP
4. Chris Marrero, 1B
5. Yunesky Maya, RHP

Sports Illustrated dubbed Harper “Baseball’s Chosen One” as a high school sophomore. You would think it would be hard for a kid to live up to that kind of hype, yet Harper continues to impress in spite of the weight of expectations he carries on his shoulders.

The former catcher earned his GED in 2009 in order to skip his junior and senior years in high school and enroll at a junior college. In his one year of JuCo ball (2010), he hit .443 while leading the nation with 31 HR. He won the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur player and was then the consensus No. 1 pick in last June’s First-Year Player Draft.

He agreed to a contract with the Nationals just before the August signing deadline and converted to the outfield in the instructional league. He hit .343 in winter ball (in the Arizona Fall League) and is ticketed for the minor leagues in 2011 (maybe High-A Potomac, to start).

He is the proverbial five-tool player. There is no aspect of his game that needs improvement…just refinement. According to Baseball America, his power rates an “80″ on the scouts’ 20-80 scale. What most people don’t know is that his arm also rates an “80″ on the scouting scale. He stole 20 bases in 24 attempts in JuCo.

He will need to refine his approach at the plate and the mechanics of his swing in the minor leagues—improvements that will help him to hit for a higher batting average in the major leagues. He also needs work on his defense in right field, but it is a matter of gaining experience not acquiring skills. He is reputed to have an excellent work ethic, so the learning curve won’t be long or steep.

He is on the fast track to The Show, and to stardom.

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From 2008 to 2010, the Philadelphia Phillies won the NL East three times and appeared in the World Series twice, winning once in 2008. 

During that span, outfielder Jayson Werth hit 87 home runs, drove in 251 runs and batted .279.

In a roster loaded with All-Stars like Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez, Werth was often batting fifth in the lineup, protecting Howard who was the cleanup hitter.

To “protect” in baseball terms means that the hitter afterwards posses such a threat that the pitcher cannot afford to walk or put on base the hitter before.

For example, in Philadelphia, a Chase Utley double late in the game leaves an open base at first. Typically, when a power hitting All-Star like Ryan Howard steps to the plate, and with first base open, Howard would expect to see four straight balls before ending up on first.

The idea behind this is that by taking the bat away from their best hitter, the pitching team now has the advantage. However, with a strong hitter “protecting” the power hitter, the advantage remains to the hitting team since the last thing they want is to put two men on base with a solid power hitter up at the plate.

Jason Werth did just that with the Phillies. Batting fifth overall behind Howard, Werth ranked 10th overall among right-handed hitters the past three seasons with an .889 on-base-slugging percentage, which records how many times a player gets on base, minus errors, fielders choice or interference. The on-base percentage is then added to the slugging percentage (total bases divided by total at-bats) to get the on-base slugging percentage.

Werth’s 87 home runs from 2008-2010 ranked second overall among right-handed outfielders, trailing only Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun with 94.

After signing a seven-year deal worth $126 million, Werth is now being asked to protect third baseman Ryan Zimmerman in the Washington Nationals lineup that could someday very soon include 18-year-old phenom Bryce Harper.

Zimmerman, who in 2009 had a 30-game hitting streak, has won back-to-back Silver Slugger awards, and is one year removed from a 33-home run, 106-RBI campaign.

In the end, the signing of Jayson Werth, who was being sought after by both the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, was as gutsy as it was risky. If the Nationals idea of a future that includes Zimmerman hitting three, Werth at four and Harper at five pans out, then what many writers first believed to be a risky signing will have paid off.

If however Werth cannot do what he did in Philadelphia, then his signing may be looked at as nothing more than a team seeking to become contenders quick, even if it meant reaching for a player who played more of a supporting role than a $100 million contract.

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It’s a fickle life in Major League Baseball. Here today, gone tomorrow is a phrase often used when referring to ballplayers who had a quick run of success before seemingly losing it altogether, or players felled by injuries who were unable to make it all the way back.

The stories of great fame and then injury go back many years in baseball, especially among pitchers. Dizzy Dean was a classic example.

Known as the Ace of the Gashouse Gang for the St. Louis Cardinals, Dean was the last pitcher to win 30 games in the National League, reaching that mark in 1934.

However in 1937, Dean was struck by a line drive off the bat of Earl Averill, during that year’s All-Star game, fracturing his left big toe.

When Dean attempted to come back too soon after the injury, he altered his motion, which hurt his throwing shoulder, thereby robbing him of his famous fastball. Although Dean continued to pitch for several more seasons, he never approached his earlier success.

Another example was Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Steve Blass. Between the years of 1968-1972, Blass was one of the better and more durable pitchers in the National League.

He amassed four 15-win seasons in five years, his best in 1972, when he posted a 19-8 record with a 2.49 earned run average, earning him a runner-up finish behind Steve Carlton in the NL Cy Young award balloting.

Blass also won two games for the Pirates in the 1971 World Series, including the clinching Game 7 victory in which Blass threw a four-hitter in Game 3.

However, in 1973, Blass slipped to 3-9 with a 9.85 ERA, and was in the minors the following season. Blass completely lost the ability to throw strikes, and his control never returned. He was out of baseball by 1975.

This season, there are quite a few pitchers who are attempting to either come back from injuries, or trying to salvage a mess of a season the year before.

We rank the top 10 pitchers who will be attempting a comeback to glory for the 2011 MLB season.

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According to legend, when he was 15-years old, Bryce Harper bombed a home run that went over the right field fence, two trees, a second fence, a sidewalk, crossed five lanes of traffic, a second sidewalk, and landed in the middle of a deserted area in the Nevada desert. The shot was estimated to have landed some 570-feet away from home plate.

Although there is no video to prove exactly how far the home run landed, one year later and from multiple angles, Harper blasted the longest home run shot at Tropicana Field during a home run derby at the ripe old age of 16. This shot heard and seen around the world, hit off the back wall of Tropicana Field.

Five months later, Harper and his legendary home runs landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

On Monday, Harper will longer be the stuff of legend, but rather of reality as he makes his pro debut when the Nationals take on the New York Mets.

At just 18-years old, Harper may just overtake fellow teammate Stephen Strasburg as the biggest reason to watch the Washington Nationals, especially this spring training.

Although he isn’t expected to land on the Nationals’ regular season roster until next season, the hype is enough to draw interest. Rated as the No. 2 overall best minor league prospect according to MLB Network’s Top 50 prospects, Harper without question is the most intriguing of all.

The real dilemma facing the Nationals is the same they faced last season: when is the right time to cash in the chips and call up the kids to play pro ball?

Common sense, money and the overall excitment of seeing Strasburg was too much for the Nats, and one year after being drafted No. 1 overall, Stephen Strasburg made his pro debut in April of 2010. 

Harper spent his first season in the minors playing in the Arizona Fall League and without Strasburg for the entire 2011 season, there really isn’t much to get excited about in Washington, especially considering that the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves only got stronger in the offseason.

Time will only tell if the rumors of Harper not making his pro debut until 2011 will prove true, but in the meantime, it should be an interesting and entertaining Spring Training for the Nationals.

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