Bryce Harper's secret weapon.

Oh, boy. We all knew Bryce Harper (the number one overall pick by the Washington Nationals this year) was angling for a huge signing. I mean, he did some extraordinary things to be eligible for this draft - He took his GED after his sophomore year in High School and enrolled in Junior College - thus moving up his eligibility. And to add to that, with the deadline approaching to sign Bryce or lose him back to the draft pool looming (8/16 at midnight), Bryce has gone and enrolled in classes again for this coming semester.
I chalked that up to posturing, and had good feelings that the Nationals would sign him, and I still believe they will call his bluff and get it done. I'm just not sure, anymore, that it won't be for an astronomical sum of cash. You see... Miss Chatter's Twitter feed led me to a Bryce Harper signed ball this morning. I Googled for other Bryce signed balls, and sure enough, he signs them all the same way:



A quick search for Luke 1:37 brings up the following quote:

"For nothing is impossible with God."

Oh. I see. Weird, I didn't know he was religious. How did I miss this? I mean, I even searched through some pictures of him and didn't see any signs. OR DID I??? I took a closer look at this picture, and found something weird (I've added an arrow to point your eyeballs in the right direction:


Hmmm... I had the CSI lab zoom and enhance the picture and the results are in:



Dammit. If that Luke 1:37 quote is true, the Nats are over a barrel. .

Bill Ladson puts Josh Smoker at Stanford. I'm SHOCKED!

Bill Ladson's latest article, in which he informs us of Josh Smoker's left shoulder surgery, also lets us know he's attending college. More specifically, Stanford University.

In two professional seasons, Smoker, who also attends Stanford University, made 13 starts, giving up 23 earned runs in 18 innings.

I'm not sure how Bill got this information, though. Can he be confusing the Nationals sandwich pick from 07 (Smoker), with the 6th round pick of that year, Jack McGeary?Na, he couldn't be.. could he? McGeary was intent on going to Stanford on a scholarship instead of signing with an MLB club in 2007. The Nationals, however, got creative, and McGeary signed, allowing him to play professionally for the Nats and attend Stanford (on the Nats dime) in the offseason. I think Bill confused the two, which is an indication that not only is he still into the heavy drug use, but also drinking moonshine. By the barrel. Daily.

How did I come to the conclusion Smoker is NOT attending classes at Stanford? Well, for one, he grew up in Calhoun, GA. and had a scholarship offer from Clemson, which he actually accepted before signing at the last minute with the Nats. If he were to go to school, I would put him there. Two, the Nats planned to send him to pitch in the Fall instructional league

Smoker will report on Saturday to the team's rookie-level Gulf Coast league affiliate in Viera, Fla., and then will pitch in the club's fall instructional league

Unfortunately for Josh, he would have to miss some classes while playing in the fall league, since school would have started by then. Three, this article by Barry states he spent the off season in Calhoun, GA:

The decision to sign started Smoker on his path here, through two starts in the New York-Penn League (lasting four innings with a 4.50 ERA), then three weeks in instructional league, then an offseason back in Calhoun.

"I'm used to the small-town life in the offseason," he said.

How does one attend college in California while living in Georgia? I'm thoroughly confused here. And finally, a search of the Stanford student directory does not come up with anyone named Smoker as registered. It does come up with a McGeary, however. Weird how that happens, isn't it?

Bill, if you need help with any fact checking on future columns, just hit me up. I come cheap, and I would do my best to hide your hooch while you're writing. Let me know!

Don't expect all the draft picks to sign.

Fuck. Looks like the top picks are not a priority of the Nationals this year.

Kasten said the organization will have an idea by next week on who it will sign before the deadline. Overall, the Nationals have signed 25 out of their 50 picks thus far. "I'm sure we'll sign some more of our picks, but I don't think we will sign all of them, but we will try," Kasten said. "We studied this pretty carefully. We decide the value that we place on prospects. That's the No. 1 consideration. Sometimes it's more than Major League Baseball's recommendations, sometimes it's less than the recommendations.

And then there is this.

Nationals president Stan Kasten acknowledged on Tuesday that the team most likely will not sign all of its top picks. Kasten declined to say which players he felt were unsignable. However, late last week, general manager Jim Bowden said negotiations with Crow, the Nats' top pick, weren't going well.

Stan does go on to say what they are offering Crow, but fails to Mention what Crow is asking for.

The Nationals feel that Crow's salary should be similar to what pitcher Ross Detwiler received. Detwiler, the team's first-round pick in 2007, received a $2.15 million signing bonus. "The Crow case is a little interesting. In some respects, that decision is easier than all. It's kind of pretty well determined," Kasten said. "We know what the Chad Corderos, the Ryan Zimmermans, the Chris Marreros and the Ross Detwilers received. We know what their value is. We know what the No. 10 pick [in the first round] is already getting. The feeling is, [regarding Crow] it's between No. 10 this year and what Detwiler's contract was. That's the appropriate value. It's fairly easy to figure out."

I'll write up something in a little bit about the bullpen.......problems........from last night, but I thought you might find this interesting/frustrating/suicide invoking.

They better go public with what the guys were asking for if they don't sign. These fuckers better have been asking for weekly hookers, and bags of weed as big as a baby's arm to go along with their salary demands, or I'm going to label this a complete and utter failure.