Slumping phenom Harper still has much to learn

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HARRISBURG, Pa.Bryce Harper has already decided that he wont be talking to the press. Or maybe its been decided for him. After all, things seemed to work out well when the Washington Nationals PR staff put the velvet ropes around another No. 1 overall draft pick, Stephen Strasburg, when he was making his way up through the minors.

The difference, of course, was that Strasburg was made available in a formal setting after games he pitched, where he dropped the time-honored baseball clichs better than Nuke LaLoosh could after a private tutoring session from Crash Davis in Bull Durham.

Another difference is that when Strasburg blew through Harrisburg and Triple A Syracuse, he dominated. That might be the luxury of being a starting pitcher who plays once every five games with a triple-digit fastball, but its not the same reality for Harper.

See, Harper, last years No. 1 overall draft pick and top hitting prospect in the minors, is going through his first ever slump at the plate. It seems that even with the 9.9 million he signed for with the Nationals, Harper just cant buy a hit.

At least not in Double A.

Since being promoted to Double A Harrisburg on July 4, Harper is batting just .171, currently riding an 0-for-12 swoon. He last got a hit on Saturday and has one hit in his last 21 at-bats. Considering that he batted .318 with 14 homers in 72 games for Single A Hagerstown and skipped past High-A Potomac for Harrisburg, these could be some more hard lessons for the games top hitting prospect.

Harper told CSN Washington that he was a bit bored toward the end of his stay in Hagerstown.

Those last 20 games, I was really, you know, really not too focused, Harper said. You know, I was wanting to get out of there, doing things that I shouldnt have been doing.

Perhaps he picked up a few bad habits?

Hes competed well. Hes hit the ball much better than his batting average indicates, said Tony Beasley, manager of the Nationals Double A affiliate in Harrisburg a few hours before his team took on the Bowie Baysox on City Island. Hes hit a lot of balls hard that have been caught. He plays good defense and hes been solid.

That was the story on Tuesday night where Harper took another oh-fer. Batting out of the No. 6 spot where Beasley says he doesnt have to feel like he has to carry the loadhe can just relax and hit, Harper appeared to have a hit in the second inning. The problem was the ball caromed off the first basemans glove directly to the second baseman who easily threw him out.

Harper lined out to the warning track in deep center field in the third inning before working the count and grounding back to the pitcher in the fifth. In the seventh, with the tying run on first and one out, the lefty struck out on a 1-2 pitch, his eighth whiff in 10 games.

So if he doesnt want to talk about baseball or what an 18-year old millionaire can do for fun in Harrisburg, thats fine. He has time to figure out what he wants to say.

Besides, maybe in a year or two Jayson Werth can take him aside and teach him the dynamics of on-the-record and off-the-record conversation. Perhaps that is where Werth can best tutor the next big thing when they are teammates in Washington.

After all, if there is one area of Harpers game that needs work, its in the way he is perceived.

Sometimes people lose sight that hes 18 and he has a lot on his plate, Beasley said.

Its not easy being 18. First of all, its that in-between age where one can be tried in court as an adult and go to war in the military, but try buying a bottle of beer without a fake I.D. and good luck with renting a car.

Now imagine how tough it is being 18 and a high school dropout equipped with a GED and a year of community college under your belt. Imagine being 18 and a good 4-to-10 years younger than all of the other guys at work while the rest of the kids you grew up with just finished high school last month. Worse, how tough is life when your every move is documented and fretted over? Every youthful faux pas is deconstructed and published in some of the biggest newspapers in the world.

Thats what its like to be Bryce Harper.

Its one thing to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the title, The Chosen One while drawing comparisons to Mickey Mantle at age 16, but its almost unfathomable to be 18 and to have every teenaged whim mulled over by adults on web sites, newspapers and magazines.

I couldnt even tell you what I was doing when I was 18, Beasley said. It wasnt doing this. I was not as mature as he is. Hes focused and driventhe kid has some special attributes.

As far as we know, Harper has never been arrested, never involved in a criminal activity and not engaged in any illegal, deviant or anti-social behavior. Hes a baseball player and a young one at that. He got 9.9 million from the Nationals when he was drafted and has spent the majority of his teenage years trying to become a big leaguer. That doesnt make him too different than a lot of kids his age, its just that Harper is doing it in public.

And Harper, last years No. 1 overall draft pick, could be the most reviled 18-year-old kid in the United States.

Ive seen him for a week and Id say hes a special talent, Beasley said. Hes 18-years old. The thing Im most impressed with is the individual and how hes been able to carry himself with all the things that surround him. Hes handled it outstandingly and thats been impressive.

Harper has learned his lessons the hard way. Earlier this season while playing for Single A Hagerstown, he blasted a home run and blew a kiss to the pitcher as he circled the bases. That was after he posed and watched the ball disappear over the fence.

If Harper did something like that in the big leagues, Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay might make it so he couldnt pucker up for a few weeks.

He grew a mustache and got some tattoos and that was news enough to appear on more than a handful of web sites, including the Washington Posts. He also struck out in a game and got booed by the handful of fans that show up for games in Harrisburg. Sometimes the stuff that gets reported has very little to do with baseball.

Harper is definitely getting a big dose of baseball reality in Harrisburg, Pa. That likely wont change if he gets to Washington where in three incarnations of the SenatorsNationals, the city hasnt seen a World Series since 1933 and hasnt won a title since Walter Johnson beat the New York Giants in 1924.

Baseball is a tough game for even the best players, but can be even tougher for those who made it look so easy for so long. So no, dont expect to see Harper digging in at the plate at Citizens Bank Park anytime soon. It appears as if he has to figure out a few things in Harrisburg first.

Email John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com.

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