The Nationals might not be headed to the playoffs, but they’ve certainly owned the headlines today, thanks to the Jonathan Papelbon / Bryce Harper confrontation yesterday (and Papelbon’s subsequent suspension) and Max Scherzer taking a no-hitter into the eighth against the Reds this afternoon. Here’s the latest from Washington.
- Scott Boras represents a number of key Nationals players, but he rejects criticisms that he has something to do with the team having underachieved lately, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Boras represents Scherzer, Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth, Danny Espinosa, and now Gio Gonzalez and Denard Span. Boras, though, points out that he also has several clients each on the Rangers, Cubs and Royals, all of whom are likely or definite playoff teams. “The issue is whenever I have had a number of players on the team, the vast majority of times it goes very well,” says Boras.
- Nats GM Mike Rizzo’s deal goes through 2016 and contains a club option for 2017, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets. The Nats will reportedly keep Rizzo for next season, although the details of his contract do seem relevant, given the Nats’ high-profile collapse this season.
- Public opinion understandably (and, from my vantage point, very justifiably) came down against Papelbon for his actions in his dustup with Harper, but responses from players were more mixed, pitcher-turned-commentator C.J. Nitkowski of FOX Sports writes. Some said Papelbon’s behavior was acceptable or that they “would have done the same thing,” seemingly proving Nitkowski’s point that “the clubhouse is like no other place.”
- Another former pitcher, Dirk Hayhurst of VICE Sports, writes that the fight was the consequence of baseball’s strange culture in which “the preferred tool for teaching is assault, and no one has any idea what that lesson is actually being taught because all the important stuff is not written down anywhere.”
- Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, meanwhile, argues that criticism of Harper for the altercation is unfair. Harper did run out the ball on the play that led to the fracas, and he’s played hard this season. He’s also been accommodating of media and autograph requests. And he has, of course, played brilliantly, while some of his teammates have foundered.
Firing Rizzo is the worst idea, he’s straight up a top 5 gm in the game and has executed the best trades of any gm. Ramos, gio, fister, span, thornton, Escobar deals were all great and only willingham, Blevins and pap come across as clearly bad trades and only pap of those was a disaster.
Although not a trade, I would add Janssen to the list of bad deals. The bullpen fiasco this year is on Rizzo. OTOH, the bad Billy Burns/Blevins trade may be cancelled out by the Blevins/den Dekker trade. Matt den Dekker is coming on strong. Rizzo will stay, IMO. Looking forward to his winter moves.
Any support of Papelbon is just pity to me it seems. No need to sugar coat it. You can apply it to any other aspect in live besides fighting and anybody reasonably sane can tell you it’s assault and out of line. The guy has a knack for the neck up it seems.
You see fights like this in practice on the Seattle Seahawks and many other teams. It was a “heat of the moment” event.
If Harper is truly cool with Papelbon and truly considers it a fight among brothers (his words, not mine), then I don’t see a problem.
But if Harper and his teammates can’t take Papelbon in the clubhouse anymore, then he has to go.
Hanley and cash for Papelbon.
No thanks.
And Hanley would play where?
Are you throwing in a year’s worth of free counseling?
Papelbon comes from a team with a winning culture when he was in Boston. What he has seen with the Phillies and Nats has probably disappointed him. Perhaps he saw himself as a veteran who was telling some kid how he should play the game, or something else was brewing between the 2. No idea what Harper said to Papelbon when they were arguing, maybe it was an invitation to tangle. We can only speculate
Sorry to see Nitkowski’s click bait mentioned again. Maybe, just maybe, the anonymous players were the same ones who voted Bryce Harper the Most OverRated Player before the 2015 season.
Scott Boras might be the highest paid person in the organization
Add victim-blaming to the list of unwritten rules that old-school baseball people cling to.
Nationals certainly do have a lot of Boras clients.