The Nationals will send No. 1 draft pick Bryce Harper to the Arizona Fall League, where he will face many of Major League Baseball’s top prospects for the first time.
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Harper, who doesn’t turn 18 until Oct. 16, recently completed a month of instructional league play at Washington’s spring-training facility in Viera, Fla. He is on the taxi squad of the Scottsdale Scorpions, which limits him to two games a week in Arizona. But the Washington front office believes even that limited playing time is worth it.
“This gives Bryce a more mature baseball environment and lets him challenge himself in a more advanced setting,” Nats director of player development Doug Harris said.
Harper joins six other Washington prospects on the Scottsdale roster. It doesn’t hurt that Double-A Harrisburg manager Randy Knorr, a respected member of the organization, is managing the team. When Harper isn’t playing in games, he will use his days off productively, running through extensive fielding and hitting drills with coaches and watching games alongside Knorr.
“That’s when [Harper] will get tidbits from Randy, to see the game through the eyes of someone who has played and taught it for a long time,” Harris said.
Harper was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 draft, a phenom whose amateur hype rivaled that of rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg the year before. Strasburg also made his debut in Arizona, pitching well last fall. The AFL schedule runs through Nov. 18, and the league is composed primarily of Double-A players. Harper’s first game will be Wednesday.
