"Madame Speaker, I rise to congratulate my constituent, Bryce Harper, on being selected by the Washington Nationals as the first overall pick in the Major League baseball draft...[blah, blah, blah, something, blah]. Madame Speaker, I look forward to welcoming Bryce to Washington, and watching him play just down the street as [he] stars for the Nationals for years to come."
(Congresswoman Titus of Nevada, 6/24/2010)
Yes, the video above is ancient history now in internet-time (more than two weeks old!), and has probably been linked-to and picked over by other blogs weeks ago. But it's new to us: Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-Nevada) took a minute of open floor time in the House back on June 24th to sing the praises of one Bryce Harper.
Watching the video got us thinking how the negotiations are going between the Nats and Boras. Are they going? Adam Kilgore had this optimistic nugget about Harper on Friday on Nationals Journal, in a piece about the signing of three more draft picks not named Bryce Harper:
"...We'll get it all taken care of in the end," Nationals scouting director Kris Kline said.
The Nationals remain confident they'll sign Harper, who is represented by super-agent Scott Boras. ...
The August 16 deadline is still over a month a way...and negotiations will probably come down to another midnight-deadline highwire act like last year with Strasburg. No way this thing doesn't get done, right?
The All-Star break deadzone is good for fretting about these kinds of things, and for thinking about progress. A couple of Jim Riggleman and Mike Rizzo quotes on the topic after yesterday's disappointing end to the season's first half :
"There's progress. But we want to get to the point where we're not satisfied with progress. We want to make that next step."
(Jim Riggleman, via Nats Insider, 7/10/2010)"We're putting last season behind us. I think we have underachieved a little bit, and I don't think we played as good as I think we can. I'm looking forward to a better second half."
(Mike Rizzo, via Nationals.com, 7/10/2010)
39-50, 11 games under .500. "Underachieved a little bit"? Considering that we had 'em pegged as a 70-92 team, they're actually right on track as far as we're concerned. 73 games to go when the season resumes with Strasmas 8 on Friday in Florida. Here's hoping they can just play clean baseball and not get anybody else hurt the rest of the way. 2011, here we come!
Meanwhile...
Mike Rizzo prefers to keep both Dunn and Willingham, but would trade them if the right deal presents itself.
Pat Corrales loves Danny Espinosa-- Espinosa went 0-2 in yesterday's 2010 XM All-Star Futures Game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim Los Angeles Anaheim.
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