Sixteen year old Bryce Harper, being advised by Scott Boras, has elected to skip his final two years of high school (while getting his GED) in order to play ball in community college - which will give him 2010 draft eligibility. Here we go again... And with the Nationals "achieving" a 16-46 record so far - good for nine games behind the next worst team - next year's draft might really be groundhog day all over again.
How about this - if Boras and the Nats dont agree on a Strasburg deal this year, the Nats will get the #2 pick next year as compensation... they could very likely have the top two picks in next year's draft. A shrewder team might understand the leverage that this presents - there is no way Strasburg will allow himself to be unsigned for TWO years, one would think, and if Boras doesnt complete a deal he will look foolish if he doesnt get top dollar out of the Nats in 2010. He couldnt allow Strasburg to go unsigned for two years, and not complete a Harper deal as well - that would really hurt his reputation. But, the Nationals have shown no indication that they have the ability to identify or execute on anything that looks like an intelligent plan, and with the front office in disarray and media and fan pressure to complete the Strasburg deal, I think the chance of the Nats playing hardball is remote.
***Edit*** - It has been brought to my attention that a team is not allowed to draft the same player two years in a row, so its do or die for the Nats to get Strasburg this year. Still, not signing Strasburg and then being able to negotiate on Harper next year does give the Nats some leverage. But what they really need, more than that, are these players...***
***Another Edit*** the brilliant Kevin Goldstein pointed out that a player can, in fact, be drafted again by the same team if the sign some sort of agreement. This is based on a Memorandum of Understanding which was added to the CBA and may or may not be published on-line... As the possibility of a stand-still increases we will track down clarification on this.***
