Bryce Harper has been in a bit of a slump lately, hitting only .250 on the season with a .337 OBP and a .359 SLG. As a result of his poor performance, Nationals manager Matt Williams has been asked more than once about sending Harper down to the minor leagues. The first instance came during a radio appearance with 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday morning.
Here is a transcript, courtesy the Washington Post:
Q: “Is it a terrible idea – just a wacky idea – to send him down to Syracuse for a week, just to get him right? Is that just a stupid idea on my part?”
A: “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s stupid. Generally, if you have young players, that’s what you do. But this guy is a special young player. We all know that. It’s different. I think he works hard every day. He’s the first one in the ballpark, generally, to get his day going. He’s grinding. We’re doing everything we can to get a good feel going in there and help him with his confidence and all that. It’s not easy, by any stretch. But I don’t know if it’s a good idea at this point to do that, because it’s completely different pitching. We all know the big difference between Triple A pitching and big league pitching. It’s probably more of an option to have him feel good here, get it back. We’ve seen him, certainly, good and hitting well. For me, it’s not necessarily that he can’t hit, of course. It is that he’s in some kind of a slump. What we have to do is try to work our way through it and get him out of it as quickly as possible. He grinds every day, you guys. He’s doing everything we can to get out of it, and so are we.”
Williams handled that one with relative ease. However, later that afternoon, when a reporter at Williams’ press conference asked about the possibility of Harper being sent down again, Williams lost it. Luckily, there is video:
[content_block id=134239]
