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Bryce Harper's facepalm-worthy comments

I personally have nothing against Washington Nationals' right fielder Bryce Harper. He's one of the game's most exciting and promising young stars. Harper's having a breakout year at the plate, is improving defensively, and is on his way to leading his Nationals to another playoff appearance. However, every now and again, Harper makes me shake my head when listening to a post-game comment of his. Such was the case yesterday, after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Nationals by the count of 5-0, as Dodgers ace Zack Greinke extended his scoreless innings streak to 43 2/3, lowering his ERA to a major league best 1.30 in the process.

After the game, Harper said, "For me, I don't think he (Greinke) was very tough."

He also said, "...when you're getting 6 inches off the plate, it's tough to face him."

Lastly, Harper added, "I don't want to give him too much credit because I gotta face him again."

For the game, Greinke allowed 3 hits (all singles), no runs, and struck out 11 while walking 1 in eight innings of work. For the year, he's allowed just 87 hits in 131.1 innings, 19 earned runs, and has struck out 117, compared to walking just 21 (5.57 K : BB ratio). His ERA is at 1.30, WHIP is at 0.82, and his batting average against is at .187. Greinke is 9-2 overall and 4-1 in his last eight starts. In that span, here are his stats: 58.1 innings pitched, 33 hits, 3 earned runs, 57 strikeouts, 6 walks (9.5 K : BB ratio), 0.46 ERA,  and 0.67 WHIP.

Bryce Harper may be a great young talent and (rightly) think of himself as such, but the guy needs to learn how to handle losing a bit better and how to give opponents their due respect. Zack Greinke is pitching better than anyone in baseball at the moment and could be well on his way to a Cy Young award. It's understandable for Harper to be frustrated after his team got shut down by two of the game's best, in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, but the last thing he wants to do is make enemies of the team that just handled his, especially if they should meet in the playoffs. Now whenever the Dodgers face the Nationals, especially if Greinke is on the mound, the rest of the team will circle that (those) game(s) on the calendar and say, "Harper said Greinke isn't very tough; let's show them that Harper isn't very tough himself!" The next time, instead of making excuses for both his and his team's poor performance at the plate, Harper needs to simply stand up and say, "He (Greinke) got the best of me and us today, but we'll watch tape, make some adjustments, and try to get the better of him next time."

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13285990/bryce-harper-says-zack-greinke-got-umpire-help-not-very-tough

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/5883/zack-greinke

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/greinza01.shtml

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