Harper benched for "inability to run ninety feet," reports ESPN ( No Quad Injury)

Got a kick out of this. Harper dogged it down to first on a grounder, so Nationals manager Matt Williams pulled him from the game.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10808419/washington-nationals-bench-bryce-harper-lack-effort

Got a kick out of this. Harper dogged it down to first on a grounder, so Nationals manager Matt Williams pulled him from the game.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10808419/washington-nationals-bench-bryce-harper-lack-effort

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Genius! RT <a href="https://twitter.com/vannadam">@vannadam</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw">@keithlaw</a> if u missed it, his spot came up in 9th down two with men at 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. Frandsen grounded out.</p>— keithlaw (@keithlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw/statuses/457615635951149056">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote>

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Good for Matt Wiliams. Isn't Harper usually an all out kinda guy though? Seems so on defense.

Good for Matt Wiliams. Isn't Harper usually an all out kinda guy though? Seems so on defense.

He pulled his quad badly enough to miss a game earlier this week.

I have to disagree with you on this one, the important part is keeping the bat in the lineup. I said in another thread, Williams will lose a war if he tries to fight one.

Good for Matt Wiliams. Isn't Harper usually an all out kinda guy though? Seems so on defense.

That's part of the reason I got a kick out of it; he always seems to be diving for balls and running into walls and such. The comments on ESPN suggest that Williams overreacted and that Harper might have been trying to avoid aggravating a strain.

That's part of the reason I got a kick out of it; he always seems to be diving for balls and running into walls and such. The comments on ESPN suggest that Williams overreacted and that Harper might have been trying to avoid aggravating a strain.

You're right, that is interesting. Matt Williams was always a hothead himself as I recall.

You would never, ever, ever see Buck do that with a regular. Not right or wrong. Just a different personality and style of managing.

You would never, ever, ever see Buck do that with a regular. Not right or wrong. Just a different personality and style of managing.

Buck is a respected, established ML manager. Williams not so much.

I'd love to see Harper put in his place because I don't like his theatrics, but here I doubt he was dogging it down the line. He just doesn't play the game that way. If he was hurt more likely he was just trying not to over extend himself. And in any case to don't publicly throw your players under the bus. One of Buck's best qualities is having control of the clubhouse because he has the respect of his players.

Harper is the future of that franchise not Williams. He better get on board or his tenure will be short lived.

Matt Williams is insane. This is like calling out Miley Cyrus for being too shy because she only tweeted a few updates from her hospital bed.

Kids these days.

Kids these days.

I amend my earlier statement. He is an idiot. No wonder Williams benched him. That looks awful. And apparently from the story he agreed with the decision. Or, at least he said he did. We'll see how it plays out over the season.

That's part of the reason I got a kick out of it; he always seems to be diving for balls and running into walls and such. The comments on ESPN suggest that Williams overreacted and that Harper might have been trying to avoid aggravating a strain.

I try to avoid ESPN as much as possible because of their writers biased journalism and consistently trying to make stories out of nothing. It's hard to deny the convenience factor of the site though. The comment sections are more than 50% filled with homers and trolls and uneducated fools. Is like navigating through a minefield.

It baffles me that there are people on there defending him. Even if he was hurt, you still run it out, especially in a situation where they could have come back to win it. It was only like 3 more steps to do so.

I don't know. It does look really bad, but if you watch it closely he doesn't actually peel off until the ball is in the first baseman's glove. Still should be running it all the way out though.