Babes Love Baseball: It's Bryce Harper Hype Time! Scott Boras has a flair for the dramatic. Like last year's no. 1 draft choice Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and his agent waited until the final seconds of the day until he and his client inked a deal. The catching phenom, who became the first JUCO player to be taken with the first pick, settled on a $9.9 million, five-year contract with the Washington Nationals just before Monday’s midnight deadline. That would be a record for a kid fresh out of the draft who isn't a pitcher or a free agent.
Now he'll be able to buy an endless supply of eye black to smear all over most of his face! The 17-year-old baseball-crushing backstop from the College of Southern Nevada will receive a $6.25 million signing bonus in five installments of $1.25 million through 2014. [Washington Post] | [Yahoo! Sports] | [Federal Baseball] Yankees. MiLB. MLB.