My Prediction: Harper Plays for Nats in 2011

[Sharp]

It would give hime ~1 month of service time, it might be enough to push back his call up when he is ready by a month. If he really wants to be a Yankee, I say leave him at catcher and call him up when he's ready to catch in the majors, if we only get 6 years of him, might as well make them as close to his peak as possible

I think the thinking is (and I agree with this) that while we would probably get the best use out of him individually if we left him at catcher and brought him up a few years later, we also don't want to delay his development too much or we won't have the Harper / Stras / Zimm combination that might actually attract good players.  Between the three of them they could potentially put up an 18+ WAR season, which would pretty much make us contenders even if the rest of the lineup / rotation was totally average.  It doesn't seem like a terribly unlikely scenario right now, but there's a relatively narrow window for it to happen, and we don't want to miss it by waiting for Bryce to learn the nuances of the catcher position.

[HalfSmokes]

the window is 2013 (last year Zimmerman is under contract), when Harper will still be ~20, i.e. nowhere near his prime. I guess you could send him back down in 2014, but that would look pretty suspect

[blue911]

Could it possibly start his arbitration clock early?  That would be my chief concern.  Probably not I guess because he wouldn't have enough time in the majors, but I really don't know.  Bryce has pretty much already said that as soon as he hits free agency he'll sign with the Yankees, so we should be aiming to delay that moment as long as possible.

He's signed to a MLB contract so in one regard the clock has begun. Leaving him down for a full season will allow the Nationals to obtain a 4th option year, which probably will never come into play.

[Ray D]

Went to high school at Montgomery Blair and graduated in 58 or 59 if I recall.

Go Blazers!

[Sharp]

Go Blazers!

For such a large school you'd think we would have had more competitive teams

[Ray D]

For such a large school you'd think we would have had more competitive teams

You don't want to get me started on that, I just went through seven years of hell with that issue (daughter four years, then son three years younger).  Let's just say this: Blair has a great softball program.  That's about all you can say.