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Bryce Harper asked, 'Where's my ring?' after Nats signed Max Scherzer

mark townsend
Yahoo Sports Contributor

According to Las Vegas oddmakers, the Washington Nationals immediately became World Series favorites after signing free-agent pitcher Max Scherzer to a seven-year, $210 million contract in January. But they certainly weren't alone in that belief. We here at Big League Stew agreed as well, and so does Las Vegas native — and current Nationals outfielder — Bryce Harper, who not surprisingly wasn't shy about expressing his confidence.

After reporting to camp Wednesday, Bryce Harper was greeted by the expected throng of national and local media, and he wasted no time expressing his belief in the Nationals starting rotation and their chances of bringing home a World Series championship.

"I mean, that's unbelievable. So to be able to have a guy like Scherzer come in, I just started laughing. I was like: 'Where's my ring?' Cause it's just stupid," he said to CSN's Mark Zuckerman and other reporters.

"It's absolutely stupid how good our staff is. To add a Cy Young, to add a guy that is unbelievable in the postseason. If you have to go into a five-game set in the postseason — looking ahead, like I told you I wouldn't — you have to go into a five-game set with a team, you're going to have to face [Jordan] Zimmermann, [Doug] Fister, Scherzer and Stras [Stephen Strasburg]. Good luck. That's just insane."

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Harper, who missed time last season with a torn ligament in his thumb and has been prone to DL stints over his first three seasons, knows that he'll be needed too for Washington to go all the way. If that means slowing down a pace or two, he sounds more willing to make that effort to stay healthy. Basically he's really happy, really focused, and he's ready to ... wait, apparently he wasn't done gushing about the Nationals' pitching staff. We'll standby here.

"Going into that, I'm just crying. It's hilarious to me, having to go in there and face them. It's absolutely stupid. We have the best staff in baseball, I don't care what anybody says. And the thing about our guys: They work. It's not like it's just: 'Let's just go out there and play.' They work, and they work hard. And to add a guy like Scherzer, who's a bulldog out there, who's unbelievable in the postseason and shows that fire and that emotion, is something I'm going to enjoy watching this year. And I think our team in the outfield is going to do a lot of watching, because they're going to be carving it. We're excited."

Excited seems like an understatement following these comments, but we'll go along with that.

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It's also clear that Harper has moved well beyond his disagreement with the Nationals over his arbitration eligibility after signing a two-year, $7.5 million deal on Dec. 15.

“I absolutely love this organization,” Harper said. “I love the city that I play for. And I’m not done here. Like I said before, five years ago when I first signed here: I’m going to bring back a title to D.C., no matter what. I’m getting chills thinking about it. I mean, I absolutely want to do that for this city, this town, and I don’t care how long it takes me. I’m going to stick and do what I need to do to help this organization win."

Big words to match big expectations, but it does feel like Washington has finally covered every base going into the 2015 season. Now, it's a matter of good health, which can be unpredictable, and playing its best when it matters most, which the team has been unable to do in the postseason. If there's anything the success of the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals has taught us, it's that execution always trumps expectations.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!