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The Bryce Harper-Matt Williams thing is, not surprisingly, being overblown

Bryce Harper Getty

Is it good form for a player to publicly question his manager’s lineup? Nope. Not at all. But Bryce Harper did it and, for the most part, was criticized in a proportionate manner. And of course the Nats are winning right now, so that makes things better.

Still, I feel like we’re going to be seeing hot takes about Harper not knowing his place for a while. Jason Reid of the Washington Post has one today. A few days after the fact, of course. And, more importantly, a few days after the Harper-Williams tiff -- to the extent you can call it a tiff -- had been resolved. If you don’t believe me, read Adam Kilgore’s story from the same Washington Post running Reid’s hot take:

The swirl of opinion and controversy crackled and hummed Tuesday afternoon, surfacing on television screens, blaring out of radios, murmuring in clubhouses across the league. While so many were talking about them, Bryce Harper and Matt Williams — the two figures at the center of the attention— sat down at Nationals Parks and talked to each other.

Kilgore -- who, unlike Reid, covers the Nats on a daily basis -- is the guy to go to for what’s actually going on. And to read his story is to realize that, an ill-advised comment notwithstanding, Williams and Harper are basically good with one another and the tiff, or whatever, is over.

At least with the people who matter. If the Nats do anything other than win the NL East and make a deep playoff run I presume some tourist who doesn’t cover the Nats that often will swoop in with some “the seeds of the Nationals’ failure were sewn back in late June . . .” take. Because that’s how this stuff usually works.