Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post called Nats GM Mike Rizzo this morning. And Rizzo unloaded on Cole Hamels like a freakin’ battleship bombarding the coastline:

Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo responded to Cole Hamels’ admission he drilled Bryce Harper on purpose last night in harsh terms, saying MLB should suspend Hamels and calling out Hamels as “fake tough.”

“Players take care of themselves,” Rizzo said after I called him this morning. “I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball … It was a gutless chicken [bleep] [bleeping] act. That was a fake-tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school.”

“Cole Hamels says he’s old school? He’s the polar opposite of old school. He’s fake tough. He thinks he’s going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year rookie who’s eight games into the big leagues? He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.”

First of all…

Just shut the f*** up Rizzo. Seriously, just shut the f*** up.

You drafted a highly talented player with a truckload of baggage, as I have documented several times.

First there was this from Baseball Prospectus before Harper was drafted:

“It’s impossible to find any talent evaluator who isn’t blown away by Harper’s ability on the field, but it’s equally difficult to find one who doesn’t genuinely dislike the kid.

“One scout called him among the worst amateur players he’s ever seen from a makeup standpoint, with top-of-the-scale arrogance, a disturbingly large sense of entitlement, and on-field behavior that includes taunting opponents.”

“He’s just a bad, bad guy,” one front-office official told Baseball Prospectus. “He’s basically the anti-Joe Mauer.”

AFTER you draft the kid that was basically considered the biggest douche bag baseball has seen in decades (and that is saying quite a friggin’ bit) your organization does very little to rein his punk ass in.

The first sign you needed to do so was last spring training, where it was heard that the kid was rubbing some veteran teammates the wrong way. The sentiment was “he thinks he has actually already earned his way to the big leagues & he couldn’t be more wrong”.

Then there was an incident in the minors where the young phenom hit a towering home run off an opposing pitcher then not only admired his handy work, but was arrogant enough to blow a kiss at the man standing on the mound.

This was in the minor leagues…as a supposed f***in’ professional. This isn’t just about holding stuff against him he did in junior college, it goes well beyond that.

In yet another incident, Harper and the opposing pitcher exchanged words after Harper took a called third strike.

Harper hit a home run prior to the strikeout and seemed amazed the umpire dared to question his knowledge of the strike zone when called out. When the opposing pitcher reminded him where the bench was located at, the fuse was lit and it was “on”.

That type of behavior continued throughout the entire season, only ending when he was shut down for the remainder of the season with some minor, nagging injuries.

So how did your organization go about doing it’s best to get his head straight over the off-season.

How did the Nationals go about managing this dumpster fire waiting to happen?

You ignored the root of the problem you asshat.

Your big, bold move…was to make him shut down his Twitter account.

That’s it.

So don’t sit here & cry in my f***in’ ear about how “fake tough”, “gutless” and “chicken shit” Cole Hamels is when you can’t man up & grow a pair when dealing with your prized teenaged assclown.

Hamels did what pretty much everyone outside of the Nationals fan base or organization felt needed to be done. He let the kid know that kind of shit wasn’t appreciated & would not be tolerated at the professional level.

He didn’t go head-hunting, he buried one into his rib area and he did it in the National League, knowing full well that he was going to be the recipient of any retribution.

Not exactly what I consider to be the act of a “fake tough” guy.

Be thankful someone else had the stones to do what your little bitch ass couldn’t.

UPDATE: On a related note, Johnny Bench is right up there with me and thinks Hamels did nothing wrong, saying it is just part of the game. How do you detractors like dem apples?