(Greg Fiume - GETTY IMAGES) Bryce Harper wasn’t yet a big leaguer when all the Nats started talking playoffs earlier this spring, so he never got to take a swig of that water. Well, consider the water swigged. Or swagged, maybe.

Here is Harper, talking to MLB.com’s Bill Ladson on Sunday:

“I think we have a team that can make it to the playoffs, play it well and get deep into the playoffs....It’s going to be an exciting time for this town and this city. It’s going to be fun to get deep into the playoffs, and hopefully, make it to the World Series.”

Is he talking about this year? Next year? 2015? Sort of hard to tell. And when Ladson asked Harper how far the Nats can go in 2012, he got all shy.

“I'm not going to answer that question,” he said. “It’s early right now, but I really know what we can do .”

And one more thing. Amid all the talk of Cole Hamels being old-school, Harper had a few words of his own on that subject.

I think those old-school players really played the game hard, they played it right. That’s what I wanted to do. I want to play this game as hard as I can, play this game right every single day. I'm going to give this club 110 percent every single day. They are not going to get anything less. I live in that at-bat. I live and die in that at-bat. I live and die for that game that day.

Sounds a bit like Andray Blatche, but I trust that Harper will never need to take time off for conditioning work. Please read the full interview here.

Previously

Strasburg on building a dynasty

Tyler Clippard guarantees Nats will make the playoffs

Davey Johnson says Nats can fire him if they miss the playoffs

Gio Gonzalez on sniffing the playoffs