I’m fully aware that he has only been pitching for about a month. I’m also aware that there are other pitchers in the National League who have been equally as impressive (the Cardinals’ Jamie Garcia being one of them).
But there’s still no excuse why Stephen Strasburg was left off the NL All-Star Game roster. In fact, there’s only one reason why he should be getting ready to pitch in L.A. two weeks from now and it has nothing to do with the number of starts he’s made or batters he has struck out so far in his young career.
Ever since Bud Selig decided to make the All-Star Game relevant in 2003 by awarding the winner home field advantage in the World Series, the pastime has taken on a ton of importance. And seeing as how the game means so much for the league that wins, isn’t it vital for both teams to field the best players?
Nationals’ phenom Stephen Strasburg once again dominated his competition in his third start of the season, striking out 10 White Sox in seven innings on Friday night. Unfortunately for him he picked up a no-decision, but he walked zero batters against the best lineup he’s pitched against since he was called up.
Thus far, he has struck out 32 batters in 19 1/3 innings and has compiled a 1.86 ERA. The 32 Ks is the most for any pitcher in baseball’s modern era (1900 – present). He’s also the first pitcher in the modern era to have two 10-strikeout, no-walk games in his first three MLB starts.
Granted, the Pirates, Indians and White Sox don’t have powerhouse offenses, but so what? These are still major league hitters that he’s managed to look like toddlers swinging those big, red plastic bats for the first time in the backyard. His stuff is absolutely out-of-this-world.
Strasburg is scheduled to face the Royals in his next matchup, which will be the best offense he has seen to date.
I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I just wanted to hear the guy’s head explode that always reminds everyone, “It was only one game! It was only one game!” when a young player does well in his first career appearance.
And actually, Strasburg did more than “well.”
In his major league debut last night against the Pirates, Stephen Strasburg struck out a franchise record 14 batters over seven innings to pick up his first career victory. His only blemish came in the fourth inning when Delwyn Young took him deep with a two-run dinger to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Thanks to Adam Dunn’s two-run dinger in the sixth, the Nationals were able to retake the lead at 3-2, before adding two more runs in the eighth to give them a 5-2 victory.
Getting back to Strasburg, perhaps the most impressive stat from his debut (besides the 14 Ks, of course) is the fact that he didn’t walk anybody. That’s impressive considering he’s a 21-year-old kid pitching in a packed house for a franchise that has lofty expectations of him. The amount of control he exhibited was also impressive, as he mowed down the Pirates for seven innings.
Granted, this wasn’t a very dominant lineup he was facing, but so what? He was brilliant and he gave fans a lot to cheer about in his first time out. Who knows where he goes from here, but one thing is for sure: he’s off to a fantastic start.
The Nationals have been based in Washington since 2005. Since then, they’ve managed to finish dead last in the NL East every year outside of 2007, when they shocked the masses by finishing fourth.
Outside of Ryan Zimmerman, the only other player the Nationals’ fan base could call a “star” was Dmitri Young, which is like saying Paul Walker is the star in his movies – any movie.
But tonight at 7:05PM ET at Nationals Park, the fans will have a new star – a legit star, to root for in young phenom Stephen Strasburg. The 2009 No. 1 overall pick will make his major league debut tonight against the Pirates in what will undoubtedly be a packed house in Washington D.C.
The media in Washington has been trying to get the fans to temper their expectations of tonight for the last couple of months. But that’s impossible for a fan base that has sat through horrid season after horrid season since 2005. They deserve to think the world of Strasburg, even though expectations should be kept at bay. He’s an incredible prospect, but he’s just that: a prospect. He has even admitted that he hasn’t proven anything yet.
In just over 55 innings and 11 starts in the minor leagues this year, Strasburg struck out 65 batters while walking only 13 and posting a 1.30 ERA. He has been so dominant that even if the Nats wanted to prolong his stay in the minors, they would have no reason to. Calling him up after June 4 allowed the club to delay the start of his arbitration clock, meaning the only reason to keep him in the minors would be so he could work on his game. And his game looks fine as is.
So June 8, 2010 it is. When Strasburg takes the bump tonight, all eyes will be firmly planted on No. 37. Whether he’s ready for the big moment is not really important. What is important is that his day is finally here.
Suddenly, the future for Washington D.C. baseball looks awfully promising.
A year after taking pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg with the No. 1 overall pick, the Nationals took catcher Bryce Harper with the top selection during Monday’s MLB draft.
Harper doesn’t even turn 18 until October, but he hit .417 with 21 dingers in 51 games at a junior college last season. While his natural position is catcher, the club actually announced him as an outfielder when they selected him. Catchers usually take longer to get to the big leagues because they have to learn how to handle a major league pitching staff. But if Harper can play the outfield, he’ll likely spend less time in the minors.
While it’s important not to expect too much too soon out of them, if both Strasburg and Harper live up to their potential, the Nationals have two pieces in which they can build their franchise around for years to come. If nothing else, this will be an exciting team to watch over the next couple of seasons with the amount of young talent they’ll have coming up through the minors.
The Nationals don’t know the specific date, but the club has tentatively planned for phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg to make his first major league start sometime between June 8 and June 10 against the Pirates.
From the Washington Post:
“We can know that right up until the moment that we name him to pitch, but we’re not going to announce that,” Riggleman said. “There’s procedural things. There’s other players affected by it. There’s just too many reasons not to announce it. So we’re not going to announce anything.
“It affects a lot of people. I liken it to, whatever, April 3 and opening day is April 5. Who made the club? Who didn’t make the club? And a week later, nobody remembers, because the roster has already changed. When this is all said and done, the fact that we nailed down the date he’s going to pitch and announced it will be a non-entity. It’s going to be all about when he does pitch and people will be excited about it. Leading up to it,. we may or may not announce it. That will be an organizational decision. We have a pretty good idea of when he’s going to pitch.”
One of the reasons Riggleman gave for not announcing the specific date that Strasburg will come up is so that the pitcher he’s replacing isn’t affected. That makes sense given that whoever it is still has one or two more outings under his belt before Strasburg comes up.
Either way, he’s coming up and that’s exciting. The 21-year-old has posted an amazing 0.39 ERA over his first four starts at Triple-A Syracuse and looks every bit ready to start in the big leagues. That said, expectations should still be tempered. The majors have a way of humbling young players (especially pitchers) and even though Strasburg looks special, there’s quite a difference between Triple-A hitters and the ones he’ll face in mid June.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 Draft went 3-0 with a 0.52 ERA on the month. He’s collected 23 strikeouts over 17 1/3 innings, and he hasn’t given up an earned run since his first professional start. Over his last two outings, he’s allowed one hit and one walk over 10 innings. Considering these numbers, a move from the Double-A Eastern League was only a matter of how soon.
Strasburg will reportedly throw 85 pitches or five innings on Sunday and may make a start late next week against the International League’s Gwinnett Braves.
This news should please Nationals fans. It only took a month for Strasburg to impress in Double-A, so hopefully he doesn’t hit any bumps in the road at the next stage.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (04/10/2010 @ 1:13 pm)
Of course, it’s not going to be in the majors — the Nationals have money to save!
Instead, Stephen Strasburg, the No. 1 draft pick most of the baseball world has never seen play, will make his minor league debut for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators on Sunday.
From MLB.com:
He’ll pitch against the Pirates’ club, the Altoona Curve, at Blair County Ballpark. There’s an amusement park beyond the walls of the park, but it’s likely the folks of Altoona have never seen a circus quite like the one that’s expected on Sunday. The Curve staff has fielded close to 70 credential requests from nearly 30 different media outlets.
“With this first one, this is his first real professional outing,” Nationals farm director Doug Harris said. “I think organizationally, we want him to walk off the mound in one piece, first and foremost. Let’s get him through it, and let’s move on. I don’t expect to see anything from him different than what he’s done.”
What he’s done unofficially has already created quite a buzz and made everyone in the nation’s capital, and perhaps around baseball, set a Strasburg timer. First he went to the Arizona Fall League and showed the ability to dominate and bounce back from a rough outing.
Then came his first big league Spring Training, where he showed the ability to get Major League hitters out based on his pure stuff. But while there may have been external pressure and expectations to put Strasburg straight into the big league rotation, it’s not something that really entered into Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo’s mind. There’s more to pitching and succeeding at the highest level than just pure stuff.
“We just want to see him develop,” Rizzo said. “Improve each and every outing. Do things that we worked on, things from the plan we want him to work on. People say he’s ready to pitch in the big leagues. I obviously don’t think so, or he’d be here. He needs to put his time in. We want it to be that once he gets to the big leagues, he stays in the big leagues.”
A couple of things here: 1) The Altoona Curve is probably the coolest name for a baseball team I’ve ever heard and 2) The ubiquitous information about the economics of baseball is, by and large, discouraging. On one hand, I willingly spend countless hours reading about front office dealings because, hey, it’s interesting. But the more and more I learn (and this is the same squabble people have with sabermetrics), I feel like my love for baseball is compromised. When Stephen Strasburg finally takes the mound in a big league game, I’m going to know every detail about his structured contract, how the team delayed his service time so they could score an extra year of arbitration, and stats that chart his projected development as it compares to other pitching phenoms. Most of us have never seen him throw, yet we know his agent’s name. I can’t even remember: Is Strasburg the one with the shutdown fastball, or is it a curveball? It’s escaping me, but I can tell you that he received a $7.5 million signing bonus. The great American pastime!
At this point, I’m sure Nationals fans wish they were left in the dark about Strasburg’s contract situation. Bottom line, their system holds possibly the best young pitcher in the game — a kid who’s perfectly healthy — and they’ll have to wait until the front office gives him the go ahead. It’s the waiting that’s the worst.
In order to help get you ready for the MLB season, we’re doing division-by-division rankings with quick overviews on how each club could fair in 2010. Next to each team, you’ll also find a corresponding number written in parenthesis, which indicates where we believe that club falls in a league-wide power ranking. Be sure to check back throughout the next two weeks leading up to the season, as we will be updating our content daily. Enjoy.
1. Philadelphia Phillies (2)
Much like the Yankees in the American League, it’s hard to find bad things to say about the Phillies. They’re the three-time defending NL East champions and considering they’re ready to bring back the same core of players that got them to the World Series the past two years, there’s no reason to doubt them. Oh, and they added Roy Halladay. Roy, I’m going to dominate your face for nine innings, Halladay. If Cole Hamels rebounds and J.A. Happ’s 2009 wasn’t a fluke, the Phillies won’t suffer a setback this season. In fact, the pitching doesn’t even have to be that great with the likes of Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez taking up the first six spots in the order. The problem, however, is that Hamels might not bounce back and Happ’s ’09 season may have been a fluke. There’s also that nagging Brad Lidge closer issue that could haunt this club as well. That said, odds are that the Fighting Phils will be right back at the top of the NL East again this season. They’re too good, too talented and too experienced to fold and they have a great chance to reclaim their title back from the Yankees.
After seeing the 2009 top overall pick throw several impressive bullpen outings recently, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said it’s not in his plans to have Stephen Strasburg begin the season in the starting rotation, but he wouldn’t rule out the possibility either.
This stance differs from what Riggleman said last weekend when he indicated that Strasburg would likely being the 2010 season in the minors. Riggleman said he would remain open-minded about the idea of the pitcher making the big league club out of spring training, but also noted that Strasburg isn’t really competing for a spot in the rotation. However, as soon as Riggleman saw Strasburg throw his second bullpen session of the spring, he said that the pitching prodigy was “off-the-charts good.”
Strasburg’s fastball, curveball and changeup are already good enough to face Major League hitters. But it will be his control that ultimately decides whether or not he starts in the show or in the minor leagues. If he blows away the competition this spring, the Nationals may want to start him in the rotation this year to get him big league experience and also sell some tickets in the process.
That said, rushing a prospect before he’s ready is a good way to ruin his career. Some players never recover after being brought up too soon, although there have been others (Albert Pujols and Tim Lincecum to name a couple) that have became stars right away. We’ll see how Strasburg handles things this spring.
