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.

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