It was worth the wait…Stephen Strasburg is pretty good
Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 at 8:00 am by SKI in Baseball, MLB Baseball, Washington Nationals
Now that’s how you announce your presence with authority. You dice up 14 bucaroos and shove your 100mph fastball down their throat, then break their knees and back by snapping off uncle charlie. It was almost a perfect beginning to Stephen Strasburgs career.
His stat line for the game 7IP, 4H, 2R, 0BB, 14K’s, 3 Pies in Face and 1 plastic wig.
Usually I would go into my tirade about how brutal the NL is and that what he did shouldn’t be looked as all that great, but having watched every pitch he threw I can’t say that here. Yeah the Pirates are terrible and against other good teams he probably wouldn’t have done as good, but these are still professional baseball players and he made most of them look like amateurs. Add in the amount of pressure he was under making his big league debut and the pressure everyone else has put on him saying that he will be great and it makes what he did even more impressive. Everyone knew that he had an explosive fastball and a curveball that falls off the table, but I didn’t expect him to have the command of both pitches. I haven’t seen a rookie have this kind of stuff since Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, hopefully he won’t have the arm problems that both those pitchers had and can last more than a couple years before breaking down.
And the last thing I can say about it is that National fans will have a reason to start showing up to the park now, and who knows with Stras and Harper we might actually start expecting the Nationals to be good. As scary as that sounds.
bbryan
09. Jun, 2010
I didn’t see any of the game, but that is a ridiculous stat line. I can’t wait to see what he can do once he gets to the big leagues.
3d
09. Jun, 2010
Long, long way to go for this guy. But great start. Great park to pitch in too.
Meerkat
09. Jun, 2010
You guys are killing me with the NL bashing.
Have you noticed now that the 4 best pitchers in MLB are now in the NL?
I watched the whole Nats game … the kid is Roy Hobbs before he got himself shot by the whack-job female. Ryan Howard will never even make contact off him.
3D
09. Jun, 2010
If he does we could have a Big Unit vs Big Mac situation circa 1997 at the Kingdome.
bbryan
09. Jun, 2010
22-20 over the course of one weekend doesn’t make up for 57% over the last 4 years, 8 of 12 world sereies’ and 12 straight all-star games.
In general the NL is weak sauce. Sure there are some solid teams, but the AL has more talent, especially with the bats.
Meerkat
09. Jun, 2010
I’m just talkin 2010 … not arguing the last decade.
If we did power rankings for leagues … wouldn’t the NL be #1 right now??
Unless I used my PR system, then I guess I’d have to give a slight nod to the AL.
bbryan
09. Jun, 2010
I’ll take the Yankees, D-Rays, Twins, Red Sox, Angles over any group of 5 from the NL.
Don’t be fooled by the frauds in the NL East, only the Phillies are legit and they haven’t been playing well as of late.
Good news is we get 2+ straight week of interleague to give us a better idea.
Meerkat
09. Jun, 2010
Ahhh, so you backpedal into … I will take the top 5 of AL over top 5 of NL … see, that’s not the whole league.
Just sayin … the data favors the NL right now.
AL East vs NL … 5-7
NL East vs AL … 6-6
If AL beats down NL in the next round of inter-league action … I will tip my cap.
bbryan
09. Jun, 2010
Oh I didn’t know you wanted to compare Pitt, Houston, Arizona, CHC, Washington, Mill; to KC, Cleveland, B-more and Seattle.
My take on those teams is: /doesn’t give a shit.
Let’s reserve judgement until after the next round of play, a 24 game sample size is too small in baseball.
stake
09. Jun, 2010
That’s exacatly the point Kat, the best 4-5 pitchers are in the NL because most of the hitters are shitty, amongst other reasons too. Would Silva ever be 8-0 in the AL? Take Doc, 11 years dominating in the AL, and in 12 games in the NL he’s got a perfect game and on pace for his best season ever.
Meerkat
09. Jun, 2010
Stake, please retract the “Doc-perfect-game” reasoning. Remember, if not for Jim Joyce’s bad call, there would have been 2 perfect games in the AL this season … does that mean the AL hitters are worse than the NLs’? Certainly you don’t think Dallas Braden and Armando Galarraga are better than Doc and Ubaldo (no-no).
And of course Doc’s numbers will be better … he’s not pitching against any roided up AL 9-hole hitters in the NL (no DH).
goodplaye
09. Jun, 2010
i still don’t see the NL stacking up very wells against the AL. like byran mentioned, the Yanks, Sox, Rays, and probably even the Twins are better than all the teams in the NL.
That said, what Strasburg did was epic. Epic because nobody else has ever done anything like it and plenty of guys have pitched against the NL. I also agree with D that it was great but really doesn’t matter that much. It was as good a start as you could ask for but lets see how the next 5 years go, and not just the next 5 starts.