Skip to main content

Should the Washington Nationals really sit Stephen Strasburg?

The short answer? No. I understand Washington's concern with allowing their young ace - Stephen Strasburg, who's coming off Tommy John surgery, to throw more innings than was recommended. However, who knows if/when the Nationals will again have this kind of opportunity to not only make the playoffs, but to have home-field advantage throughout (including the World Series, since the National League won the All-Star game)? This is a young club who has never made to the playoffs before. With a large lead over second-place Atlanta in the National League East, the Nationals will likely win the division with or without Strasburg playing the rest of the season. However, what about the playoffs? Are they really going to sit their ace in the playoffs? I also think it'd be a mistake to sit Strasburg in the regular season (maybe skip one start) and play him in the playoffs, because he'd likely be rusty to a certain extent.

Just look at Strasburg's numbers for the season. He's been limited to an average of just under 95 pitches per start. In those starts, he's gone 145.1 innings, allowed 119 hits, walked 43 batters while striking out 183. He's 15-5 on the season, with a 2.85 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and .224 batting average against. If he kept this up, he'd end up going 20-7 in 189.1 innings.

The Nationals are just two games up on Cincinnati for the top seed in the playoffs and home-field advantage throughout. While I can understand Washington management's perspective, in trying to make certain that their young star pitcher's career isn't a short one due to injuries, I think that sitting him for part of the regular season and especially the playoffs would be doing a disservice to the team, the city and Strasburg. I can all but guarantee you if you asked Stephen Strasburg - "Would you prefer that you sit out the end of the regular season and playoffs or to play through?" he would emphatically answer in the affirmative.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/30373/stephen-strasburg
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first book review of "Penetrating the Heart of Life: Ambiguous In Thought, Ambivalent In Feeling"

Well, I received my first book review on this poetry-compilation book I completed and published late last year, but have finally gotten around to marketing now. The reviewer gave it 5 out of 5 stars and said: "I enjoyed the poetic journey the writer has taken me on. From darkest days and hopeful optimism to the conclusion of hope realized. The visual images that the poem titled "Room Temperature" elicits, made me think of the song, "Horse With No Name" sung by the band America. In a similar manner, another poem – "Deafening Sigh-lence" reminded me a great deal of Simon & Garfunkel’s song, "The Sound of Silence". There are so many poems in this book that I related to, that I felt a connection to the author and felt that we were traveling on this journey together." http://www.lulu.com/shop/craig-rozniecki/penetrating-the-heart-of-life-ambiguous-in-thought-ambivalent-in-feeling/paperback/product-18677501.html
Post a Comment
Read more

A closer look at the Scramble With Friends power-ups

I am unashamed to admit that I'm a nerd. My idea of a good time is playing a word game like Boggle or Scrabble. Thankfully, I (and many others) can play such games via Facebook and/or my (our) cell phone(s). While it seems that cheating has become more commonplace in these games (Words With Friends in particular) than San Diego has had nice weather, I've yet to give in to that craze. One element present with the game Scramble With Friends (Boggle) not present in Words With Friends (Scrabble) are legal boosts called "power-ups," which cost a number of tokens from the 15 available. I've now tried all five power-ups, including the latest one which costs money. So, in case anyone's curious about playing the game or giving these power-ups a gander, here's a rundown of them all: Freeze - I think this is probably my favorite of all the power-ups. With the freeze, time stands still for a matter of seconds, which allows you more time to find words and improve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...
2 comments
Read more