Strasburg's injury hurts more than Nationals

It’s no fun celebrating cautionary tales or being a cynic. No one with any semblance of tact or class wants to be the “told-you-so” guy or the jackass always pointing out the mistakes of others. There’s too much of that as it is.

It would have been fun to witness greatness for a change. No, not the drug-fueled superhuman feats of strength that defined baseball just a short time ago, but instead we long for pure, unbridled skill and talent. A right arm touched by the gods, for lack of better hyperbole.

So with the news that Stephen Strasburg, the once-in-a-lifetime pitching phenom for the Washington Nationals, would likely have to undergo Tommy John surgery to fix that right arm, well, the cynicism rang hollow.

No one wanted the kid to get hurt. Not the players on the Phillies, manager Charlie Manuel or any real fans of the game. Yeah, the Phillies have six games remaining against the Nationals and will likely be fighting for a playoff spot in those games, so not having to face a pitcher like Strasburg is key. In his lone appearance against the Phillies, which was also the game where the “significant tear” of the ligament holding his elbow together was too much to bear, the pitcher dominated. He allowed two hits in 4 1/3 innings without a walk to go with six strikeouts. Noting that he had three mediocre outings in a row leading up to the game against the Phillies, the first four innings of the game were promising.

Manuel, who said he was looking forward to seeing the kid pitch against his team in the days leading up to the game, was pleased to report that the hype matched the skill. Even Ryan Howard, who got one of the hits against Strasburg, walked away impressed.

“He has an easy 98-mph fastball and a great hammer. He’s really good, though it’s like some of us said — the media took it and ran with it,” Howard said. “To his credit, he’s handled it all pretty well.”

Easy. That was the word a lot of players used when talking about Strasburg’s pitching motion. It seemed as if he wasted very little energy before throwing the ball 100-mph. He also had that hammer—the curve ball from hell—that had the makings of becoming the best pitch in the game.

That is if it wasn’t already.

Then he reportedly heard a “pop” in his elbow and got scared. Obviously, that pop resonated pretty loudly because it conjured up names and tales of haunted glory and unfilled promise. As quickly as one of those fastballs old names were bandied about. And as skewed as the angle on his curve, opinion came from mouth breathers of satellite radio and the floor of Congress. Actually, you could set your watch to it. Todd Van Poppel, David Clyde, Brien Taylor, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood should be starring in beer commercials any day for as much as they have been talked about lately. Talk about a Q rating…

Or maybe we should say, gentlemen, start your second-guessing. Based on watching Strasburg pitch in the minors, his major league debut and his final big league start, the kid was treated as if he were a Ming vase since signing with the Nats last year. Even in the minors Strasburg had an entourage of major league public relations people setting up the velvet ropes around the meal ticket. Moreover, his outings were monitored as if they were science experiments with strict pitch counts and plenty of rest.

If there was one pitcher who should not have gotten hurt it was Strasburg. After all, there were all those ex-big leaguers who said the kid was being babied too much. He needed to toughen up and pitch more.

Oops.

“It's frustrating, because this happens to people you think it shouldn't happen to,” Nats GM Mike Rizzo told The Washington Post. “This player was developed and cared for the correct way. Things like this happen. Pitchers break down. Pitchers get hurt. We're satisfied with the way he was developed. I know [Strasburg's agent] Scott Boras was satisfied with the way he's been treated, and Stephen is also. We're good with that. Frustrated, yes. Second-guessing ourselves, no.”

The silver lining is that Tommy John surgery is very common. There are plenty of players on every team in the big leagues that have undergone the operation, which more and more seems like one of those milestones pitchers have to cross…

The minors, a big league debut, arbitration, free agency and Tommy John. Not necessarily in that order.

There’s also a chance that when Strasburg returns in April of 2012 that his fastball will be faster than it was before. The drawback is it will take him some time to regain the feel for his curveball, but the fastball will be OK. Besides, there were nine players in the All-Star Game that had Tommy John surgery: Chris Carpenter, Tim Hudson, Josh Johnson, Arthur Rhodes, Brian Wilson, Joakim Soria, Hong-Chih Kuo, Rafael Soriano and Billy Wagner.

Is baseball doomed in D.C.?
The problem isn’t the surgery, it’s the recovery. It’s not the process, either, but the time. In baseball, like any other corporate structure, time is money. Considering that Strasburg wasn’t just the ace of the Nats, but also The Franchise, it’s fair to ask if baseball in Washington can weather this storm. Yes, Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman are good ballplayers, and Josh Willingham is having a tremendous season while Nyjer Morgan could become a solid leadoff man. But those guys weren’t putting the butts in the seats.

Only the Pirates and Marlins averaged fewer fans per game than the Nationals amongst National League teams, and even in Strasburg’s last home start just 21,695 fans turned out—a good 2,000 below the team’s average per game.

So even with Strasburg was baseball viable in Washington?

Think about it… Washington is a two-time loser in baseball, yet when the Expos where no longer right for Montreal, MLB insisted on giving the city a third shot. Worse, they stuck it to the overburdened taxpayers of D.C. and forced them to build a ballpark that no one goes to.

Now it could be a career-threatening arm injury to cause a section of Southeast D.C. to go back to its pre-Nationals Park form, while the franchise moves on to Portland, Charlotte, Las Vegas or maybe even Monterrey, Mexico. We’ll start using names like Brien Taylor, David Clyde and Todd Van Poppel. We’ll tell more cautionary tales only to go back to believing the hype with the next kid with an arm that supersedes his years.

Washington could be a three-time loser with baseball, which only guarantees that there will not be a fourth chance.

“He’s going to be a tremendous pitcher,” Manuel said. “He has to stay healthy, though.”

Stay healthy because only the entire franchise is depending on it.

Strasburg dominant in Reading, but is he ready for the NL East?

READING, Pa. — It’s almost easier to expect the worst. Likemaybe his fastball will be flat and hitable, or maybe the torque on his elbow from throwing his curveball will mean more business for Dr. Frank Jobe.

It’s worth noting that some of baseball’s biggest flops might have achieved greater fame for being a cautionary tale than if they had put together a solid big-league career. Oh yes, sometimes we celebrate failure as much as we immortalize success.

Try this out for size: Ever hear of the pitcher Ed Figueroa? From 1975 to 1978 he won 71 games, including 20 for the World Champion Yankees in ’78. Twice during that span Figueroa finished in the top seven in the Cy Young balloting though he was overshadowed by more well-known pitchers on the Yankees staff like Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage.

Still, from 1976 to 1978, three seasons in which the team went to the World Series, no Yankees pitcher won more games than Figueroa. Obviously, he was a solid pitcher for some really good teams.

Now, how many people have heard about Brien Taylor, the overall No. 1pick in the 1991 draft? Of course you know Brien Taylor. He was the lefty with electric stuff who signed for a $1.55 bonus with the Yankees and appeared to be on the fast track to the big leagues until he tore the labrum in his pitching shoulder in a fight. Taylor pitched in a handful of games in his final five seasons and never made it past Double-A. These days, according to reports, he was working for a beer distributor.

No, we’re not comparing Stephen Strasburg to Brien Taylor. By all accounts Strasburg has been treated as if he were a Ming vase since he signed with the Washington Nationals after being selected as the top overall pick in last June’s draft. When the right-hander with the triple-digit fastball and a knee-buckling curve showed up at First Energy Stadium on Tuesday night with his Double-A Harrisburg teammates, a veritable entourage of press folks also took over the quaint, old ballpark.

Scribes from The New York Times and Washington Post came out to watch Strasburg while members of the Nationals’ PR staff strung the velvet ropes around the 21-year old. Moreover, the fans that turned out on a chilly night caught a glimpse of something. Strasburg retired the first 13 he faced before losing the perfect game with one out in the fifth on a strikeout/passed ball. Regrouping and working out of the stretch, Strasburg got a pair of ground balls to get out of the inning.

“My command of my pitches allowed me to [throw more off-speed pitches],” said the pitcher after throwing fastballs on approximately 60 percent of his 64 pitches. “If I don’t have command of my pitches, why would I throw off-speed? That’s the big thing I was able to do.”

Well, that wasn’t the only big thing he was able to do. All told, Strasburg did not allow a hit in five innings, picked up six strikeouts and allowed just two fair balls to leave the infield. And just to make it seem like he wasn’t just some freak throwing fastballs past everyone, Strasburg singled home the first run of the game.

Outings like the one on Tuesday night in Reading have been closer to the norm for the phenom. In four professional starts, Strasburg has allowed one run in 17 1/3 innings (0.51 ERA), with three walks and 23 strikeouts. In those four starts he has allowed just 11 base runners. On Tuesday, he topped 96 on the stadium radar gun, but it was more than enough to overpower Double-A hitters.

In other words, he hasn’t been tested.

So how good is the kid? Or better yet, why is he pitching for Harrisburg?

“He’s pretty impressive. If he’s able to pitch in effectively to Major League hitters, then he’s going to be really tough,” said Brad Lidge, who also was a first-round pick after a solid college career. “He has command of his changeup and curveball and that kind of arm doesn’t come around very often. It’s not often to see a guy with that kind of fast ball and with a good idea of what he’s doing with his off-speed pitches. Hopefully our hitters will figure him out when he gets called up this year.”

This year, huh? Clearly Strasburg has the stuff to pitch in the Majors now considering his heater likely got closer to triple-digits than the stadium gun indicated. Better yet, because he was able to throw his fastball for strikes, he got a better workout than expected.

Still, it’s difficult to determine how good Strasburg is until he moves up. Then, of course, expect to hear names like David Clyde and Todd Van Poppel ticked off the first time the kid gets roughed up. Clyde and Van Poppel? Yeah, like Strasburg they were both can’t-miss No. 1 picks in the draft who went on to have very poor big league careers. Combined, the former top picks went 58-85, which, of course, is 58-85 better than Brien Taylor did.

Nevertheless, Strasburg seems to have prepared himself for everything. He knows just as many people will be rooting for another flop as much as a Hall-of-Fame career. Since he grew up in an age where media encompasses just about every facet of life, Strasburg is better prepared than perhaps anyone before him. Plus, his college coach was Tony Gwynn—one of the big leaguers well known for being great.

Well schooled, Strasburg seems grounded enough to not let it all get ahead of him. He’ll be in the big leagues eventually, so until he gets the call he has no control of his situation.

“It’s obviously not a normal situation for a guy in his first year of pro ball, but it goes with the territory and I’ve accepted that,” he said.

Besides, they have the minor leagues for a reason. Lidge pitched in 53 games over four seasons in the minors after he left Notre Dame and made it to the big leagues for good. This experience will be good for Strasburg, Lidge says.

After all, Clyde went from his high school graduation to his Major League debut in the same month when he was just 18, while Van Poppel made his debut when he was 19 after one season in the minors. Clearly those guys needed a little more seasoning.

“I think it’s a good idea because at the very least it’s going to get him used to being on that clockwork of the rotation and pitching every five days,” Lidge said. “If nothing else, he gets to experience the minor leagues a little bit. That’s a good thing for guys. But clearly he’s showing he’s ready to move on from Double-A and I’m sure he’ll have the same results in Triple-A.”

As for the Majors, we’ll probably find out about that soon enough.