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.

Going long on Strasburg

WASHINGTON — There were so many unique moments during the major league pitching debut of pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg that it’s hard to settle on one that was the best. Sure, that 100-mph fastball and breathtaking curve were otherworldly and maybe even the filthiest pitches in the league right now, but we knew about those things coming into Tuesday night’s game.

OK, maybe we didn’t know how good those pitches were beforehand. Last month when Strasburg was pitching for Double-A Harrisburg at Reading, his repertoire of pitches was not as good as the stuff he had on Tuesday night. In other words, the kid is getting better.

Still, the moments that stood out the most to me all involved Pirates outfielder Delwyn Young.

Young, 28, spent his first full season in the majors last season where he slugged seven homers with 43 RBIs in 124 games. This season Young has been used as a second baseman and a right fielder where he has appeared in 43 of the Pirates’ 58 games, posting modest to poor stats. The most subpar amongst those numbers is the four walks and the .275 on-base percentage mostly coming from a guy who gets most of his plate appearances batting out of the No. 7 spot in the order.

At least when he doesn’t come off the bench.

Nevertheless, Young’s legacy as a ballplayer just might come down to his two-run homer in the fourth inning off Strasburg at Nationals Park on Tuesday night. It was that shot into the first row of the right-field seats that were marked down not just for the first home run off the kid, but also as the first two runs.

Now the interesting part wasn’t the home run itself as much as it was the machinations behind it. For instance, Young belted just the 13th homer of his career and his third of the season simply by dropping the bat head on a pitch that was thigh high. In the instances where such a swing sends the ball into the seats, the pitcher typically has thrown a fastball in a spot where the equipment, not the ferocity of the swing, does the damage.

Obviously, Strasburg could become prone to allowing homers since his 100-mph fastball supplies all the power.

But the thing about the homer Young hit off him was that it came on Strasburg’s changeup. Make that a 91-mph changeup, but a changeup nonetheless.

Often, a pitcher’s changeup is only as good as his fastball. With guys like Cole Hamels, Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez, three pitchers with the best changeups ever, the most important part is that all of those guys could bring the heat into the mid-90s. When they throw the change there is a significant difference for the hitter looking at a pitch going 95 to 85. In fact, often that difference is crippling to hitters. Pedro is known as one of the greatest pitchers in history because of that drop-off in velocity between pitches.

But when a guy throws one 100-mph and comes back with a 91-mph changeup, the difference is somewhat negligible. Only a good guess will help a hitter against a fastball as rapid as Strasburg’s, while his changeup is more like a pedestrian fastball. If he misses with a changeup like he did with Young in the fourth inning, he’s going to get hurt.

So if there is a flaw in his pitches it’s that Strasburg’s changeup is way too fast.

The other interesting part of Strasburg’s debut was that the media presence dwarfed that at the Wachovia Center for the Stanley Cup Final. Both ESPN and the MLB Network did pre- and post-game shows from the field, including a segment on ESPN that featured Young on the set still in uniform after the game. Strasburg was so good that the one guy to interview from the Pirates was the guy who walked into a bad pitch and hit it out. Had it been Strasburg’s fastball instead of his changeup, it’s doubtful Young would have been asked to sit with the ESPN crew.

The final intriguing part about Tuesday’s game was what happened after Young hit the homer. From that spot in the game, Strasburg faced 10 hitters and retired them all. He got eight of those outs on strikeouts including whiffs against the final seven hitters of the game.

Yes, it was Young that forced Strasburg to stop goofing around with pitches like 91-mph changeups when it was clear no one could hit the 100-mph heater and wiffle ball-like hammer.

There’s your moment Delwyn Young. Enjoy Pittsburgh.

The Big Train returns to Washington

WASHINGTON — Like most people, I love a good party. In fact, the only thing better than a good party is a great story. After all, a story is a gift that keeps on giving each time it’s retold and in the end aren’t stories all we have?

You know… something saccharine sweet like that.

Anyway, in the sports media business they combine the two with things called “events.” The All-Star Game is an event and so are the league championships, though with the late start times for the games they are much more festive for others. Truth is, the craziest time I ever had at a World Series was when I ordered up a 4 a.m. wake-up call for Kevin Roberts. He repaid me with a gift of a muscle contusion following a punch to the brachial plexus.

The jerk.

Nevertheless, the traveling circus known as The Stephen Strasburg Experience finally settled in The District after a two-month tour of exotic locales to places like Altoona, Reading, Norwich, New Britain and Harrisburg. Unfortunately, Strasburg made it away from City Island in Harrisburg where the flying insects are known to take up residence during the summer months. Some of those big bugs have been known to have pets, like puppies or ponies.

If a pitcher can spend a summer at City Island and survive, places like Nationals Park or any other big league outpost is a breeze.

Yet without that experience we’re all buckled in to see the second coming of Walter Johnson, which in Washington is pretty significant. See, baseball in Washington has been flirting with becoming a three-time loser since the National League club from Montreal pulled up stakes and set up on the banks of the muddy Anacostia. Past versions of the Washington Major League Baseball Club found better futures in St. Paul, Minnesota and Arlington, Texas while some have argued that things weren’t all that worse when the team was called the Expos.

Indeed, we might have to go back to when Johnson pitched Washington to the World Series in back-to-back seasons in 1924 and 1925 to find a player who has meant as much to the survival of baseball in The District as young Strasburg. Johnson’s career ended after the 1927 season and the franchise hung around for 33 more seasons after that.

Actually, Johnson was as good as it got for baseball in D.C. He was born in Kansas, went to high school in California, but was so beloved (schools and parks were named in his honor) in Washington that he remained there until his death in 1946. After The Big Train retired in ’27, the three different Washington franchises finished in first place in 1933, second place in 1930 and 1943, and never came closer than that since. Get this: Johnson won 417 games in his 21 seasons in the majors and still the Senators only made it to the World Series twice. In 1913 when Johnson won 36 games, the Senators came in second place with just 90 wins. That comes to 40 percent of the team's wins.

That’s so amazing it makes one’s head spin.

And that might only begin to explain why the sports world is focused on a Tuesday night matchup between the Nationals and Pirates. It’s not merely the debut of a pitcher paid $15 million for just signing his name to a piece of paper or the promise of a kid with a right arm so explosive it can hurl a baseball more than 100-mph with a curve ball that leaves grown men in a cowering mess while begging not to be forced to hold a bat ever again. This Strasburg kid—still just 21—is moving history. It’s as if he’s powered the flux capacitor and completely erased the entire time/space continuum. 

Or, if Washington and baseball are not transformed by a kid born in San Diego the same day as when Michael Dukakis was accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, we’ll all take the easy road and label it the biggest failure in baseball. A career-threatening arm injury could 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.

That is truly what the media calls a party.

So we’re buckled up in Washington ready for an eyeful of the next savior… at least until The Next One is identified and sold for at least $15 million.

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.

Bolt and a busy week

Note: There will be lots going on this week. Both Brad Lidge and Stephen Stasburg pitch in Reading tonight, the Flyers likely will go to Washington to open the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Thursday or Friday, and the Mets come to town. Nevertheless, we're still hearing from folks about the performance by Usain Bolt at Franklin Field on Saturday.

To be sure, there were a lot of great performances at the Penn Relays last weekend, and take away Bolt and the field was still ridiculously star-studded. But these days Bolt is one of the biggest names in all of sports so that's what we're all going crazy about.

So since ESPN is offering two encores of Saturday's card at the Penn Relays, we'll repost the Bolt feature from CSNPhilly.com.

Get ready for some more baseball and hockey beginning tonight.

World's Fastest Man Puts on a Show at Franklin Field

There aren’t too many titles that cause a crowd or force folks to react. The President of the United States is one. So too is the heavyweight champion of the world. Generally, those are two jobs that make people change their schedules or travel long distances just to catch a glimpse, and even then it’s just to catch a peek amongst thousands of other folks.

These days though, those titles don’t seem to be as respected as they were in the past. The President could be one of the most polarizing figures around, while it’s difficult to figure out who exactly the heavyweight champion of the world is. In fact, ex-champs like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson pack ‘em in, though more out of curiosity than anything else.

And that is no knock on Ali by comparing him to Tyson.

But mention the “fastest man on earth” and get ready to fill a stadium and/or cause a small riot. Certainly that was the scene at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon when Usain Bolt showed up to race in the USA vs. The World competition at the Penn Relays.

Bolt, of course, is the 23-year-old Jamaican who destroyed the world records in the 100- and 200-meters at the Olympics in 2008 and the World Championships in 2009 in a manner that transcended mere athletics. In fact, Bolt’s electrifying efforts at those competitions motivated a even a few of the most jaded and experienced sports writers to describe the events as the most exciting and exhilarating they had ever seen.

Moreover, crusty old veteran track coaches have gone so far as to compare Bolt’s talent along the lines of those possessed by Einstein, Beethoven and Newton. Certainly those aren’t the usual names one hears an elite-level athlete compared to.

Chalk part of it up to the cult of personality. Sure, his talent is so far beyond his contemporaries that an “easy” effort against competition that featured the owners of 14 Olympic medals. For a non-Olympic and World Championships year, the 4x100-meter competition at the Penn Relays just might have been the best in the world this year.

Still, the largest crowd in the 116-year history of the event all came to see one guy, and he competed for just 8.79 seconds in his anchor leg effort. Actually, Bolt’s personality is so large in the sport that Olympic gold medalists and champions of the sport lingered around the track just to catch a glimpse.

“I was leadoff leg and I could actually hear, right next to me, the crowd screaming. I’ve been coming here for about 12 years now, and this was the loudest one. It was great,” said two-time world champion, Lisa Barber, who helped Team USA win the women’s 4x100-meters. “When Bolt was warming up, I couldn't hear my music anymore through my headphones. It's great that Usain is getting this much press. He’s getting so much recognition worldwide.”

It’s worth asking who the most famous athlete on the planet is these days. Certainly Tiger Woods is pretty well known, though that has very little to do with his sport. Bolt was asked about Michael Jordan, but his Airness has been retired for nearly a decade and his successors, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, aren’t the best players in their sport on any given night.

So in terms of pure domination of a sport on a consistent basis, Bolt is the greatest on the planet. And just like all of the races he has been in since 2008, it isn’t even close.

“Over the past two years I’ve been surprised by the amount of people that know me and the welcome I get when I go to track meets or functions,” Bolt said. “For me I’m still trying to get used to it and I’m enjoying it.”

As for the runners he’s beating, it isn’t so much fun. Before 2008, the 4x100 USA team that competed at the Penn Relays on Saturday would be the best in the world and the group that competed last year set the meet record. The loquacious and personable Shawn Crawford, the Olympic champion in the 200-meters in 2004, but finished a distant second to Bolt in 2008, appears to be frustrated by Bolt’s talents. Though he’s creeping up on the end of his career, Crawford knows the window for knocking off the fastest man on earth is closing quickly.

That is if it’s even open at all.

Team USA with medalist Walter Dix and anchorman Ivory Williams, Mike Rodgers and Crawford, actually had a nice lead over Jamaica heading into the final leg.

Then Bolt got the baton.

“I just hate to lose,” Crawford said, muttering a few unprintable words under his breath.

“[Racing against Bolt] excites and it motivates. The more excitement they bring to track and field, we all get the attention because we’re on the same playing field. But it motivates me because you want to be that guy winning. I want to get up there and showboat a little bit and be in the spotlight so I can talk a little mess.

“Well, I already talk mess.”

Talk is cheap, of course. Bolt doesn’t appear to say much on the track aside from flashing his trademarked “Lightning Bolt” pose, which probably is the coolest bit of posturing in all of sports.

Actually, just seeing Bolt run might be the coolest and surreal effort in sports. Standing yards away from the finishing line on Saturday, Bolt moves past as if he were a runaway motorcycle and the breeze from his nearly 30-mph wake was enough to cool the crowd on a sun-soaked afternoon.

“I told the guys to make sure I didn't have to work, because I really didn't want to do much,” Bolt said. “I got the baton, so I wasn’t really worried about anything else.”

Worried? What could the fastest man in the history of the earth ever have to worry about?

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