Thursday, June 10, 2010

Strasburg Looked Great But...

In sports we always seem to look for the next breakout star. In baseball there are quite a few guys we are looking at now. Jayson Heyward, Garrett Jones, Neftali Feliz, Phil Hughes and Stephen Strasburg. The Nationals were bringing Strasburg along through the minors cautiously but slowly ensuring the kid was ready to hit the big leagues. During his minor league stint he had some pretty good outings. Then after a year of minor league play comes Wednseday night where Strasburg made his MLB debut for the Washington Nationals against the Pittsburg Pirates. Now before I move along I just want to express to those of you who are not familiar with baseball, that the Pirates are not a good team. The Pirates record is 23-37, a below .500 average. But the Nationals aren't that much better. Still the Pirates have "PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYERS". Meaning, the team may not be that good, but all of these guys made it to the pros because they are good. So Strasburg initially showed he had some heat with his pitches with a fastball that clocked in the 98-100mph range. WOW! There was a moment in the game where he faced a bit of adversity which I will touch on later, but he never gave up and hung in there. As the game continued I started to wonder, "Could this kid be the next great pitcher?" Then reality set in. I will not be able to answer that question until he links up good season after good season. Not to mention it was only his first major league start. Still, Strasburg appeared to have the stuff it will take to have a great career. He has a spicy fastball, a nasty curve, and a beautiful change up with a throwing form that has no wasted motion. Strasburg gave up 2 runs in the 4th inning on a 2 run homer from Delwyn Young. Strasburg remained in the game despite giving up the lead. He would then show us all why the Nationals not only drafted him #1 overall in last year's draft, but are paying him a record (for rookies) 15.1 million dollars. Strasburg pitched into the seventh inning when he was taken out for a pinch hitter. (Pinch hitter- a guy who does not start the game but goes up to bat for someone who did start. Then that starter is usually out of the game especially if it's a pitcher) He left the game with a 4-2 lead fanning (striking out) every starter at least once, with a total of 14 strikeouts, and get this...NO WALKS! Also Strasburg threw 94 pitches over the 7 innings averaging like 13 pitches an inning. That means he was only facing 3 batters per inning and throwing maybe 3 0r 4 pitches per batter. Out of the 94 pitches he threw, 65 were strikes. Strasburg did in fact pick up his first MLB win with a score of 5-2. This young man could very well be that next breakout star, BUT until I can see a little more I am reserving my "Greatness" stamp of approval for a later date. However I will leave with this. I was very impressed with his performance, I like what I saw from him, and I can very well see this kid having one hell of a future. But let's all sit back and watch it develope. Until next time.

2 comments:

  1. I wish I followed sports more closely so I could fully appreciate this post. But still I congratulate you on your first blog! Great job, and am looking forward to your upcoming posts.
    ~Atalie St. James

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  2. That was rude of me and I apologize for responding so late. Thank you, and any questions you may have about sports I will answer. Thanks for the support.

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