Wednesday, June 9, 2010

What's next for Strasburg?

The glow of Stephen Strasburg's spectacular debut Tuesday night still hasn't worn off, and a buzz is certain to remain around his every move from now on.

So what's up next for the phenom? Tomorrow night, he's scheduled to present the Top Ten list on Letterman. Sunday afternoon, he'll face the Indians in Cleveland (where 3,000 tickets have already been sold today). And then he'll settle in to his strict, five-day pitching schedule until the All-Star break.

Read all about the Strasburg plan, with new quotes both from the pitcher and from Jim Riggleman, on CSNwashington.com.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update, Mark--I enjoyed the CSN piece.

It's clear that every 5th day rather than every 5th game is the announced plan for Strasburg--which means he pitches the 13th and again the 18th.

But that still leaves me wondering why the Nats moved the time for the Sat, June 19th game, and why FOX decided to pick it up. The Nats' schedule for Strasburg was reported before FOX's decision was announced, which means FOX had reason to know (if they believed the Nats' public statements) that they wouldn't be getting Strasburg on the 19th. But without him, why would they want to pick up an interleague game between one team that was last place in its division (at the time of the decision), and another that had an even worse record?

Is FOX gambling on weather or something else to push Strasburg's start back to the 19th? Or are the Nats trying to create some confusion/flexibility to encourage ticket sales to both games?

Anonymous said...

Saint Stephen will start on the 19th BUD will make the Lerners do it, the Prez isn't going to show up on a Friday night either!

Anonymous8 said...

Saturday the 19th is Ryan Zimmerman bobblehead day and trust me, that will be a big seller. Friday night games are not great for attendence.

It will be interesting if there is a change of heart.

Ernie said...

If you really think Fox has that much power, why didn't the make the June 5 game against the Reds the Feast of the Ascension (to the majors)? The team has a plan and they have been very clear that they are sticking to it, regardless of how the media might try to read between the lines. I wonder how many people will cry foul when they actually bench the kid after 160 innings (or whatever the number is). The team has been very upfront about everything so far (related to Strasburg). The cynicism seems to come from us. Years of dwelling in the 100-loss basement might do that to a mind I guess...depression + isolation = paranoia? Let Fox do what they want. Black it out for all I care...maybe it will make more people go to the game?

N. Cognito said...

Fox isn't going to dictate when the Nats bring Strasburg up, but they could have influence on whether or not the game is on the 18th or 19th, but that's influence only. If the Nats really insist on pitching SS on the 18th, don't expect the game on the 19th to be on TV, Fox or MASN - it will be blacked out on MASN. They won't change the time back to 7:05.

Anonymous said...

Mark,

I noted that Stras appeared in the postgame Press avail without an ice wrap on his arm/shoulder. It would be interesting if you could look into the training regime and special care (if any being given to our future hall of famer.

DCBEN

IC said...

I think Fox picked 19th because Obama might be there for his favorite Chicago White Sox.

Snivius said...

Mark-

It would appear, then, that SS will have 16 more in him to be sprinkled thru the rest of the season-- maybe 17 if they always take him out after six.

However, is there any data from sports medicine on the relationship between precise number of pitches PER SESSION/game and risk of injury? I suspect it's non-linear, where 10 starts of 80 pitches each is easier on the physiology or recovery of arm tissue than eight starts of 100 pitches each.

Or, does the historical data show that it's really the total number of pitches no matter how they are distributed among starts? I suppose all the pre-start warm-up tosses blur this somewhat.

If injury risk really starts to rise exponentially above, say 70 pitches, I'm wondering if the Nats couldn't leverage this in Strasburg's remaining innings. They could give him more than 20 starts of 5 innings each, where Batista or some other swingman would be rested the day before an SS start.

If SS starts the first game after the all-star break, about 21 starts would take SS to the end of September.

Maybe this smacks too much of "Joba Rules" micromanaging, though, and might be seen as a ticket sales stunt. Your thoughts?

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