Strasburg anticipation thread

[sneakypower]

he threw an 89 mph change to McCutchen and the announcer said "fastball right by him"

 

yeah, maybe for a mere mortal

[sweetpeteman]

he threw an 89 mph change to McCutchen and the announcer said "fastball right by him"

 

yeah, maybe for a mere mortal

 

 

I thought I saw that.

 

 

I also thought I heard them say change-up and the radar to say 91, which made me laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

Funny note, the MLBN broadcast showed a graphic that said "Willingham Solo Shot (1)" while Dunn was still rounding the bases.

 

It was rigged I tell you!

[Clem Fandango]

he threw an 89 mph change to McCutchen and the announcer said "fastball right by him"

 

yeah, maybe for a mere mortal

 

He was throwing his circle change early in the game at 92mph, which is ridiculous. I don't know if the gun for the Washington broadcast was fooled, but at one point he touched 103.

[Clem Fandango]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5268681

 

WASHINGTON -- If it wasn't already clear that Stephen Strasburg is the Washington Nationals' biggest star, now he has his own burger.

 

The restaurant BGR: The Burger Joint, is creating the "Strasburger" to recount the young pitcher's climb. The burger is topped with a hot dog and smothered in aged Vermont cheddar cheese.

 

The hot dog symbolizes Strasburg's professional debut with the Phoenix Desert Dogs in 2009. It's topped with "Syracuse Orange" aged Vermont cheddar to represent his promotion to Triple-A Syracuse. All that is on top of a BGR patty to signify his new home with the Nationals.

 

The burger sells for $10.99 through the end of June. BGR will donate $1 from every sale to Children's National Medical Center.

 

 

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Poor kids might not get a lot of money. That sounds absolutely disgusting.

[imb]

I know this is kind of over the top after just a handful of professional outings, but he looks like he combines the best of Wood (crazy movement, velocity) with Prior (ability to locate EVERYTHING). That is terrifying.

[C.C.]

And Silva's composure.

[DanzaSlap]

I believe Christy Mathewson wrote a book in the 1910's that I think may be available for free on Google Books. Would be interesting to take a peek and see how he handled batters a full century ago.

 

Pitching in a pinch: or, Baseball from the inside by Christy Mathewson

[imb]

And Silva's composure.

 

he even has wood's ill-conceived facial hair and prior's floppy ears

 

this might honestly be proof that god hates cubs fans

[C.C.]

And Silva's composure.

 

he even has wood's ill-conceived facial hair and prior's floppy ears

 

this might honestly be proof that god hates cubs fans

 

And he has a Ex-Cub manager that pulled him after a reasonable 94 pitches. Life isn't fair.

[SpongeWorthy]

I was thinking about his 14k performance and while he obviously won't have 14 punch outs every game I was wondering if he could have a k/9 of 14 for a whole season. For reference Randy Johnson's highest was 13.4 and Pedro's was 13.2

[Banedon]

I was thinking about his 14k performance and while he obviously won't have 14 punch outs every game I was wondering if he could have a k/9 of 14 for a whole season. For reference Randy Johnson's highest was 13.4 and Pedro's was 13.2

 

I don't think you can even have any kind of educated guess at that for a while, to see what happens when batters have seen him more.

[OleMissCub]

 

the hard slider and splitter are damaging to arms and those pitches have become much more common in the last 25 or so years.

 

Just came across this (thanks Danza for finding it) in Matty's book when he is talking about throwing the screwball, which we all know is a horribly damaging pitch to the arm and why you rarely see it these days.

 

 

 

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/7642/screwball.jpg

[radarluv1]

And Silva's composure.

 

he even has wood's ill-conceived facial hair and prior's floppy ears

 

this might honestly be proof that god hates cubs fans

of all the pitching phenoms they could have used for comparison, all the media talks about is prior and wood. nice gut punch for cub fans. ankiel was younger, yet i didnt hear him mentioned. nor gooden.

i dont remember a bunch of hoopla for wood, and i was in bloomington, il at the time.

[J.R.]

MLB marketing was ridiculously inept when Wood came up. Now it's just mildly inept.

[Pushfrog98]

And Silva's composure.

 

he even has wood's ill-conceived facial hair and prior's floppy ears

 

this might honestly be proof that god hates cubs fans

of all the pitching phenoms they could have used for comparison, all the media talks about is prior and wood. nice gut punch for cub fans. ankiel was younger, yet i didnt hear him mentioned. nor gooden.

i dont remember a bunch of hoopla for wood, and i was in bloomington, il at the time.

Me too. And I also don't remember much hoopla about him... Of course I was in HS at the time, so that may have something to do with it.

[TruffleShuffle]

according to fangraphs, 12% of strasburg's pitches have been changeups and they've had an average speed of 90.3 mph. a 90 mph changeup!!!

[javy knows my name]

according to fangraphs, 12% of strasburg's pitches have been changeups and they've had an average speed of 90.3 mph. a 90 mph changeup!!!

Yeah. But they sure leave the yard in a hurry.

[Magnetic Curses]

it is only a matter of time before teams figure out that the best strategy against him is to foul as many pitches off as you can, shrink your strike zone and get him to 100 pitches in the 5th or 6th and he'll break when his manager consistently pushes him to 130 to get him to the 8th.

 

strasburg will not last pitching the way he does now, it's just not sustainable. his elbow is going to jump out of his arm if he has to throw that curveball consistently.

[imb]

it is only a matter of time before teams figure out that the best strategy against him is to foul as many pitches off as you can, shrink your strike zone and get him to 100 pitches in the 5th or 6th and he'll break when his manager consistently pushes him to 130 to get him to the 8th.

 

strasburg will not last pitching the way he does now, it's just not sustainable. his elbow is going to jump out of his arm if he has to throw that curveball consistently.

 

he's pitched 12 innings you weirdo

[OleMissCub]

I think he will be more efficient than some people think. He lost control in his final inning against the Indians in large part, at least it looked like it to me, to the mound. His plant foot kept slipping out from under him because the clay wasn't packed down tight enough. Watching the slo-mo replays of his plant foot slipping was pretty scary. That's a great way to explode your knee. He eventually had the grounds crew come out and fix it.

[17 Seconds]

i was talking to some dude the other day about strasburg and he mentioned wood and prior and said "i never really understood the hype with those 2 guys" and said strasburg was different because he was the only one of the 3 who actually had a chance to be the best pitcher in baseball. hooray for baseball fans

[17 Seconds]

he'll break when his manager consistently pushes him to 130 to get him to the 8th.

 

what kind of POS manager would abuse a young phenom pitching prospect like that?

[Guest]

he'll break when his manager consistently pushes him to 130 to get him to the 8th.

 

what kind of POS manager would abuse a young phenom pitching prospect like that?

 

This reminds me of when Bochy left Lincecum in to throw 132, 127 and 138 pitches (with a 92 pitch start after the 132 one) in late August and early September 2008 because he wanted to get Lincecum a complete game because he felt it would help Lincecum's Cy Young chances.

[17 Seconds]

there was also that other guy