Strasburg To Miss Final 2-3 Starts, Done For Season

[key2win]

Johnson: Strasburg could miss final 2 to 3 starts - Yahoo! Sports

Hypothetically speaking, if the Nationals go far in the playoffs, you seriously trying to tell me that they will risk not pitching Strasburg if it meant winning a playoff series?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nationals manager Davey Johnson says Stephen Strasburg could miss his final two or three turns in the rotation during the regular season.

In his first full season following elbow ligament replacement surgery, Strasburg is 15-5 with a 2.85 ERA and a National League-leading 183 strikeouts. The 24-year-old right-hander has thrown 145 1-3 innings, and the Nationals are thought to have given him a limit of 160-180.

[gladdyontherise]

They should shut him down now to have him later.

[jwgreen68]

Either the surgery was a success and he can pitch a full season now or he never will. If they limit him this year, what stops them from limiting him next year because he only pitched this many innings the previous year?

I think Strasburg is the best judge of how his arm feels. If he thinks he's fine and wants to pitch, then let him pitch. If it's not, then he's only hurting himself because the Nationals weren't going to let him pitch anyways.

Another point, if the Nationals had that much concern, why didn't they pitch him out of the bullpen for his first full season back? They brought him back as a starter at the end of last season. Why didnt they just rest him then and thru the off season?

Seems really over protective to me.

[leiber88]

I can't understand the Nationals here. Who knows what the team will be like in the future. If I'm the owner of the team, I want to win at least 1 championship. Even if Strasburg turned into another Mark Prior, I'd still take the shot this year. To me you lay it all on the line now and forget about the future. The NL is easily winnable for them so to shut him down is a travesty.

[key2win]

Stephen Strasburg, Nationals finally have shutdown talk | Big League Stew - Yahoo! Sports

Nationals are stupid. It will be funny if they win the wild card and have to play the 1 game eliminator. Obviously Strasburg is the pitcher you would want in there in that case. I see an early playoff exit for them.

The Washington Nationals finally engaged Stephen Strasburg with the precautionary tale they had been putting off for the past year or so, a chat that any father whose son is two years removed from Tommy John surgery apparently might have: The shutdown talk.

On Monday morning, the Nats told their young ace what otherwise was worst-kept secret in Major League Baseball, that Strasburg's amazing season would end because of a rigid post-surgical schedule designed to keep his elbow healthy. Strasburg is scheduled to make his last start of the season Sept. 12. No more pennant race, and no playoffs for Strasburg, even though his team has the best record in the majors.

[jwgreen68]

If the Nationals are looking to alienate players, they're doing a great job. No way are the Nationals this good without Strasburg. Pretty low feeling to sit on the bench, being healthy, and not be able to contribute.

[OriolesFan]

Evidently you guys haven't been following the Nationals lately. True, Strasburg is a major link in their starting rotation. However, unlike most MLB teams this season, they currently have one of the best, if the the very best, rotations in baseball. So, even with Strasburg out they can out pitch most teams. Gio Gonzalez is doing GREAT, Jackson fine, and the bullpen is way above average. Plus, besides pitching, they have some really good hitting. So far as the WILD CARD, unless they totally collapse they won't be a WILD CARD, they'll be the N L EAST CHAMPIONS!!! GO "NATS" !!!!! From top to bottom, there aren't many teams this year that player for player match up with the Nationals in the N L.

Have a good night.

[B.I.G.Poppa]

Zimmerman and Gonzalez are good pitchers. Strasburg, however, is an ENORMOUSLY GREAT pitcher. Shutting down your best player for the playoffs isn't very smart, there's too much protection going on, not to mention alienation of teammates. With the pitching motion Strasburg has, he can blow out his arm at any moment. So what happens if he gets hurt early next season, will people come back to this moment where management tried too hard to protect their pitcher? Bottom line: the Nats are a good team w/o Strassy, they are a GREAT one with Strassy, and shutting him doing this late when the Nats have a chance to accomplish great things is dumb.

[tndcollectables]

Nats should keep pitching him, just try to limit him to 6 innings. At least until playoffs start.

[ucffans]

I would suggest if they want to limit him, start in July and go to a 6 man rotation. Use the call ups to switch things up a little bit. If you need some guys to do the "every 5th day", you can do that, just squeeze an extra start or two from some minor league guys and count on Strasburg when you need him in the playoffs.

[JesRey]

Good, he'll be shut down one start before he was suppose to pitch against the Dodgers

[key2win]

Stephen Strasburg shutdown begins now, manager Davey Johnson says | Big League Stew - Yahoo! Sports

The Stephen Strasburg Shutdown will begin one start early. He won't make another appearance, he's done for the season, Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson announced Saturday morning. (And for the last time, no playoffs!) Here's his final stat line: 15-6 record, 159 1/3 innings, 136 hits, 48 walks, 197 strikeouts.

Reporter Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post has the "Why?" and writes:

"The media hype on this things has been unbelievable," Johnson said. "I feel it's as hard for him as it would be anybody to get mentally, totally committed in the ballgame. And he's reached his innings limit. So we can get past this and talk about other things for a chance."

Johnson said Strasburg was "emotional" about the decision.

"I know he's been struggling with it for weeks," Johnson said. "I know he doesn't sleep good thinking about it. Shoot, I've heard so much advice from every ex-pitcher, every guru on the matter."

The "media hype?" Aw, c'mon, Davey.

The Nationals organization — GM Mike Rizzo, Johnson and others — not anyone in the media, made the decision to shut down Strasburg as a precaution more than two years after he had Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery. The Nats got Strasburg's agent and surgeon to sign off on the idea, but Strasburg obviously never liked it. It's possible the mental strain of being shut down is bothering Strasburg, but it's probably due more to not being allowed to pitch in the coming playoffs. That's on the Nationals. They'll have to live with it.

Here's a complete transcript of Johnson's press conference.

Which other organizations do this with their pitchers? Are the Cardinals shutting down Adam Wainwright, for example? He didn't pitch at all in 2011, but he's at 173 innings and counting. There's plenty of reason to question the Nationals here — though it doesn't mean they're wrong. Still, the Nats should just stand by their decision and not assign blame anywhere — much less to the media. Why not blame the fans in the stands? What nonsense. Heck, the press in Washington has given a huge benefit of the doubt to the Nationals for their shutdown plan.

The Nationals say they decided a year ago August that Strasburg's season would be limited to a certain amount of innings — somewhere between 160 and 180 — following the program used previously with another of their pitchers, Jordan Zimmermann, who also was recovering from Tommy John. Though everyone seemed to know this was coming for Strasburg, the Nats didn't actually break the news to him until recently because — they said — they didn't want him to concern himself too much with the impending end of his season. Well, how'd that work out?

It seems they've created a problem rather than solving one.

[gladdyontherise]

The Nationals are not bright. So now he's getting shut down because of the media? Clearly it has nothing to do with fatigue....