Number one pick Stephen Strasburg has been looking good in his first few outings of spring ball, not allowing any runs in his first two appearances. Cards manager Tony LaRussa commented that the kid was living up to the much ballyhooed expectations so far.
Initially, the sentiment was that the future of the franchise would start off in the minor leagues, with expectations that he might get called up to the majors before the season was over. Although we haven’t seen all that much of him to date, he’s made an impression on those watching him.
As a team, Washington is still pretty abysmal at this point. Regardless of who is pitching, the team is going to lose a lot of games. The team did make some improvements in the offseason, but it will be a struggle to even get out of the basement of the NL East.
Washington’s rotation might be marginally better than last year with the addition of Jason Marquis. Lannan’s still solid, but it’s hard not to see an untested Strasburg as a better option than most of the rest. Even with as little experience as he has right now, would anyone really rather have Olsen or Detwiler starting in place of the top pick?
The question in my mind is what kind of mental toughness does Strasburg have and would immediately being thrown to the wolves with little support be too much to handle all at once. Given their disappointing history, I’d imagine Washington fans would be a little kinder than those in New York or Philly, but I wouldn’t count on too much patience.
Personally, I think there’s nothing better than trial by fire. Guys need to learn to take the good with the bad and still give 100% regardless of whether or not things are going their way.
Strasburg will be given another start in spring training and with each pitch, eyes will be all the more focused on how he performs. Pretty soon the organization will have to sit down and make a decision as to how to handle the future of the franchise – let him dive right in or ease him along.
Would you rather have Strasburg or Chapman?
ReplyDeleteInteresting comparison, both have their upsides. Chapman definitely has more velocity, but struggles with control. Right now as a starter I'd certainly take Strasburg - he's got more tools to work with out of the box. Chapman can come into a game late, throw hard and get guys out but he's going to struggle as a starter at first until he develops his other pitches and gets better command.
ReplyDeleteStrasburg seems comparable to Jon Lester right now, two plus pitches with some command and ability to strike out batters. Nationals have too much pinned on Strasburg. Rotation of Strasburg, Marquis, Lannan, Zimmerman(DL) then a group of question marks, Olsen with the highest upside followed by Wang. Not a great rotation, but with a decent offense they could be 0.500. Storen is the best pitching prospect not named Strasburg, probably will be the 8th inning guy but then nothing as far as pitching goes in the organization. Set in the field at third (Zimmerman), first (Dunn/Willingham), center (Morgan), short (Desmond), and second (Guzman)
ReplyDeleteCould easily buy a big corner bat in the free agent market, another top starter, and then be competitive. Norris coming up the pike may be their catcher of the future but nothing besides Norris and Desmond really give much hope. Marrero probably wont be a real big contributor.
They should be abysmal, but I think it is not as hard to make hem competitive as most people say. They should have gone out and spent money, then with Strasburg and Storen they would have had a shot at the playoffs should both stay healthy and produce. One big pitcher and one big hitter and I think we'd have been looking at a very tight NL East in spring training.
How about Bryce Harper? Too early to mention him?
ReplyDeletehttp://sites.csn.edu/dcabrera/baseball/2010/teamcume.htm