Mark your calendars folks--it's June 8 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. My observations:
--The timing of this move is so transparently about managing the arbitration clock and nothing else, that I wish they'd just say it. I don't even mind the rationale. I made the case in Jordan Zimmermann's case that they should have delayed his call-up to avoid the extra arb year. Strasburg I think is different because he's so special. But I just want Rizzo to flash one of his "too honest" moments and say, "yeah, of course it was about money. Don't be stupid."
--If things stay on schedule, his first five starts will be Pittsburgh at home, then on the road against Cleveland and the White Sox, followed by an away game in Baltimore. That's four of the seven lowest-scoring teams in baseball.
--The Nationals have set up a nice little PR blitz for themselves by making their #1 overall pick Bryce Harper on June 7 and then starting Strasburg the very next day at Nationals Park.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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4 comments:
If it was just about managinging Strasburg's Super 2 status he would be starting Friday vs Cincy.
My feeling is this actually has more to do with not wanting to shut him down before October 3rd.
It's tough to figure out exactly how many starts he'll be schedule to make (ASB reset could mean 2 more or less start depending on how they arrange their rotation), but if he goes 5IP or so on 6/3 he has about 105 inning to give (assuming a 160IP cap) which equals 17-18 starts which SHOULD get him through September IF all goes well.
I there really was any doubt that the Nats would take Bryce Harper, it seems that the timing and the publicity of the Strasburg promotion seals it. They wouldn't want to take any of the shine off his debut by making a bonehead move like passing on Harper because of "signability".
Huh. It was about that, but the also wanted him to throw to Pudge. Maybe they wanted to protect him from Riggleman after the Kerry Wood disaster.
That's a home game against the White Sox, right?
I too wish they'd just fess up. I also don't understand why they had to wait this long to be sure he isn't a Super-2. Do you think they have thoughts of keeping him in the majors all season and when he gets close to his innings limit moving him to the bullpen? Would that be a good or a bad thing for his "development"?
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