Time for the Main Course

The Defensive Specialist knows that he’s been offering up puff pieces on upcoming Major League draft picks of late and unfortunately with news from the ABL a little on the slow side, you’re about to get another serving of useless information.

Well it’s not really useless since it’s about perhaps the most hyped prospect ever to appear in the big leagues – Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg was the Washington Nationals first overall pick in last year’s draft (signing for a lazy 15 million) and after two months in the minor leagues he’s being summoned to the Major Leagues to make his debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates on the 8^th June.

So why is the Defensive Specialist taking up your time talking about him? Simply because he is being touted as the saviour of the moribund Nationals despite never having thrown a pitch in the Major Leagues. He’s so ballyhooed in fact that the Nationals, who average 21,343 per game have already sold out his first start against a team that has a win loss record of 23-33.

Much like Bryce Harper (who’ll likely be drafted by the Nationals as the number 1 pick on the same day), the Defensive Specialist just thought you needed to know about Strasburg since he is an unbelievable mix of physical tools and baseball ability.

Strasburg was born on July 20^th, 1988 and was kind of a non-prospect when he showed up at San Diego State University (hitting legend Tony Gwynn is the head coach). Strasburg even admitted that he wasn’t in shape and didn’t have a work ethic and it wasn’t until the strength and conditioning coach got on his case that he started to figure it out. As a sophomore Strasburg went 8-3 with a 1.57 earned run average with 133 punch-outs in 97 innings. That year he also struck out 23 hitters in one game. His junior year was even sicker with a 13-1 record, 1.32 ERA and 195 strikeouts in 109 innings. 

So what powers these performances? To start with he’s a big old horse – 6 feet 4 inches and 220 pounds. On top of that he dials his fastball up to 100mph (works consistently 95-97) however, what’s different about his fastball to most other flame throwers is that his has movement – tailing back into the plate against lefthanders. He has uncanny control of the fastball, consistently keeping it down in the zone.

Strasburg possesses a hellacious breaking ball that strikes fear in the heart of right-handed hitters. He snaps it off at around 80 mph and once again has amazing control over the pitch, locating it wherever he likes. Strasburg’s changeup vacillates between a plus pitch and an above average pitch (oh to have that problem). He throws the pitch at 88-89mph (Greg Maddux got by with a fastball at that velocity) and does a solid job of selling it with a fastball arm action (and hence fooling hitters).

So that’s the repertoire.

The scary thing is Strasburg’s control. Normally when you stumble across an ox that throws fuel, it typically comes at the expense of command. With downright filthy stuff and control Strasburg becomes a tough ask for hitters.

Strasburg commenced his professional career in 2010 at the double A level. That’s normally a tall order for a college guy but he made short work of it by posting a 1.64 ERA and striking out 27 in 22 innings. The next stop was triple A where he went 4-1 with a 1.08 ERA and 38 K’s in 33 innings.

The obvious question is, “why did he even go to the minor leagues?” Well the Nationals spun a tale suggesting that he needed to work on holding runners on base (which is amusing since he was so dominant that he didn’t allow a great deal of base runners) and a few other assorted items. The reality is that by holding him in the minor leagues to now it delayed his arbitration clock meaning that the Nationals wont have to shell out the big bucks for a few years longer.

Monday night sees Strasburg toe a big league rubber for the first time. How will 45,000 people in the stands affect him? How will big league hitters adjust to his stuff? How will the weight of expectation influence his performance? From all reports he is a fairly level-headed guy, but we’re talking about a whole new stage to perform on now.

The Defensive Specialist is a huge fan of big fastballs and an even bigger fan of pitchers who know how to use them. It will be intriguing to see how the best hitters in the world approach their at bats against a guy with unbelievable stuff. It will be fascinating to see how Strasburg attacks hitters and whether or not he can control his adrenaline and get the job done. He has major league stuff, now its time to see if he has a major league mentality.

No matter what, the phenom is here and dinner is served!