This.
You have to get to the playoffs first, and you are better off winning as many as you can earlier so you can weigh options. This seems like the same person who would complain the last week of September if the Nats were a few wins shy of the playoffs and had reserved Strasburg for a month.
This line of thinking also misses the boat when it comes to Strasburg specifically. The guy is on a recovery path from TJ surgery. Plain and simple, for the good of the player and organization long term, you follow a routine that is best for that recovery not a routine that puts that recovery at risk in favor of trying to jockey things around to reserve innings in the crapshoot of the playoffs.
Also, in the future-is-now environment of the playoffs, teams have more flexibility and are more likely to shift schedules around and use pitchers in different ways to cobble together the best of what they have without worrying about the impact a few weeks down the road, because the season will then be over.
There are a couple of posters I ALWAYS read. SSB is one of 'em.
