Author Topic: Stephen Strasburg Watch  (Read 98635 times)

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Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #75: February 20, 2009, 06:59:13 PM »
At 103 pitches against that level of competition he should've been into the 8th.
Bethune-Cookman is a very strong team with some pretty talented players. Some high pitch ABs kind of hurt his pitch count.

Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #76: February 20, 2009, 06:59:46 PM »
For all the hype of the number 1 pick in the draft, I prefer someone who can pitch at least a quality start (even if we use the low standard of 6 IP under 3 ER).   :?

The coach said he was only going to allow Strasburg to pitch only five innings, six if he felt it necessary.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #77: February 20, 2009, 08:11:06 PM »
6-3 final, SDSU is victorious. Strasburg picks up the win. (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #78: February 20, 2009, 08:13:05 PM »
6-3 final, SDSU is victorious. Strasburg picks up the win. (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

I thought they were going to blow it right after Strasburg left, but they held on.  He had a fairly dominating outing with a few hiccups.

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #79: February 20, 2009, 11:01:58 PM »
Remember, these guys don't get he benefit of Spring Training games to get going into the season.  5.2 is a pretty good first outing.

Offline hammondsnats

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #80: February 21, 2009, 02:28:20 PM »
Quote
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...-ks-11-opener/

COMPTON — – San Diego State right-hander Stephen Strasburg set the bar so high for himself last season that outstanding has been reduced to routine.

Strasburg clocked 98 mph with his first pitch in yesterday's season opener against Bethune Cookman. No big deal. He routinely registers triple digits on the radar gun.

Strasburg had 11 strikeouts against the Wildcats – getting every player in the starting lineup at least once. Ho hum. That's not even half as many strikeouts (23) as Strasburg had last year in a game against Utah.

At least Bethune Cookman made Strasburg break a sweat in SDSU's 6-3 win over the Wildcats in the MLB Urban Youth Academy Invitational, in front of a near-capacity crowd of 950, including more than two dozen major league scouts.

“The second inning on they really made him work,” said SDSU coach Tony Gwynn. “You figure that's what people are going to do. They're not going to throw in the towel just because he's throwing hard. But Strassy stuck with his guns. He kept pounding the strike zone. I thought he threw the ball well.”

Said Strasburg: “They're a (regular NCAA) Regional team. They hung in there against me and I was able to get some tough outs in key situations. . . . I wanted them to show me they could hit my good stuff. I really just challenged them all game.”

The Aztecs batted around in the second inning, collecting five hits and four runs – beginning with T.J. Thomas' leadoff homer – against Wildcats starter Hiram Burgos. Burgos came in with pretty good credentials himself – 9-1 with a 1.58 ERA last season – but he couldn't match Strasburg.

“I don't think our guys were intimidated or overmatched by the No. 1 pitcher in the nation,” said Bethune Cookman coach Mervyl Melendez. “We just have to take advantage of our opportunities when they present themselves against a pitcher like that.

“He's not used to being behind, of course. One base hit in the first inning changes how he pitches. We just needed to do a better job early on and get in his head a little bit to see how he reacts to adversity.”

The closest Strasburg came to adversity was when he allowed runners to reach second and third with two outs in the first. He promptly struck out the Wildcats' Chris Brown to end the threat.

Strasburg had a shutout through 5 2/3 innings before Brown dropped a single in front of SDSU right fielder Cory Vaughn to make it 4-1. It was the last of 105 pitches thrown by Strasburg, who allowed three hits, two walks and the one run.

Bethune Cookman got two hits with two outs in the ninth against SDSU closer Addison Reed to bring the tying run to the plate before Reed got Alejandro Jimenez to pop out to shortstop Ryan O'Sullivan to end the game.

next game against nevada on thursday.

Offline d_mc_nabb

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #81: February 21, 2009, 08:11:05 PM »
The innings aren't a concern, it was a coaches decision and his first game. Besides, last year against Utah in his 23 strikeout game, Strasburg threw 128 pitches, which I think is a better "statistic" than innings.

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #82: February 22, 2009, 01:15:33 PM »
Rich Lederer of "The Baseball Analysts" had the opportunity to watch Stephen Strasburg in his first start of the season.  He provided some good observations on Strasburg in his latest entry on the website.

Quote
The first game of our day/night doubleheader matched San Diego State against Bethune-Cookman at the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy's Collegiate Baseball Tournament in Compton. The second contest was the opener of a three-game set between Long Beach State and the University of Southern California at Dedeaux Field.

Tom and I were joined by general managers, scouting directors, area scouts, and agents in making the 15-mile, 25-minute trip from Compton College to USC. Of the nearly 1,000 fans at each of the two games, approximately 5 percent were employed by MLB teams.

Come the draft in June, we may look back and say there were closer to 6 percent. Scratch that. Not June. But August. You see, Scott Boras represents Stephen Strasburg and Grant Green, who just may go 1-2 in the draft. If not for the weak economy, I could see Boras asking eight figures for Strasburg, the first college player to be named to the U.S. Olympic team since the decision was made to use minor leaguers beginning in 2000.

Boras, whose son Shane is a freshman infielder for USC, was at the evening game. The agent must have been in a great mood after getting the lowdown from one of his scouts on Strasburg's pitching performance earlier that afternoon. While not perfect, the 6-4, 220-pound righthander was dominating, striking out 11 of the 23 batters he faced without allowing an earned run over 5 2/3 innings while leading the Aztecs to a 6-3 victory over the Wildcats.

              IP    H   R   ER  BB  SO
Strasburg     5.2   3   1   0   2   11

Strasburg's fastball lit up the radar guns. While a couple of scouts had him at 100 in the first inning, his gas was sitting at 96-99 from the windup and 93-96 from the stretch all afternoon. His curveball, which is more of a tight-rotation slurve than a 12-to-6 drop, was 79-81, a few mph below his normal 81-84 range according to a scout who has followed him closely. Strasburg's breaking ball didn't have as much depth as you might like, especially when he released it away from his body, but it is an effective companion to his heater.

If Strasburg's fastball is a "plus plus" or a 75/80 on the 20-80 scale that scouts use, his curveball was more like "solid average" or a 55 on Friday. He experienced occasional problems in landing his front foot correctly, causing him to be a bit off balance when throwing his slurve.

As for a third pitch, Strasburg didn't show much. Out of 103 pitches, the 20-year-old junior threw his changeup one time. ONCE. As in one more time than zero and one less time than two. At 88 mph, it's a pitch that many major leaguers would welcome as their fastball. The one scout would like to see him throw it more often and another scout I spoke to told me that it "looked good in the bullpen" before the game.


Aside from the 11 Ks, Strasburg induced four groundball outs and two opposite-field flies to left. He hit one batter, walked two more, and gave up three hits: a first-inning double, a grounder that was pulled just inside the third-base line on a well-located curve below the knees; an infield single to lead off the third that could have gone either way; and a run-scoring single to right field in the sixth, which was the last pitch he threw before being taken out of the game by manager Tony Gwynn.

Strasburg is undoubtedly a special talent and only a major injury or unreasonable bonus demands will keep the Washington Nationals from drafting him No. 1 in the MLB Draft in June.

http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/02/a_doubleheader.php

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #83: February 22, 2009, 01:19:54 PM »
good stuff. No need to throw the changeup when you have a 97 MPH fastball and a nasty slurve.

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #84: February 22, 2009, 01:23:25 PM »
good stuff. No need to throw the changeup when you have a 97 MPH fastball and a nasty slurve.

True, but he will eventually need that changeup in the big leagues.

Offline ronnynat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #85: February 22, 2009, 01:25:12 PM »
An 88 mph change? WTF?! :lol:

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #86: February 22, 2009, 01:27:47 PM »
An 88 mph change? WTF?! :lol:

Eric Gagne used to have a an 87-88 change as well.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #87: February 22, 2009, 01:28:07 PM »
The thing with throwing an 88 MPH change-up is that if you are blowing fastballs by hitters and then you throw a change-up they will crush it like a BP fastball.

You have pick your spots when you want to throw the change-up when it makes sense like if a hitter is tuned up to your fastball and pulling it foul or something.

Offline houston-nat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #88: February 22, 2009, 01:28:39 PM »
An 88 mph change? WTF?! :lol:
I can just see the bullpen conversation.

STRASBURG. Hey John, you've got one of the best changeups I've ever seen.
LANNAN. Wow, thanks!
STRASBURG. Why don't you ever throw a fastball?
LANNAN. What?
STRASBURG. It's incredible. Don't like them?
LANNAN. I think there's been a mistake.

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #89: February 22, 2009, 01:30:39 PM »
The thing with throwing an 88 MPH change-up is that if you are blowing fastballs by hitters and then you throw a change-up they will crush it like a BP fastball.

You have pick your spots when you want to throw the change-up when it makes sense like if a hitter is tuned up to your fastball and pulling it foul or something.

I have a feeling that his lack of the change up is probably more related to his confidence in the pitch.  Although, if he can get some good movement on a change up moving in the high 80s, that could be deadly.

Offline spidernat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #90: February 22, 2009, 03:11:45 PM »
The thing with throwing an 88 MPH change-up is that if you are blowing fastballs by hitters and then you throw a change-up they will crush it like a BP fastball.


No they won't, unless his changeup delivery is complete garbage.

Offline saltydad

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #91: February 22, 2009, 03:51:05 PM »
Especially if it's a 10 mph drop from his fastball.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #92: February 22, 2009, 03:52:49 PM »
yeah, but if they are way behind his heater and he/the catcher calls for a change-up the hitter would be right on it.

You have to pick your spots carefully.

Offline spidernat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #93: February 22, 2009, 03:55:47 PM »
sportsfan, you don't throw changeups to guys who are ridiculously late on your fastballs. I suspect our pitchers and coaches know as much.

If that were to happen though, I bet you would blame the pitching coach and not Flores for calling a bad game.  :lol:

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #94: February 22, 2009, 03:57:18 PM »
I've seen it happen plenty of times though. The batter is barely fouling off a pitcher's heater and then the pitcher throws a breaking ball and the batter crushes it. That crap pisses me off. :?

Offline spidernat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #95: February 22, 2009, 03:59:44 PM »
Yeah I'm pretty sure I saw Flores do that.  :lol:  But serisouly, that only works for the hitter if the pitcher's changeup blows. Ask ronnynat and he'll tell you that it would NEVER happen to Clippard.  :)

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #96: February 23, 2009, 06:42:49 PM »
damn, Strasburg's teammate Tyler LaVigne (Junior) threw a 2-hit shutout yesterday for the Aztecs against University of San Diego.

9 IP 2 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 5 K

What's more impressive about the start was that it was LaVigne's (A JuCo transfer) first career start with the Aztecs and the team that he recorded the shutout against, San Diego, is ranked 11th in the Country.

Offline spidernat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #97: February 23, 2009, 06:45:30 PM »
So much for not going deep into a game on your first outing. Why don't you start a Tyler LaVigne watch?  :lol:

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #98: February 23, 2009, 06:55:36 PM »
So much for not going deep into a game on your first outing. Why don't you start a Tyler LaVigne watch?  :lol:
He was pretty impressive the last two years at College of Southern Nevada (junior college):

2008: (8-3, 1.13 ERA), 10 Starts, 9 Relief Appearances, 4 Complete Games, 79.1 IP 88 K
2007: (8-2, 0.80 ERA), 1 Start, 19 Relief Appearances, 45 IP 56 K (.140 BA Against)

According to his bio he has extensive work as both a starter or reliever which increases his value.

Offline spidernat

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Watch
« Reply #99: February 23, 2009, 06:59:48 PM »
He is gradually being worked into a starter's role. He'll probably be used mostly as a starter this season and then he will get drafted and work as a reliever once he gets called up until he's ready for a full starter's workload.