Author Topic: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down  (Read 9598 times)

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Offline NatsDad14

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #125: September 10, 2012, 09:08:00 AM »
My opinion about pitcher workloads is my opinion regardless what they do with Strasburg or did with Zimmermann. Skipping starts doesn't make sense if you are genuinely trying to limit his workload. Either protect your asset or go all-in and decide let him pitch through the WS, I don't give a crap.

But if you claim you're trying to protect his arm, you should do it the right way. That's why I don't think it's a good idea to skip starts just for the sake of extending him. For the record, I thought it was idiotic that they let him throw after that hour long rain delay -- either follow the book on protecting the arm or don't.

There aren't a lack of medical studies about this, they are just angled toward youth pitchers because they are done by non-profit organizations like ASMI.

But right, I guess I'm just defending Rizzo :roll:

But the pitcher workload between starts is much less stress than an actual game. Plus those are sunk costs. If he starts or not, he is pitching those bullpens in between. The Sox and A's skipped starts for their young starters so I bet they don't think that skipping starts is useless because of bullpens in between games.

Offline Smithian

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #126: September 10, 2012, 04:19:00 PM »
Waaaaay too much angst here. It's only baseball needledicks.
Sanity!

:clap:




Offline Baseball is Life

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #130: September 12, 2012, 06:02:54 PM »
Richard Justice on the Kornheiser show: "If the worst thing the critics can say about Rizzo and the Nats is that are being overprotective of Strasburg, then they're OK with that."

Offline PowerBoater69

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #131: September 12, 2012, 06:18:36 PM »
Really god article on the topic

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8369941/history-shows-washington-nationals-shut-stephen-strasburg-too-soon

Please summarize the core point, looks interesting, but that thing is way too long with way to many tangents for me.

Offline Smithian

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #132: September 12, 2012, 06:23:31 PM »
Richard Justice on the Kornheiser show: "If the worst thing the critics can say about Rizzo and the Nats is that are being overprotective of Strasburg, then they're OK with that."

:clap:

Offline NatsDad14

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #133: September 12, 2012, 06:29:41 PM »
Please summarize the core point, looks interesting, but that thing is way too long with way to many tangents for me.
Major League Baseball before the turn of the century was like a highway with a speed limit of 80 mph. Baseball today has a speed limit of 55 mph, seat belts are mandated, and air bags are standard. What the Nationals are doing is lowering the speed limit to 40 mph and arguing that it will reduce car accidents further.

They might be right, but given that the injury risk has already been reduced so significantly, it's likely that any further benefit to shutting down Strasburg will be minuscule. Meanwhile, the risk that shutting him down costs the Nationals the NL pennant or a world championship is a lot more than minuscule. The point of having a pitcher like Stephen Strasburg is to help you win a championship. Preventing Strasburg from helping you win a title this year — so that he might be more likely to help you win a title in the future — is causing certain harm to your team in the present for a theoretical benefit in the future. That is, in a word, dumb.


There are so many reasons why shutting down Strasburg is a mistake. Having made the decision to limit his innings before the season, the Nationals' refusal to skip the occasional start early in the year so that Strasburg would be fresh for October is mind-boggling. (The only explanation is that they didn't think they'd actually be in contention this year. In which case, may we suggest they read Grantland more often?)

Or maybe they actually allowed themselves to be influenced by Scott Boras, Strasburg's agent, who has openly supported the decision to shut down his client. Boras's position is that a risk of injury to his client, no matter how small, reduces his future earning potential, while the benefit of allowing Strasburg to pitch — a possible world championship — doesn't increase Strasburg's income by more than the amount of his playoff share. That's a legitimate position for an agent. But for the Nationals? Why should they care what payday awaits Strasburg in free agency?

That Boras's opinion is taken seriously on this subject is mystifying. I'd love to see Mike Rizzo tell Boras: "Since you want us to put Strasburg's future ahead of our franchise's chances to win in the present, I'm sure you want us to have an investment in Strasburg's future as well. How about a long-term contract?" I suspect it would be a short conversation.

But the main reason the Nationals are wrong to shut down Strasburg is simply this: The risk they're trying to mitigate has already been mitigated for them. Major League Baseball has changed the way it uses starting pitchers, and has succeeded in reducing pitcher injuries. The Nationals' failure to recognize this is putting them at needless risk for something else — a quick exit this October.

Offline wpa2629

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #134: September 12, 2012, 06:41:13 PM »
I find it hard to believe any of these people actually watched him pitch in the 2nd half. He was erratic at best. One good outing, followed by a crap outing, showing signs of fatigue, lack of command, laboring through starts, etc. JZim went through the exact same thing last year, strong at the beginning, then very erratic in the second half and then shut down.

He was more unreliable than dominant in his last several starts. Sometimes I think we may actually be better off not having to worry about him so much.

Who knows, so much energy wasted over a moot point. Time to sack it up and play ball.

Offline PowerBoater69

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #135: September 12, 2012, 07:39:34 PM »
...it's likely that any further benefit to shutting down Strasburg will be minuscule. Meanwhile, the risk that shutting him down costs the Nationals the NL pennant or a world championship is a lot more than minuscule.

Thanks for the recap.  This is exactly what I've been saying.

Offline comish4lif

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #136: September 12, 2012, 07:58:43 PM »
Janerli makes the case that it is not the innings abuse that did in Wood, Prior, et al, it was the pitches thrown, and specifically, the multiple outings of 120 and 130 plus pitches.

And concludes that since the Nats have been reasonable in limiting Strasburg's pitch counts, there's little value to limiting his innings.

Offline NatsDad14

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #137: September 12, 2012, 08:51:00 PM »
Lannan: 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP
Strasburg: 3.16 ERA, 1.15 WHIP

Offline tomterp

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #138: September 13, 2012, 08:23:53 AM »
Cubs shut down Samardzija

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=18316

Quote
The Shark vs. Strasburg Shutdown
 
by John Perrotto, Baseball Prospectus
 
The ace of the Nationals' pitching staff got shut down for the season, and it was the most-debated topic in baseball since the American League adopted the designated hitter rule for the 1973 season. The Cubs shut down their No.1 starter and seemingly nobody noticed or cared.
 
Of course, the Nationals have the best record in the major leagues, while the Cubs have the second-worst mark. And Stephen Strasburg was the most-hyped college pitching prospect in history at San Diego State, while Jeff Samardzija was better known for catching touchdown passes as a wide receiver at Notre Dame.
 
Every angle of the Nationals' decision to end Strasburg's season at 28 starts and 159 1/3 innings in his first full season after undergoing Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery in September 2010 has been examined. Most baseball executives and scouts I've spoken with say they either would have let Strasburg keep pitching or set up his schedule at the beginning of the season so he could have pitched through October. However, general manager Mike Rizzo—with a lot of nudging from agent Scott Boras—made his decision and it is old news now, at least until the Nationals are eliminated from the postseason.
 
However, it is instructive to see what went into the Cubs' decision to shut down Samardzija, who transitioned from reliever to starter this season. Samardzija carried a heavily workload as a reliever in 2011, appearing in 75 games and pitching 88 innings. The Cubs also had the 27-year-old begin an aggressive throwing program a month before spring training opened in order to build up enough stamina to get through a full season—or close to it—as a member of the rotation.
 
There has been a sea change in how the Cubs make decisions this year with club president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer in their first season on the job. Epstein, of course, was famous for relying on statistical analysis to make decisions with the Red Sox and being the brains behind their Carmine computer system. Meanwhile, under former GM Jim Hendry, the Cubs relied more on gut instinct and scouting acumen than processing numbers.
 
In Samardzija's case, the Cubs used a little bit of statistical analysis and a little bit of scouting to figure out how long to let him pitch. Last Saturday, they decided to wrap his season up at 28 starts and 174 1/3 innings.
 
"Basically, it was common sense," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "We didn't have a magic number of innings in mind. We knew at some point we had to limit his innings, but we didn't have a hard limit on how many innings that would be. We kept an eye on him and watched how we was throwing. When it got to the point where he had almost doubled his innings from last year, it just made sense to shut him down."
 
Samardzija finished on a high note; he pitched his first career complete game, holding the Pirates to three runs—two earned—and four hits while striking out nine. He ended the season with a solid 3.60 FIP.
 
"I knew what I needed to do, and I knew I had a lot of question marks around myself coming into the year," Samardzija said. "I knew where I was going as a pitcher and the direction I was going, and wanted to keep improving and get that experience late in games. You really want the staff and everyone to know they can trust you and keep giving you the ball."
 
The Cubs believe he can be a key part of their future along with shortstop Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
 
"He's a guy we can definitely count on for next season, someone who would be in the mix to be the Opening Day starter depending on what our roster looks like," Sveum said. "He pitched very well and showed at times he can be dominant. I think he can develop into a No. 1 or a No. 2 starter."
 
However, one question remains. If the Cubs were in the Nationals' position, would they have shut down Samardzija on Labor Day weekend? "I don't know, I honestly can't answer that question," Sveum said. "I just hope we're in that situation some day."

Offline RL04

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #139: September 13, 2012, 12:38:26 PM »
Norman Chad's column on Monday was the best.  I'll look for the link.  I've been saying that the shutdown of St. Stephen is the worst deicision in the history of sports.  The Slouch said something like it's the worst decision in the history of the world or something.  And he is right.

Offline Obed_Marsh

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #140: September 13, 2012, 12:46:00 PM »
After speaking with Dr. Mindfact, I am carefully considering shutting down my participation in shutdown dicussions in accordance with the medical guidelines and standard recovery metrics for fan weltschmerz regarding managerial incompetience.

Offline NatsDad14

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #141: September 13, 2012, 01:08:10 PM »
I thought Dr. Yokem said it was best to shut him down

The doctor who performed elbow surgery on Stephen Strasburg said he did not tell the Washington Nationals to shut down their ace pitcher.

“I wasn’t asked,” Dr. Lewis Yocum told the Los Angeles Times.

------------

Yocum said that, had he been asked, he would not have been able to provide conclusive information about whether Strasburg’s long-term health would be best served by shutting him down.

“There’s no statistic as far as studies,” Yocum said.

------------

Yocum said that process — and not any medical directive — essentially determined how Rizzo would proceed with Strasburg.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/lat-sp-sn-stephen-strasburg-nationals-shutdown-20120913,0,6916702.story

Offline RL04

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #142: September 13, 2012, 01:29:10 PM »
Norman Chad's column on Monday was the best.  I'll look for the link. 


Found it:

Stephen Strasburg shouldn’t have been shut down

By Norman Chad, Published: September 9

I really don’t need an entire column to explain that the Washington Nationals shutting down Stephen Strasburg before season’s end is the dumbest decision in contemporary times since Decca Records passed on the Beatles in 1962, but I’m paid for 800 words, so what the heck.

Let’s be frank:

In the thick of a magical season that may not come around again for 50 years, the best interests of the Nationals are for Strasburg to pitch until his arm falls off.

As for Strasburg, his best interests are to pitch as long as he can as well as he can, for we may never pass this way again. Yes, his career might be shortened, but as the eloquent Rupert Pupkin once stated, “Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.”

So spare me all the doctors and experts and pundits and custodians of the game.

The science on all this stuff is not exact. And it’s constantly changing, if not contradictory: One day saccharin is okay, the next day it’s not. Some cholesterol is good, some cholesterol is bad and some cholesterol shows up on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” To quote the great William Goldman on Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything,” and that applies to most of life.

Anyway, suddenly this Tommy John elbow surgery — which, colloquially speaking, is ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction — is so delicate, if you pitch too many innings the season after, you risk never being able to pitch again; I even read somewhere that if Strasburg exceeded 185 innings this year, he might not be able to ever slice an onion again.

Huh. So how does that explain Tommy John himself?

He was the original Tommy John surgery patient in 1974. After missing the entire 1975 season, John pitched 207 innings in 1976 — his first season back — then followed that by throwing 200 innings or more the next four years, with a combined record of 80-35. In fact, John didn’t miss a start the final 13-plus seasons of his career after the surgery.

In defense of the Nationals’ decision, there is plenty of historical precedence for their handling of Strasburg:

● Michelangelo, suffering from “artists’ elbow,” was limited by Vatican doctors to 33,500 painting strokes per annum; as a result, it took him four years to complete the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

●Inveterate explorer Ferdinand Magellan got seasick if he sailed more than 21 consecutive days, so when he led the first around-the-world expedition, he docked frequently at various ports, his favorite being – oddly enough – Atlantic City.

● God, of course, famously rested on the seventh day; without that 24-hour hiatus, I can’t even imagine the shape the world would be in today.

(Speaking of higher beings, I love how agent Scott Boras is emerging from the Strasburg saga as one part Robin Hood, one part Branch Rickey and two parts Marcus Welby. Boras apparently is the social conscience of a new generation — I half-expect him to be volunteering at soup kitchens in Beverly Hills by year’s end.)

In summation — I believe I have a few words left on the clock — JUST PITCH THE KID. No one’s guaranteed tomorrow; heck, he’d probably be fine. If he’s not, just throw in somebody else.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/stephen-strasburg-shouldnt-have-been-shut-down/2012/09/09/6fea2f00-f890-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_story.html


Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #143: September 13, 2012, 01:52:10 PM »
Pretty nice editing, GMU.  Your compatriot, PB69, wasn't as clever as you.

Quote
Yocum said he had not talked with Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo since last year and had not talked with Strasburg since spring training.

considering Rizzo has said this was the plan for recovery since about the Spring, those time frames are consistent with Rizzo saying he consulted Yocum.  The fact that he was not panic calling after every start and revising it after every team win or loss does not mean he lacked Yocum's advise at the time he made the decision.  Yocum clearly did  not say, "shut him down in September once he reaches 160 innings."  That's clear from the article.  But on the other hand, that does not mean Yocum's was not consulted more generally back last year.  That would be consistent with Rizzo claiming it was his decision but that he took advise when he formulated his plan.

Online nobleisthyname

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #144: September 13, 2012, 01:55:32 PM »
It's like these guys think these points are original and haven't already been discussed to death a million times.

Strasburg is NOT comparable Tommy John. TJ was 31 and a 10 year veteran by the time he needed the surgery. And what exactly is the basis for the argument that removing Strasburg seriously hurts are chances of being a WS contender? Have these guys seen him pitch in the second half? Dave Cameron broke it down quite well why losing Strasburg doesn't hurt us that much at all.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-strasburg-shutdown-and-what-we-dont-know/

Quote
While he has mostly maintained his average velocity throughout the summer, his peak velocity is down from earlier in the season. In May and early June, he was regularly getting up into the 98-99 range, but lately, he’s topped out at 96 or 97. It’s not a smoking gun, but given that velocity tends to increase as the season goes on, the fact that Strasburg’s fastest pitches have gotten a little bit slower suggest that there is some legitimacy to the idea that he’s beginning to wear down.

There’s also some evidence of declining dominance in opposing batters swinging strike rates. In his first start of the season through July 15th — his first 18 outings — opposing batters only posted a swinging strike rate below 9% twice, and they were over 13% seven times. In his last 10 starts, however, he only posted a swinging strike rate over 9% five times, and only once got over 13%. His command also wasn’t as crisp as it was earlier in the year, as he walked three or more batters in a game four times in his last 10 starts after doing it four times in his first 18 starts.

Early season Strasburg was the most dominant pitcher in baseball, at least on a per-innings basis. Recent Strasburg has been more human, mixing in some good starts with some clunkers. If this trend was going to continue, it’s certainly possible that the gap between Strasburg and Ross Detwiler in October wouldn’t be so large that swapping them would result in a huge change in expected outcomes. In fact, you could argue that the outcome differences now aren’t even that large.

Strasburg’s posted a 2.82 xFIP this year, just about 1.50 runs per nine innings better than Detwiler this season. Strasburg’s posted higher than average BABIP and HR/FB rates, while Detwiler has been below average at both, so you might want to adjust that gap down slightly to account for the fact that there might be some difference in skills in those FDP areas. So, maybe the gap is 1.25 runs per nine innings instead. That’s certainly a big difference, but we also have to remember that October baseball is not the same as regular season baseball, and that managers can be much more aggressive in their bullpen usage in the playoffs. Given how deep Washington’s relief corps is, it’s unlikely that either pitcher would be asked to go beyond six innings, and five is probably more likely against a good offensive opponent. So, instead of 1.25 runs, we’re probably dealing with something closer to 0.7 runs per start difference.

And that’s using Strasburg’s full season line. If you think he’s wearing down, maybe he’s more of a 3.25 xFIP guy going forward, and that would push the difference more towards 0.5 runs per start. Don’t be fooled by those “ERA since the All-Star break” graphics that say that there’s no drop-off here, but a half run gap isn’t overwhelming, especially if you think that the trade-off is getting a healthier Strasburg for the future.

And then, of course, there’s the significant variance around player performance in small samples to begin with, and we’re not just talking Strasburg and Detwiler here. There’s a real chance that the playoff games that Strasburg would have pitched in wouldn’t have been close enough to be decided by the quality of the starting pitcher anyway. If we built a histogram of the potential outcomes of any Strasburg playoff start, there would be a tail on one end that represented a blowout by the Nationals, in which they could probably roll out any pitcher they wanted and still win the game. Likewise, there would be a tail on the opposite side of the spectrum that represented a dominating performance from the opposing starter so that even a great performance by Strasburg would still result in a loss.

The starting pitcher is an important factor in the end result of a ballgame, but it isn’t the deciding factor, and it’s certainly possible that the decision to use Detwiler instead of Strasburg ends up not having much of an effect on the Nationals playoff chase at all, simply due to outcomes that have nothing to do with the quality of each pitcher. Combine that with the volatility of projecting Strasburg going forward, the huge unknown that is pitcher injuries and reasonable workloads, and the fact that the Nationals do have a good team even when Strasburg’s not on the mound, this decision by the Nationals is certainly defendable.

Offline PC

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #145: September 13, 2012, 04:27:20 PM »
Quote
Strasburg was slowing down

No matter what you think of shutdown, flamethrower was starting to fall off

Wednesday night's game in New York is the "not" heard 'round the world: The game Stephen Strasburg would have been pitching if the Washington Nationals hadn't shut him down ahead of schedule due to his problems with "mentally concentrating," which the Nationals blame on the level of media attention over the team's plans to shut him down.

The Nationals have a strong lead in the NL East, so they are unlikely to miss his performance in one game, or for the rest of the regular season, very much. The larger issue surrounding Strasburg is the impact of losing him for the postseason. When the Nationals instituted their plan for Strasburg at the beginning of the season, it made a lot of sense for a young team with slim hopes of making the playoffs to protect one of their most valuable (and most fragile) players from injury. With the Nationals heavily favored to make the playoffs, though, some Nationals fans are likely to be disappointed if their team's ace isn't available for a single game of the postseason.

Clearly, the Nationals know that Strasburg is a better pitcher than whomever they will replace him with in the playoff rotation, just as everyone else does. However, the public is at a disadvantage when discussing a pitcher's condition, since teams simply know more about how he's doing than fans and the media do. Teams have scouts, trainers, doctors and even the player himself to shed light on how the pitcher's body is reacting to his workload.

It's difficult for anyone not affiliated with a major league team to get that sort of feedback on a player. The next best thing we can do is look at the pitches themselves to see if we notice anything that we may be able to link back to the pitcher's workload.

A look at the PITCHf/x data reveals that Strasburg's four-seam fastball (his primary pitch) has been steadily declining in velocity over the course of the season. The graph below charts his fastball velocity in each start relative to his average fastball speed for the season:

Graph

The data is noisy, but there's a definite trend there: According to the best-fit line, Strasburg has lost nearly a mile per hour off his four-seam fastball since the beginning of the season. Knowing this by itself doesn't tell us much of anything, without knowing about how other pitchers fare over the course of the season. This second graph shows the velocity of all starting pitchers over the course of the season relative to average fastball velocity:

Another graph

The effect we see here is much less pronounced, but most pitchers actually gain speed over the course of the season. This finding holds up if we restrict our observations to players with above-average fastballs (average speed greater than 93 mph), as well. It also holds up if we restrict ourselves just to Nationals home games, suggesting that what we see in Strasburg is unlikely to be some systemic problem with velocity measurements in the PITCHf/x system.

So we know there was an unusual velocity loss in Strasburg's case; what we don't know is what the cause of that was. It is possible that this was due to a deliberate choice on the part of Strasburg. He may have been trying to ease off in order to help him pitch through the season longer. Or he may have been changing something else that reduced velocity as a side effect, perhaps in exchange for better command or better movement.

But the drop in velocity could also have been a sign of fatigue. It might not have been arm fatigue; it could have been fatigue in his legs or lower core. Fatigue would not necessarily mean Strasburg was hurt, of course. But according to athletic trainer and Baseball Prospectus author Corey Dawkins, pitching through fatigue "at maximal effort" is the primary cause of pitching injuries. Fatigue could also have led to changes in delivery as Strasburg tried to compensate for its effects, which would have increased his risk of injury.

Now, we don't know that Strasburg was fatigued, but we do know that the Nationals would have much more information to determine that than we do. What we can say is that we see something that may indicate fatigue, and that asking Strasburg to continue to pitch through that fatigue could have meant risking a reinjury.

The Nationals are giving up some likelihood of short-term gain to safeguard Strasburg's long-term health, which is a bizarrely forward-looking act in an industry so often concerned with the short term first. But the Nationals are a young team, and youth has its advantages when it comes to building up a run of sustained success; young teams are more likely to perform well in the future than older teams. If the Nationals have evidence that Strasburg is fatigued, that would seem to indicate that their concerns are quite prudent.

Colin Wyers is director of statistical operation for Baseball Prospectus. Previously, he served as a Marine Corps journalist and public affairs specialist.

Online welch

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #146: September 13, 2012, 04:58:11 PM »
Norman Chad's column on Monday was the best.  I'll look for the link.  I've been saying that the shutdown of St. Stephen is the worst deicision in the history of sports.  The Slouch said something like it's the worst decision in the history of the world or something.  And he is right.

Norman Chad used to be the Post's expert on sports betting...he always had a funny column of the point-spread for each NFL game.

I would bet that this is the worst decision since Napoleon decided to march on Moscow, or since Phillip II decided to launch the Armada.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #147: September 13, 2012, 05:05:12 PM »
no.  The worst decision since launching the Armada is reading Norman Chad.

Offline Baseball is Life

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #148: September 13, 2012, 05:07:45 PM »
Norman Chad's column on Monday was the best.  I'll look for the link.  I've been saying that the shutdown of St. Stephen is the worst deicision in the history of sports.  The Slouch said something like it's the worst decision in the history of the world or something.  And he is right.

Appropriate since Chad is the worst writer in the history of sports.

Kidding, kidding. He's actually very good IMO. Doesn't know jack about baseball though.

Online welch

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Re: Stephen Strasburg Has Been Shut Down
« Reply #149: September 13, 2012, 05:12:58 PM »
no.  The worst decision since launching the Armada is reading Norman Chad.

Ouch!!! I read Chad all through the '91 / SB 26 season. Succinct. Kornheiser was funny in a couple of hundred words ("The Bandwagon...") and Chad was funny in one sentence per NFL game. NFL...not baseball.