After the Strasburg Rapture

Stephen Strasburg almost lived up to all the hype Tuesday night. I say “almost” because he didn’t part the Anacostia River or turn Bud Lite into beer. That’s the media’s fault, not Strasburg’s. He more than held up his end of the deal. There’s not a pitcher in baseball today who wouldn’t be satisfied with his line from Tuesday’s game:

7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 14 K, 94 pitches.

In the interests of balanced reporting (take that, Fox News), here are some other things to consider about his effort.

True, the Pirates have the lowest batting average in baseball, but they don’t strike out much, only 15th out of 30 teams going into the game. He might only have struck out 10 Yankees that night, but he was still lights out.

His adrenaline seemed to wear off in the fourth inning, an he got knocked around a little. After Delwyn Young homered for a 2-1 Pittsburgh lead, Strasburg took the bit again and shut them down with prejudice the rest of the way. He’s a gamer.

Major League Baseball started counting pitches in the late 1980s. Strasburg is the first pitcher to record 14 strikeouts in under 95 pitches.

Even a phenom can’t get predictable. Strasburg and catcher Ivan Rodriguez tried the same sequence of pitches on Young in the fourth inning as they used to strike him out in the, and Young made them pay. Pudge should have known better.

Veteran baseball columnist (now senile) Thomas Boswell was comparing Strasburg to Koufax in his chat Wednesday morning. When discussing other previously untested pitchers who burst on the scene as spectacularly as Strasburg, he mentioned Fernando Valenzuela, Mark Fidrych, Vida Blue, and Dwight Gooden. Let’s hope he’s wrong, as the career numbers for each aren’t promising. (First record is their breakout season; second is career.)

Valenzuela 13-7, 173-153
Fidrych 19-9, 29-19
Blue 24-8, 209-161
Gooden 17-9, 194-112

All but Fidrych had good careers, but it’s safe to say there’s no one in Washington today who wouldn’t be disappointed if you told them Stephen Strasburg would win “only” 209 major league games.

There’s one last, sobering, comparison. Compare these two pitching lines:

7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, 94 pitches, 65 strikes, Win
6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 103 pitches, 65 strikes, Win

Both games were major league debuts, home games against Pittsburgh. Both pitchers were 21 years old. (Thanks to Deadspin commenter EddieSuttons_SouthernComfort for the comparison stats.)

The first line is, of course, Strasburg’s, from Tuesday night. The second? Mark Prior, May 22, 2002. Prior’s career record was 42-29. He won 10 games in a season twice.

How about everyone just lets the kid pitch? What he does, he does. He appears to have his head screwed on right, and the Nats are playing it safe with his arm so far. He’s a pitcher, not Christ, and it’s not fair to treat him like the latter.