SB Nation DC - The Stephen Strasburg Watch: How Many Innings Will Strasburg Pitch Tonight?

Jim Riggleman Says Stephen Strasburg 'Unlikely' To Throw More Than 100 Pitches

2010-06-08T17:57:35Z

As exciting as Stephen Strasburg's very first Major League start tonight is, he is a long-term investment, and the Nationals need to protect that. Therefore, it should come as little surprise that manager Jim Riggleman told WFAN in New York that he doesn't expect Strasburg to throw more than 100 pitches tonight.

Via Fanhouse's Ed Price.

#Nationals mgr Jim Riggleman on WFAN said #Strasburg won't go to 100 pitches tonight, unlikely to go more than 6 innings.

The last thing that should happen is for Strasburg to be overworked at the beginning of his career, so as much as I'd like to see Strasburg pitch more, I realize this is probably a necessary move by Riggleman. We'll see how it works out.

Hype Aside, An Objective Look At Stephen Strasburg The Pitcher

2010-06-08T16:06:04Z

Hours before Stephen Strasburg's major league debut, Dave Nichols of the Nationals News Network did his best to look past all the hype and objectively evaluate where Strasburg stands today as a pitcher, so that you can be better prepared for what you may see out of baseball jesus tonight.

Right now, Strasburg's arsenal consists of four pitches; two different fastballs, a change up and a curve ball. Nichols took turns breaking down each, starting with the fastballs:

First, you have to talk about the fastball. But with Strasburg, nothing is easy because he has two of them. The "big one" the upper-90s four seam fastball, is something that he really hasn't relied upon too often in his short minor league career. He's shown it, but hasn't really relied upon it. He blew college hitters away with it, but it hasn't really been a big part of his arsenal professionally yet.

The fastball he's relied on is the sinking two-seamer. It comes in at 94-95 and generates a lot of ground balls, and that suits everyone just fine. All of his pitches have good natural movement, so he can use all of them for "out" pitches, but if he's getting ground ball out after ground ball out, it saves pitches in his arm, and he'll be on a severe pitch count all season.

When you watch Strasburg, its clear that his fastball is his most dominant pitch. When he throws the traditional four-seam, it consistently reaches 96+ mph, with strong movement that runs in on the hands of righties and away from lefties. He also throws a sinking fastball that is faster than most pitchers can dream of ever throwing with excellent downward movement. If Strasburg gets into any trouble tonight, expect him to use the fastball to wiggle out of it

Nichols moves on to the change up:

Next is the change-up, which clocks in around 88-91. When he's gotten in trouble so far (rarely) in his 11 minor league stints, it's been on change-ups left up in the zone. Specifically in his last two starts for Syracuse, he left the change up against right handed hitters and they made solid contact on it. He needs to stay on top of the change and keep it down in the zone.

Strasburg's change up hurt him in the minors, but with some work, it can become a devastating pitch. Like the fastball, it has excellent downward movement that should help keep hitters at the next level off balance.

Finally, Nichols looks at Strasburg's breaking pitch, the curveball:

He's got the big "12-6" curveball he throws for strikes, a tighter curve that breaks below the strike zone on purpose, and a slurve (combination curve/slider) that breaks down and away to right-handed hitters, usually outside the strike zone, but with so much movement that hitters can't lay off.

Part of the reason Strasburg's curveball is so effective is that he throws it from the same position as his other pitches, as opposed to dropping down closer to a side arm like other pitchers do when throwing a breaking ball. Its never easy to hit a big league curve ball, but its nearly impossible after seeing a 99 mph fastball coming from the same arm slot.

The most important thing Nichols says is that Strasburg has enough confidence in his pitches to throw all three at any point in the count. Hopefully that confidence translates to the mound against the Pirates.

Stephen Strasburg's Debut Could Be Worth More Than $1.5 Million To Nationals

2010-06-08T14:57:02Z

Want any more evidence about the importance of Stephen Strasburg's major league debut on Tuesday? According to CNBC's Darren Rovell, the Nationals themselves will make a lot of money because of it.

What we do know is that we're projecting that Strasburg's debut game tonight in Washington is worth more than $1.5 million to the Nationals. And that's likely more than any one player has ever been worth to an organization for a single game.

Rovell gets that figure by adding up the revenue the Nationals will gain from ticket sales for Tuesday's game, people buying tickets for other games as they tried to guess Strasburg's debut date, people buying four-game ticket packages for the price of three, concession sales and parking.

All in all, even if Rovell's figure is overly optimistic, it shows you the effect a potential dominating starting pitcher has on team revenue. Who knows? If Strasburg is as good as advertised, the Nationals could easily become the next big team in this city.

Nationals Giving 2,000 More Fans A Chance To Catch Strasburg's Debut

2010-06-07T17:19:45Z

Miss out on your chance to get tickets for Tuesday night's game? Fear not, you still might have a chance to catch Strasburg's debut. All you'll need is a spare tent, some free time, and $10. Here are the details, via Dan Steinberg:

2,000 standing-room tickets for $10 apiece, go on sale at the box office at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Don't be shocked if there's already a small gathering setting up outside of NatsTown, hoping to get tickets for tomorrow's big game. If you still want to make it to tomorrow's game, I'd encourage you to make your way to the stadium as soon as possible.

Nationals Send Down Craig Stammen To Make Room For Stephen Strasburg

2010-06-06T21:14:42Z

At long last, we finally have our answer to the question on everyone's mind: who would the Nationals send down to make room for Stephen Strasburg? According to Bill Ladson, the answer is ... Craig Stammen.

The #Nats have optioned RHP Craig Stammen to Triple-A Syracuse and will call up RHP Stephen Strasburg.

Stammen pitched extremely well today against the Reds, giving up just one run in 6 2/3 innings, but he has struggled in most of his recent starts prior to today.

Jim Riggleman Is Not A Fan Of Limiting Stephen Strasburg (UPDATED)

2010-06-03T18:25:14Z

As we noted earlier, the Nationals' owner, Stan Kasten, would like to limit Stephen Strasburg's innings this year to protect the team's long-term investment, even if the Nationals are in the middle of a pennant race. Makes sense, right? Well, if this quote, via Dan Steinberg, is to be believed, manager Jim Riggleman isn't a fan of that point of view.

Riggleman on Strasburg pitch limits: "It's really kind of a joke, how much we cover ourselves by putting limitations on these pitchers..."

Well then. Take that, Stan Kasten!

Riggleman's premise is somewhat understandable. He's the manager, and he's evaluated pretty much exclusively on how many games his team wins. If management doesn't let him pitch his best player in a pennant race, it'll probably hurt his chances of winning more games, which will make him look worse.

That said, as Nationals Farm Authority tweeted earlier, Mr. Riggleman, Kerry Wood would like to have a word with you on your point of view.

UPDATE: Steinberg has Riggleman's full comments to ESPN's First Take, and they seem a lot more tame that I originally expected.

"We'll be very careful, but you've got to let him pitch," Riggleman said. "So we'll put some caps on the innings as far as how many innings we're gonna let him get during the course of the season. As far as the pitches, we haven't specifically talked about it yet, but I imagine that it'll be very, very seldom that we'd let him get up around 100 pitches. I think baseball purists through the years hearing me say that are probably cringing -- including myself having to say it. It's really kind of a joke, how much we cover ourselves by putting limitations on these pitchers, but that's today's world. And I'm happy to be the guy who gets to make that call. I'm loving this ballclub here, how hard we play, and he'll be a nice addition to it."

Okay, fair enough. He does say that pitch limits are "today's world," so I don't see any sort of rift developing between Riggleman and management.

Nationals Will Limit Stephen Strasburg Regardless Of Standings

2010-06-03T14:56:36Z

To avoid injury, the Washington Nationals will be placing an innings limit on Stephen Strasburg when he joins the major league club. As we already reported, that limit is somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-160 innings. Earlier reports from the Nationals organization seemed to indicate that there might be some wiggle room in that limit, but now it seems that the limit might actually be shrinking.

In a radio interview, Nationals President Stan Kasten said the organization would stand by that limit, even if the club is in the middle of a pennant chase. From DC Sports Bog:

"Now, we may do things along the way. We may skip a start. We may keep his innings lower if we see that happening. I don't know what else we might do to manage the number, but we have a number in our head based on all the experience we can put together, and we're not going to go past it. We're not going to ruin, or take a chance at ruining, a 21 or 22 year old."

There might be some initial backlash from fans who are dying to see Strasburg pitch, and would love to make the playoffs, but this is the right call by the organization.

Look at what the Tampa Bay Rays did two seasons ago with with David Price, another top pitching prospect and number one overall pick. Despite being in the thick of a playoff race after a number of painful losing seasons (sound familiar?), they didn't force Price into a regular starting job when he was called up towards the end of the season. They decided instead to use him out of the bullpen. It kept his innings down and kept his arm intact. Two years later he is one of the best starters in baseball.

Stephen Strasburg's biggest contributions to the organization will not come this year, but in the Septembers and Octobers (hopefully) in the years to come. While it may sting to see a player with such a tangible impact sitting in the bullpen for the last month of the season, this is excellent foresight by the Nationals brass.

Versus (Yes, Versus!) To Televise Stephen Strasburg's Final Minor League Start

2010-06-02T15:45:54Z

Well, this is interesting. According to Gary Bender from Comcast Sports Net, Stephen Strasburg’s final minor league start tomorrow will be televised live on Versus, of all stations.

Stephen Strasburg game Thursday with Syracuse @ Buffalo will air LIVE ON VERSUS

I’m not aware of any other baseball games Versus has ever done, so this is obviously a sign that Strasburgmania is in full effect.