For most of this season, we've thought it pointless to focus on the inevitability of the Washington Nationals shutting down Stephen Strasburg for the rest of the season at some point known only to Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo (at least, only known to him as far as we know). How much can one write about something that we all knew, and still know, is coming very soon?
Apparently, the answer to that question is plenty. First, the Post's Adam Kilgore polled the players. Then, the national media got into the act and prompted this impassioned rebuttal. And then came Mr. Tom Boswell, who revealed in a column published on the Post's site Tuesday afternoon, that Rizzo is apparently the only person in the Nats organization unambiguously behind the shutdown strategy, or at least the only one who will go on the record.
On Saturday, Washington Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo ran into Stephen Strasburg's dad, who was in Phoenix to watch the team play the Diamondbacks. Jim Strasburg braced Rizzo with the same question as the rest of the baseball world: What's the deal with ending my son's season - protecting his arm even though he feels perfectly healthy - because of some voluntary innings limit that Rizzo has chosen?
Naturally, Rizzo's explanation convinces Mr. Strasburg to see reason. But the opposition even extends into Rizzo's own family.
"Even my dad says, ‘Let him pitch," says Rizzo, whose father Phil is a lifelong baseball scout.
Then Rizzo says he told Strasburg's father that the decision to shut his son down was "mine and mine alone."
And the debate just keeps on going ...