I'll have a longer post tomorrow but this was coming for a long time. Strasburg literally only had 2 full seasons across 13 major league seasons. His injuries ranged from an annoying miss of a few weeks here to complete lost seasons there, most settling on a series of injuries that cost him a couple months. In 2019, his 2nd of the two, he taxed himself to the limit to help bring a title to DC. It was the final straw.
Strasburg is not a Hall of Famer if anyone is even thinking that. Far too few innings, far too few wins, nearly no special seasons. He wasn't the best for a short period of time, and he wasn't around for a long one. Even for the Nats
Strasburg isn't the Nats best pitcher of all-time. That's Max.
Strasburg isn't the face of the franchise. That's Zimm.
Strasburg didn't have the highest high. That was Bryce or Soto.
What Strasburg was though, was the guy that made the Nationals feel like a real team with a real future. It didn't matter if that future was making the playoffs or simply watching Strasburg every 5 days. The Nats had something to look forward to. He signaled a change and then was the change. It's not a coincidence that when he was on the mound for the Nats, even for 2/3rd of a season the Nats were a threat to make the playoffs. Before and after they haven't been.
It has been real bad for him since 2020, the arm is not much better at all and that's for everyday use forget about trying to throw a ball 95 MPH past a guy with a bat. I hope he gets better and I hope at one point, denied that final start, that down the road he can throw a pitch at an Opening Day.
7 comments:
Really emotional to see him retire. Ever since I watched his 14 K debut in person he’s been my favorite Nat. Could achieve absolute magic on the mound, and got annoyed with the ‘Strasburg = soft’ hot takes from online Cy Young winners. The guy had amazing talent only for his body to repeatedly betray him (I wonder how much his college career impacted this, I remember him being a workhorse at SDSU), and the way he helped carry the team through that World Series run, culminating with the WS MVP, felt like he’d finally broken through and could build an actual HoF career off that momentum.
What a shame to go out this way, but what an achievement to basically go out beating a group of signal stealers and cap off one of the most dramatic seasons in baseball history.
Soto, Bryce, and Max are clearly better players who had better Nat seasons than Stras. There’s no debate there. But if you don’t define “highest high” on a season level, and instead focus on individual games or stretches, Stras shines just as bright as those other guys. G4 against the Cubs and G2 against LAD are two of the greatest playoff pitching performances I have ever seen—he overwhelmed two outstanding lineups. The debut was the most exciting non-playoff game I have ever attended. And his relief performance in the WC game cannot be forgotten, not to mention completely outpitching HOFamer Verlander 2x in the World Series. He is not an MLB HOFamer, but he is 100% a DC sports HOFamer.
Farewell to my all time favorite MLB player. I was 30 when he debuted. I thought I was too old to care about individual pro athletes the way I did when I was a kid. Strasburg changed that for me.
Wow, Anon6:19, you're my twin. I was 29 when I saw him open his season for Harrisburg in Altoona, but 30 by the time I watched the Nats debut in June from behind home plate in the upper deck. The seventh inning was the first time I heard Nats Fans ever sustain a real chant. Amazing atmosphere.
Really sad to hear about all of Strasburg's struggles with everyday life.
Nothing has been the same since the Nats embraced a virulent racist authoritarian at the White House and then MLB further drove me away with baseball during a pandemic, the awful DH in the National League, meaningless regular seasons with playoffs featuring over or almost half the teams, a ban on strategic positioning when it had gotten interesting, and a complete and total obliteration of all integrity and sportsmanship by embracing and promoting gambling. I get sick to my stomach whenever I see that betting parlor next to the centerfield gates of Nats Park, which hasn't been often as I've never watched a game since I watched Game 7 on the big screen at Nats Park and partied into the night.
I'll never not feel conflicted after Strasburg made the decision to go to the White House. But Strasburg was everything great about baseball for me. Seven Nation Army will forever feel strange in any other context. I really hope he gets better and the pain goes away and he can enjoy his retirement.
When at his best, Strasburg was the most entertaining and electric pitcher around. Unfortunately, his body didn't allow him to maintain the devastating repertoire. Even when he started, there were articles suggesting that his inverted W delivery was not sustainable. So, though he pushed himself as hard as any star, he ended up having to spend way to much time on the injured reserve list. He will get a place on the Nats circle and forever be a deserved centerpiece of the 2109 story.
As usual, Strasburg's retirement buries another Corbin story --- and as this literary Fan Graphs article underlines (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dont-swallow-the-fip/) --- Corbin will forever be overshadowed.
We will always have the highs of Strasburg. Between his debut and his playoff performances, there is some of the best pitching from the last 15 years. I always hated the narratives around him and didn't understand why many fans weren't as enamored with him as I was. He was everything you wanted from a starting pitcher, but his health repeatedly betrayed him. He was everything for the Nats and I can't imagine this franchise without him.
People STILL get so caught up in what he wasn't that they lose track of just how good Strasburg was. Two of my favorite Strasburg stat lines:
(1) Postseason. 8 starts + his 3 inning relief appearance in the 2019 WC game. 6-2, 1.46 ERA, 2.05 FIP, 11.5 K/9, 1.3 BB/9 (8.88 K/BB), 0.940 WHIP. At his best when it mattered the most.
(2) You've all heard of the "times through the order" penalty, where pitchers decline in productivity as batters adjust during a game. Well, Stras didn't have any such penalty. His numbers:
1st time facing a batter: .632 OPS against.
2nd time facing a batter: .633 OPS against.
3rd time facing a batter: .632 OPS against.
Strasburg had enough stuff and smarts to keep hitters on their back foot throughout the game.
A 99mph fastball, a 90mph change-up and a curveball that made batters think it was coming for their heads only to watch it drop into the front end of the strike zone. He definitely had hall of fame talent.
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