Should Washington beat themselves up for bringing Stephen Strasburg into the Major Leagues prematurely? Hind sight may be twenty twenty, but was half a season of scattered wins and inflated ticket sales worth the possible career of a young phenom? Last week against the Philadelphia Phillies, Stephen Strasburg's arm came up lame after a pitch to outfielder Dominic Brown, and from there comes the extreme speculation. Strasburg's elbow is demanding Tommy John surgery which will sideline him for the rest of this season and all of the next. Will he ever be the same? Fans of the game can only pray. What Strasburg's injury does more than anything is raise awareness around the sporting world. How careful do organizations need to be with their young talent. For teams with deep futures, but not much going for them in the present, let's just say they'll start babying their gems a little more.
For a team like the Washington Nationals, what is the rush? Baseball organizations like Washington, Kansas City, Baltimore, among others, are going to need a lot more than one minor league piece to achieve immediate future success. Furthermore, the jump from the Minors to the pro level is no walk in the park. The pro game is demanding, and while the minors leagues is no joke, the level of competition pushes young players to their limits. For rising pitchers; Major league batters can take close strikes, work deep counts, foul off your money pitch, and make you sweat for long grueling innings. For Stephen Strasburg, those deep counts, long games, and grueling innings got to him. Now the message is out.
JD
