Strasburg Professional Debut

ESPN covering it with some non-Hannah Storm woman (for some reason) asking Steve Philips questions. Struck out the first batter which ESPN missed. Second batter was a lefty who cracked one to the left-field warning track. Struck out the third batter on a hard breaking ball after a couple foul balls and a ball in the dirt.

This is in the Florida Instructional League. Basically very low-level of ball and he'll probably just over-power these kids. He's only going two innings or 40 pitches, whatever comes first. This really isn't worth being covered by ESPN, but since I'm covering ESPN's coverage I guess I can't complain.

Gave up some hits and at least a run in the second. I missed it - I think ESPN may have also. Philips claiming his stuff reminds him of Justin Verlander...says his mechanics needs work. High 90's fastball, 12 to 6 curve and apparently a decent change as well.

Alright, that is enough of an indulgence. May try to preview the Minny/GB game if time permits (and it usually does).


*****EDIT***** Not sure where to put this and I believe this blog is actually more or less devoid of Mets fans...but Mike Francesa of 660 AM WFAN NY is going to have a long in hourse interview with the Mets owner Wilpon and GM Minaya. Should be an excellent excellent listen for all true Mets fans as Francesa is a very good interviewer who will not hold anything back (can't wait for him to absolutely force them to admit that they were wrong on Murphy). Even I, a Yankees fan, look forward to this. ....seems a good spot to also say that Francesa was attacking ESPN columnist and author Bill Simmons on Friday. Not sure if anything ever happened but Simmons tweeted he remains a huge Francesa fan but could not go on the show since ESPN forbid such (which is complete garbage by ESPN). Apparently Simmons is making some documentaries for ESPN and was ripping one that HBO did about Ted Williams which Francesa thought was well-done and called Simmons a front-man for ESPN and eventually said something along the lines of "Just stop talking Bill. No one wants to hear what Bill Simmons thinks." He then was going off about how Simmons apparently invited him to join him on his podcast saying something like "Call me back when you actually get your own show. We want there to be an actual record of this. We want someone to actual here it." And then something about technology. Slightly ignorant comment as podcasts have come into popularity, but funny nonetheless. I side with Francesa as usual.

Weekend Roundup

-Y.E.Yang. How many people thought this would be the man to go toe-to-toe with Tiger and take him out on a Sunday in a major? How many people even knew the South Korean golfer? Even after Yang eagled late, it was hard to take him serious, but he played great golf down the stretch and his approach on 18 was just a perfect cap to the tournament for him. The look on Tiger's face was priceless, he looked beyond shocked and a little hurt, like when the older brother finally gets beat playing one-on-one with his younger brother.



-In the Saturday blurb I told the Pewch Nation to load up on my favorite horse, Better Talk Now in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga. Off at 11:1 he placed to pay 11.00. A 33:1 shot Telling came in for the win, netting the BCA a nice little hit of 322.50. Better Talk Now always comes through for me.

-Usain Bolt is the fastest human to ever walk the face of the Earth. 9.58 100 M. Are you kidding me? And the guy looks almost as if he's slowing down so as not to completely embarrass the rest of his opponents. I was watching a clip of him on Letterman, interesting fact, before he won the 100 at the olympics he was eating chicken nuggets. I'd post the video, but just search it on youtube if you want to watch it's there...otherwise it's a long video for watching a streak for less than 10 seconds. I don't think people really understand how great Bolt is or just how legendary the man will become. When all is said and done I think he'll be the most legendary track and field star of all-time. He toys with people in the 100 meter...that doesn't happen, that can't happen. You usually win these races by hundreths of a second, a slightly slow start, a bobbled step or the slightest let up leads to even the best sprinters getting beaten in this race. Not bolt, he swing his hands, smile at the opponent in the lane next to him or simply put on that look of effortless coasting and still be so far in front of everyone else. He's the GOAT. Respect it.

-Not sure how many people watched the snoozefest that was Sunday Night Baseball last night, after a long rain delay most of the Braves players looked asleep. JA Happ is terrible...somehow he threw another gem. When he comes crashing back down to Earth it may get ugly though. Vazquez actually looked pretty good, mixing a lot of off-speed pitches, unfortunately for him Howard hit a jam shot homer and then after Rollins and Victorino singles he left an inexcusably poor change-up upstairs and Howard did with it what he always will. A really bad weekend for the Braves as Howard killed them, homering off Braves closer Rafael Soriano Friday night for the win and putting the Braves in a wild-card state of mind. Chipper Jones also looked hurt after striking out in the 6th from the right side. Doesn't look good for Atlanta at this point.

-Three major league baseball players were beamed in the head this weekend (in fact I think all three Saturday night, there might have even been another Friday). Perhaps worst of all was Hiroki Kuroda getting beamed with a line drive that surprisingly didn't shatter his skull. That was one of the more alarming shots I've ever seen. Ian Kinsler got beamed by someone on the Bo Sox and was not very happy about it getting up and yelling but was alright. David Wright on the other hand took a 95 MPH fastball from Matt Cain to the head and has been placed on the DL. He may be out for the season and the Mets, at this point, would probably be wise to do just that with the face of the franchise. Cain was visibly upset after the pitch...but it's baseball and that happens, even Roger Clemens misses up and in sometimes. Right Mike Piazza?

-Surprising to no one it appears that the Nationals will not be able to sign San Diego St star pitcher and first pick Stephen Strasburg. Saw this coming a mile away, but I give the Nationals credit for drafting him and offering him a record deal. Not much more you can do...they probably knew this was possible but went through and did the right thing taking him first overall. Something needs to be done about rookie contracts in sports. These should be handled as any other entry-level jobs...there should be a close to set amount for how much a person makes based on position and draft slot. The demands of the agents and players are out of control, and while I can't say I blame them, there has to be some sort of break for the teams until the player proves himself. Just because you're the first pick in the NFL draft doesn't mean you should suddenly be paid in the top-5 at your position. And just because you dominated a couple of Mountain West hitters who probably wouldn't look all too out of place in the SUNYAC doesn't mean you can demand to be paid like CC Sabathia. Take the record deal, prove how fucking sweet you are by mowing down minor leaguers (you're on the Nationals, you might even start in the majors)...win a Cy Young, make the president proud and then cash in.

**Wanted to edit it that Bolt was eating McNuggets...not sure if that was clear (are there really any other kind of nuggets?)...by the way his explanation was pretty hilarious, he said he wasn't too familiar with the asian food and before a race you don't want to eat something you're not familiar with "but chicken nuggets, I know chicken nuggets."

Stephen Strasburg, you're the next contestant on the price is right...

Being right around the corner from Nationals Park I feel compelled to touch on this Stephen Strasburg story. The Washington Nationals are terrible as expected. They invested some money this offseason on slugger Adam Dunn and I hate to say, but they actually have a solid nucleus of young positional players. Not that any of these guys are studs, but Lastings Milledge, Christian Guzman, Adam Dunn, Dukes, Zimmerman, etc...The Nationals actually don't put a poor product on the field.

The main problem is pitching. The staff is absolutely horrendous and they can't protect a lead, or get consistent starting outings from the pitching staff. The starting rotation for the Nats right now is John Lannan, Shairon Martis, Jordan Zimmermann, Ross Detwiler, and Craig Stammen (Scott Olsen and Kip Wells on the DL). A couple young arms in Lannan and Zimpeice, but not really a line-up that is going to win many series as evident in their 15-41 record (but hey, they are only 18 games back).

I have been to three Nats games this year, 2 against the bravos, and one against the cards. The only reason I went to those games is because I am a braves fan, and my buddy is a cards fan. I am convinced that no one goes to the stadium unless the opposing team interests you. The two braves games I went to I sat right behind the braves dugout for a combined price of $5 dollars for two nights. Night number one, no one was at the ballpark, slight rain delay, and by the time the game started we were able to sit down first row. I got some good reactions out of Timmy Hudson as I kept mentioning to him the peice he did with Eddie Perez. The 2nd night some drunk guy outside the stadium gave us lower level seats for free after he tried to scalp them for us for $40 bucks, we said no, and he said okay just take them. The guy was an expert salesmen.

Back to the point of this peice, the Washington Nationals made a huge potential boost to their future and pitching staff by selecting Stephen Strasburg number one overall in this years MLB draft. The stats as mulldog eluded to are unreal on paper. 13-1 record, 1.32 ERA, 65 hits allowed, 16 earned runs, 19 walks and 195 strike outs. There is never a sure thing, especially in the MLB draft which is so hit and miss. Thought scouts have never been so in love, and hyped up someone as much as this kid. The main problem comes in signing this pitcher to a deal. For those of you who weren't aware, last year the Nats picked pitcher Aaron Crow with the 9th overall pick. In a similar situation they failed to sign Crow, who decided to play a year in an independent minor league for the year, re-entering the draft, and being selected this year 12th overall by Kansas City (Tough draw for Crow, nationals then KC....aich). If the Nats aren't carefull they will wind up in a similar situation

As if things weren't going to be hard enough to convince this prospect to sign with the Nationals, the front office has the unfortunate task of dealing with agent Scott Boras. Boras has mentioned that Strasburg will command somewhere in the ballpark of $50M. That is obviously a huge overestimate as the previous highest deal for a Pitcher was $10.5 for Mark Prior back in the day. Ultimately I think this comes down to what Strasburg wants to do. I think that come the end of the signing period he will be looking close to a $15M deal in the face (maybe $20M) but I have a hard time thinking they are going to shell out any more for a guy who has never thrown a major league inning let alone did not even play in one of the best college conferences.

I have heard a rumor that he could test the market out in Japan, sort of what NBA players are doing with Europe. If he could get a crazy Japanese team to put up $30-40 mill for this guy it might be to hard to pass up. The Japanese team would be banking him having a great year and then having MLB teams get into a bidding war as they did with Dice K just to post the rights to attempt to deal with him. Though Strasburg would be at the mercy of signing only with the team that had his rights, it would most likely be a big market team like the Sox or Yankees who can spend that type of money.

Nats front office members better hope they find a way to sign this kid for the mere chance that is adds some buzz around the Potomac, because right now, the only way I am getting dragged to the game is if I have free tickets or a good team is in town.