You heard it here first

That was a problem for many of the hitters I saw on the MLB network -- regarding the SS heater, they only heard it ...

I watched a fair amount of the Strasburg game. Here are my thoughts:

- His stuff is nasty. Just filthy. But for the first few innings, not only did the batters no know where his pitches were going, but neither did he. Pudge would set up inside, and the fastball would break to the outside - yet somehow still a strike.

- The Pirates are a AAAA lineup. While the game was obviously very impressive, the Pirates are not a great team, so people should take that into account looking at last night's game. The only real hitter in the lineup (Andrew McCutcheon) actually hit the ball hard a few times last night

- His stuff is flithy. Just absolutely amazing. If he doesn't break (a la Mark Prior), he is the real deal. Now the Nationals just need 7 other guys to put on the diamond with him (other than Zimmerman).

If he doesn't break ... he is the real deal

The Nationals will want to very gently coddle this young resource. For those old enough, just remember what we were all saying when witnessing a young Dwight Gooden's brilliance.

I know absolutely nothing of Strasburg's personality, but I find it interesting that he is already married. Hopefully, that will be a stabilizing force in the life of a young man who will soon find that he has the world at his doorstep.

It's almost too bad that he is potentially this good this young. How do you keep yourself from pitching him more than 150 or 180 innings a year for the next few years? It will be interesting to see if the Nationals have the discipline to take the long view on the man's career.

Year,Age,Tm,Lg,W,L,W-L%,ERA,G,GS,GF,CG,SHO,SV,IP,H,R,ER,HR,BB,IBB,SO,HBP,BK,WP,BF,ERA+,WHIP,H/9,HR/9,BB/9,SO/9,
1998,21,CHC,NL,13,6,.684,3.40,26,26,0,1,1,0,166.2,117,69,63,14,85,1,233,11,3,6,699,129,1.212,6.3,0.8,4.6,12.6

This was Wood's rookie year - and I think Strasburg will put up similar numbers this year, except in only 18-20 starts.

How do you keep yourself from pitching him more than 150 or 180 innings a year for the next few years? It will be interesting to see if the Nationals have the discipline to take the long view on the man's career.

The Nationals should only be viewing his pre-FA career and how they can extract as much value from that as possible. With Scott Boras as his agent they shouldn't even bother worrying about his LONG-term success, because even if he stays in Washington past 6 years of service you can be damn sure they will be paying market value to retain him. Strasburg threw 130 innings last year and is already at 62, so even if he takes the ball every 5th day the rest of the way I really don't see him blowing past an innings limit in 2010. By the time you reach 2011 and he's coming off 160 innings or so in 2010, I don't see any reason to be holding him back - there's nothing to suggest he can't handle a starter's load, and he'll turn 23 in the middle of next season, the same age Lincecum broke into the league and threw 177 innings. It's really a shame we've become obsessed with pitch counts and innings totals, because I didn't see any reason to remove Strasburg from last night's game - he had struck out 8 of the last 9 batters, looked very comfortable out there, and was retaining his velocity - his last pitch was a 99mph fastball that he blew by Laroche.

It will be interesting to see how the hitters adjust over the rest of the season - it seemed last night like they were taking pitches early and trying to make sure the kid had command, hoping they could bump up his PC and get him out of there early. Perhaps in his next start we'll see a more aggressive approach with hitters trying to jump on the first FB they see and drive it. It's amazing that Strasburg didn't record ANY fly ball outs, and that the only fly induced left the park.