Is Stephen Strasburg Not Pitching In the Playoffs the Biggest Pussy Move In the History of Sports?
So obviously this is a big source of debate right now. Stephen Strasburg being shut down by the Nationals as the Cards get ready to bounce them in the first round of the playoffs. I wasn’t even going to mention it because I think everybody is on the same page with this. I haven’t heard one person say they agree with this move by Nats. But simply not agreeing with it doesn’t go nearly far enough. This is by far the biggest pussy move in the history of sports. It’s not about protecting Strasburg. It’s about money. It’s about the Nats trying to make sure they’re competitive in a 162 game season next year and selling tickets over the long haul rather than trying to win a World Series when they have the chance.
Bottomline is there are no guarantees in life. There are no guarantees the Nationals ever make the playoffs again. There are no guarantees Strasburg doesn’t get hit by a car walking across the street. The only thing we know is the Nationals have a chance to win right now. Not pitching him is a slap in the face to him, to every player on that team who busted ass all season, to the fans, to baseball, to America and everything else that matters in life. You play all season to get to the postseason and a chance to win the World Series and then you just fold when you finally there? It’s disgusting. What’s the point of even playing in the first place if you’re not going to try to win? If I was Stephen Strasburg I’d refuse to pitch ever again for the Nats if they didn’t let me take the mound in Game 4. And if I was player on the team I’d form the Rudy line and hand in my shirts if they didn’t give him the ball. Enough is enough of this bullshit.
Good to hear this story being revived in October after it was beat to death in April, May, June, July, August, and September
#12in12 go cards
They had a spot in the playoffs basically and still let him pitch during the regular season….they deserve to lose
Not really. If you’re gonna blame anyone, blame the Nationals. The Braves’ kid Medlen had the same injury, same time, and they started him in the bullpen this year so he wouldn’t max out his innings by August.
Preach Jew preach
i agree @cocoz311o this is old news. I expect this out of neil. not you EP
With him they have the best playoff rotation in baseball. I agree with rycoops they deserve to lose. He’s not being treated like Kerry Wood and Mark Prior circa 2003 if he continues pitching.
They’re getting what they deserve.
Good post, Pres. @rycoops makes a good point as well. It makes the team look weak and like they don’t care about winning. I could fully see the Red Sox pulling this sort of thing.
Also, if they win the WS, Strasburg will feel like shit and will have just been emasculated by his teammates.
In sports? It’s up there with Vancouver not playing Roberta Luongo in Boston last season. Pussy to the 12th power.
He shouldn’t have been shut down obviously but how would he pitch game four? The guy hasn’t been o the mound in over a month, he said that in an espn.con article yesterday. That’s why he said there’s no point in complaining
As a Nats fan I’ve been bitching about this decision ever since it came up, and it would serve them right to get bounced as a result of it, but you can’t blame Stras on this one. Dude went to the manager and gm and told them both that he was good to pitch and wanted to pitch, and the suits in the front office still gave him and the team the finger and benched him. If anyone is to blame its that fuck Mike Rizzo, “protecting the future success of the team”. Hey asshole, there aren’t any guarantees the Nats will be any good going forward, so why not try winning now…
Yeah weird timing for this story seeing as the Nats are 1 game from getting eliminated and all. Why would I talk about it now?
The Rudy line sounds like a great idea except he isn’t even on the 25-man NLDS roster.
big time pussy
good blog dave. would you rather have a ws win, or a 200 win/ 15 yr career out of strasburg?….. answer there is easy.
Mark prior thinks this is the correct move, dumbasses.
Tom Caron, I hope the answer is “World Series” because Sox fans saw that choice made when Schilling basically pissed away the late stage of his career for the bloody sock. Would definitely rather have the surefire Series win than fifteen years of regular season glory. What was Dan Duquette’s old line? “More days in first place than any other team…”? No thanks.
Here’s what pisses me off. We are the public, we don’t know what the front office talks about. Sports, government, etc we only know 20% of the story and talking heads and casual fans act like they are in the know. There is a ton of evidence that supports the innings limit and it has been done countless times to both young pitchers and post surgery pitchers. Strasburg happens to fall into both of those categories. The only thing that should be picked apart is them not having him skip starts here and there to make him hit his limit somewhere in October.
Why didn’t they just have him start pitching in june instead of april so if something like this happened they wouldn’t need to shut him down for the playoffs? Seems easy to me
Wake Up With… a story that feels like it happened in 1992. Wow. Clean it up.
WHY do people keep referencing the Braves’ move with Kris Medlen? The Braves, by missing a month of him pitching in the regular season (when he pretty much never lost btw), hurt their chances at winning the NL East and at least guaranteeing an NLDS spot. THEIR MOVE BACKFIRED because they then only got the wild card and lost. AT LEAST the Nats used Strasburg enough (almost all of the regular season) to help them -barely- win the NL East and guarantee themselves an NLDS series
of course the answer is a w.s. win….. first time anything was written on this site w/out sarcasm.
prez i’m impressed you know a lot about sports………………. for a jew
@cocoz311o, its relevant now because the nats are getting shelled and are gonna lose the alds
Just imagine Boston benching Pedro in 2004…there’s your answer. Inexplicable.
It’s not relevent now. The odds of the Nats winning it all were slim (in general, as they are for any team), so everyone and their mother knew this day would come. A loss when a couple less runs would have made the difference. A blowout or closely lost series. Odds are thr Nats would be eliminated. They knew this when they made the decision. They weren’t living under the illusion that they could win it all without their #1 ace. How many teams pull that off? They knew it then, and still had the balls to make a really stupid yet intelligent no-win decision. All that aside, this is not relevent now, at least not in the sense that anyone should react with angry disbelief.
He ran out of gas. He’s never pitch this much. He would of helped, but he’s not as dominate as he was the first half of the season.
WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST NOT PITCH HIM FOR HALF THE YEAR AND REST/TRAIN/REHAB THEN START USING HIM A MONTH BEFORE PLAYOFFS AND HAVE HIM THROUGHOUT THE PLAYOFFS>>>?????? ARE PEOPLE THAT FUCKING RETARDED? I GUESS THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FROM PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON DC, FUCKING INCOMPETENCE
Nick Adenhart thinks this is the wrong decision.
@dblcougrhunter NLDS
Living in DC and being a Nationals fan, there is 100% logic to this move. Nobody except maybe the players and the manager thought the Nationals would make the playoffs this year. They went 80-81 last year. 18 game improvement? The Braves almost made it into Oct last year w/ the same roster, minus Medlin. So they could slowly ramp him up over the course of the year to be ready for the playoffs. The Nats didn’t expect to be this good this soon (2013 was their realistic expectation of making a run, when Strasburg could pitch an entire year). He also only threw 44 innings last year. 44 to 200+ is a big jump. Anyone who disagrees with this is a fucking idiot. Look at what the Cubs did to their young pitchers, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. Game blouses.
Sports Hub reproted that Strasburg’s agent threatened to sue the club if they exceeded the inning limit because doctors recommended it. If that’s true, I place the blame squarely on Strasburg and his bitch agent. They’re putting themselves and their future money ahead of winning. It’s easy to tell the press that you want to pitch when your agent is secretly strong-arming your team behind closed doors.
nlds, my mistake. ps fuck neil
Yes.
boston needs a baseball blogger