The camera looks down at the municipal stadium sent a pixilated version of reality. All of Stephen Strasburg (notes) seemed more linear: Do not bend, dip, no diving, no tilt. Only fast and slow, miserable in a way to judge any pitcher that only larger phenomenon of return of baseball to the elbow where it exploded 11 months ago.
Witnesses Strasbourg is a transition 2/3-inning Sunday filled the details of the device could not capture. He sat close to 97 km / h and once reached 98 with his fastball. His breaking ball looped with his usual ferocity. His change of speed of pigeon with joy. Strasbourg has set up four batters Class A Hagerstown and a point on a house opposite-field Run Jacob Realmuto, a receiver 20, that decades from now can tell his grandchildren, he went to court a mythical creature.
It is, for now, Strasbourg: a patchwork of what you can, what might be, it is not. To be anything else, he needs more than 12 major league starts, many of which were dominant and predicted a career that would rival the greatest of his generation, certainly, and perhaps one of the best ever.
Now it was only 31 pitches, climbing above the limit, Strasbourg still doing its best to go beyond what seems possible. Cones has its tone number during the next month, along the road to ensure the faithful of his speed, his arm action clean, his new elbow ligament flexible. And if all goes according to plan ...
1. Stephen Strasburg would book no 13 for start in September. And 'throw something to watch a baseball pennant races, and next to the Washington Nationals on Sept. 2 with sleep, and modern medicine, another check mark in the next category.
The wisdom of returning to Strasbourg so quickly filled the gossip in the pavilions Major League Sunday. An officer asked a rhetorical question: "Do they really need him back this season?" Coaches to another team as you ride more, as they said, Nay
And they are right. Of course, it does not need to go back. This does not prevent him from doing so, and certainly does not make a return to Strasbourg shortsighted. Citizens, once a generation understands the talent, the last person to quibble. The team has a value of 417000000 dollars, according to Forbes, and operating profit $ 36.6 million last year ranked second game. In other words, the team is not rushing back to do a couple of million dollars in ticket sales and the granting of a handful of starts in September.
Nationals do so because he is ready. Strasbourg he said. More importantly, their doctor says. It's not David Clyde, 18 years in Texas Phenom written at the forefront in 1973 the project to raise as a boost attendance and see his arm is getting worse. He better at least because a healthy Strasbourg could mean for citizens, which ...
2. Justin Verlander (Notes) means that the Detroit Tigers. Of all the pitchers in baseball, Verlander is best viewed Strasbourg, 28 in a duel with Jered Weaver (notes) and CC Sabathia (notes) of the supremacy of the Cy Young of the American League. Every shot of around 100 mph with a devastating breaking ball and change of speed is even dirtier with excellent control and command.
Strasbourg missing two crucial things Verlander owner: Health - "Knock on wood," Verlander said and did - and experience. And it took years for Verlander to enjoy. Now in its sixth full season, won an ALCS Verlander, a rookie of the year and praise from around the sport. But it was not until this year, he said he appreciated what his previous seasons has given him.
"The guys told me they would not understand the pitch until he was for a while, and thought they were full of [expletive]," Verlander said. "They are right. J" I read a quote from me recently. I never thought about that, but it made sense when I read. Someone said it looked like in the past, I was throwing a bullpen. If I throw something and not really allowed out, he was like, 'Oh, let's take another. "Not really paying attention to what happens in the game. Just be careful what I do. Do not take things in context."
Now, Verlander said he never even looked up several salient points Strasbourg, so he speaks more often than anything else. But only twice last season did not even have character Strasbourg seven innings of play, and the 100-step the limits are not always to blame. Without the tour, where he hurt his elbow, Strasbourg, on average just over 5 2 / 3 innings to start at 92 pitches.
"What I was so good, I like to get to the kids," Verlander said. "I want the embarrassment. And sometimes I like to be able to do so. But this leads to 100 pitches, and they are in 5 1 / 3 innings."
The best pitcher knows that inning and the matter is that things are not mutually exclusive. And ...
Clayton Kershaw third is the best example of this year. While 23 years increased his National League leading total to 184 blocked Sunday - two behind Verlander - his game earlier this week much better illustrated why it is the main threat against Roy Halladay (notes) for the Cy Young.
Just won a 2/3-inning 6, 125-pitch exit ramp Kershaw batting down (four), induced ground balls 15 (the second highest total of the season) and 108 slots to launch its fourth complete game of the season. He entered the year with one in 83 starts.
Kershaw and Matt Kemp (notes), turns Verlander, Miguel Cabrera (Notes) is the best pitcher-hitter teammates to play this season, no mean feat considering the misery the rest of the season at Los Angeles Dodgers'. When Kershaw strikes arbitration this year, will be waiting for a huge increase, probably in excess of $ 5,000,000. Not always match the money ...
4. Carlos Beltran (Notes) wants this offseason, but if he keeps it, Carlos Beltran will not be liable for the money, Carlos Beltran wants, either. 11 games with the San Francisco Giants, Beltran has looked nothing like the dynamic player, the Giants gave up the opportunity to Zack Wheeler: .244/.261/.356 with 11 strikeouts and a walk.
Beltran right now hurts. Although X-rays showed no structural damage, he was forced from Sunday's game, only the Giants third win since he arrived. And it's not lack of individual production that could hurt him as much as the misfortune of his team.
Beltran deserves some blame for the ills Giants offense. Being acquired to defibrillate a dead offense. He did not. This is the kind of thing needs a free agent in his book. Scott Boras will create a folder full of fantasy facts that make the sound as the bat Zeus Beltran, but Beltran has to produce and, more importantly, the Giants must contain the Arizona Diamondbacks for him and cash in.
He still has six weeks to do this can be longer than ...
5th Jose Reyes a. He left Sunday's game as his left thigh embarrassing new lock. The last time it happened, it landed on the disabled list for a few weeks. Mets GM Sandy Alderson told reporters it was the same injury as last time.
Hamstring Reyes' could be the player every day at the elbow of Strasbourg. It 'a question mark several million dollars. If intact, the machine feeds a baseball. A bad mood, makes the machine useless.
And Reyes is looking for a seven-year contract worth more than $ 20 million for this winter season, each director will ask: Where are the hamstrings? (OK, maybe it will be more like: Can we really trust this man to stay healthy for seven days, let alone seven years, and if not, how the hell is the debate seven years, where no reasonable person could give that ?)
Free will, of course, makes sensitive people stupid, because ...
6th David Ortiz (notes) to testify. Big Papi is crazy Boston Red Sox have yet to discuss a contract extension with him, according to a report by ESPN Deportes. And it would make more sense if it was June 20th and the next six weeks had not arrived.
The day was 1006 PAHO Ortiz. Since then, it is 0687. It is still ongoing, and it is not the removal of a ton, and it might just be a crisis for a hitter, if reincarnation in the past year has been one of the great stories of the game.
But let's be honest: slugger Ortiz is a 36-year-designated next season and the market for 36 years, EDS is about as robust as the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Red Sox certainly will not extend Ortiz in more than one season, and Ryan Lavarnway slugging .640 with Triple-A and an arbitrary number of options available through free agency and trades, there is no interest Ortiz to lock at this point, no matter how many stomach ache.
They know he is too proud and too smart to pull a Manny, and they are certainly not opposed to divorce ugly. Is not the New York Yankees, which can facilitate a time ...
Jesus Montero arrives seventh in the Bronx. It will take Jorge Posada is the work year (notes) in hand, at least, and maybe even this season. Posada anxiety is not improved, and Montero 21 years wasting his time in Triple-A.
If you are a full-time DH, or can be managed as Catcher in the final analysis depends on the eye look. One of the Scouts believe in 6-foot-3, 235 pounds Montero handles behind the plate. He clocked the time of appearance - throws behind the disc of the second floor - about 1.95 seconds, which is slightly above average, and believes in the body Montero is denser than fat. A Scout is more blunt: "It 'a DH DH DH He ..."
Who can say, is a hitter. Montero's power has fallen behind this season - it's just slugging 0437 - but scouts saw enough thunder in his bat do not doubt its impact. Between the return of Alex Rodriguez (notes) and the promotion of the upcoming Montero, perfusion of the right hand of power in the Yankees' lineup only strengthen the best game of the second offense. This is exactly the kind of thing ...
8. Dan Uggla (Notes), then, provides the Atlanta Braves. Certainly took him long enough. During the first three months of the season, Uggla was batting average in the Adam Dunn trolling (Notes) area (which, incidentally, sits on 0.163, 16 percentage points lower than Rob Deer worst record for the entire season average).
Uggla is now in 0220 through a series of 28 games to hit, which finally began to shed twisted figures to balance the long string of games one hit from the start. It's in August 0476 with four homers and eight RBIs, and crazy as it is to think, Uggla is home to four shots behind becomes the National League.
Lesson: No matter how bad it gets, you can get better, a wisdom ...
9. Aroldis Chapman would be wise to give up. Chapman spent a piece of the minor leagues this season. "Everything was wrong," he said, a fairly simple way to describe the three-game stretch where he threw 54 pitches, 41 balls, he walked nine batters and recorded a paltry one out.
Chapman is now the best pitcher in baseball not named backup Craig Kimbrell (notes), and it is certainly to give the rookie Braves a run for their money. From the child's return Chapman June 25, here are your lines of statistics:
Chapman: 20.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 S, 6 BB, 37 K, 1.33 ERA
Kimbrell: 18 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 29 K, 0.00 ERA
And it does not even include Kimbrell six previous games, where opponents have smoothly in six innings with three walks, 10 strikeouts and no runs.
Kimbrell is 23 Then Chapman. All respect for Mariano Rivera (notes) - and Sergio Romo (notes) who retired 31 straight batters and carries a 52-4 walk barred report - they are both the most intimidating pitchers alive. Yet understand that if ...
10. Stephen Strasburg return to form, you pay for that title almost immediately. Greensboro Grasshoppers to prove it on Sunday and a few other minor leaguers, before it arrives, and are placed in large leagues.
Although not a pitcher, even better, Strasbourg believed to be wise. He told the media overflow mass is in better shape now convinced that "the main reason is because I'm tired of broken". Probably not true. But if it motivates Strasbourg, just now.
The big question will still pitch starts to wear on his arm. Strasbourg has not changed its delivery, a thing of beauty in the same direction of Mark Prior were: the symmetry of it, the perfect - or, depending on your biomechanical point of view, fears - reverse arm W to move as its peak. It is an aesthetic marvel. It is more important to its sustainability.
The most positive sign was the control of Strasbourg on Sunday. Of his 31 pitches, 25 were strikes. Survivors say Tommy John especially command and control are the two last things to return. The staff is usually not. It was obvious. Six strikes Strasbourg swings and misses.
He said all the things that immediately after the game and made sure to talk about it next month. "My goal is to step into the big leagues in September," he said, and if people come together, it feels just like last time, when he struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates dazzling debut in the most anyone can remember. Lights to shine brighter. Dozens of cameras recorded his every move, each of which is sharp.
All to capture a man can and can not and not enough. Soon Stephen Strasburg star takes his turn. Even in this case.
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