WASHINGTON - This time it was not about speed or power. Stephen Strasburg (Notes) never hit 100 mph with a fastball on Tuesday evening, but he does not need. It was last summer, when everything was still pumped and the bravado of young people forced to justify every superlative when uttered by the Washington Nationals made him the first choice in the 2009 project.
Surgeons lot has changed tore his right hand and a magnificent king-ulnar collateral ligament in probably stronger than before one. He learned to pitch and not try to throw a fastball by hitters, trying to appear macho muscle. This is a game that could see five innings, has eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first big league game for over a year.
It began as a male over the age of 23, who lost nothing - based on the strength of his fastball and slider to get hitters. Few pitchers have: a straight boom, dance and tempting change of venue. He does not have to take all measures passed all fried. Their releases are good enough to get out hitters.
"You look at some of the best pitchers in the game, someone like Justin Verlander (notes), he can throw 100, but he does it every time? No," Strasburg said after the game. "Look at the position where it is now."
He must have thought a lot about him for 368 days between surgery and his return. His reputation was built on the solid balls 100 kmh, but it will not thrive in the ideal starting pitcher, most believe he will if he tries to throw too many times. Finally, a 100 kmh fastball only three or four km / h faster than he threw many of his pitches now, and most major league hitters can hit a 100 km / h fastball thrown over the middle of the plate. Its success will come with the way he throws his pitches rather than how hard it can get.
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Somehow start Tuesday could not be more impressive than his major league debut when he struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates. He only hit four Dodgers on Tuesday, but was effective in doing so. His five scoreless innings could have been seven. He needed only 56 pitches and faced 17 batters. He seemed in complete control.
"He, it seems easy," said Nationals manager Davey Johnson.
The Nationals have always known that Strasbourg would have to learn in the majors. There was not a big test for him in the minor leagues. He zipped through his starts in Class AA and looked even better in Triple A. And he was so dominant in the first flights from Washington last summer, the team openly worried that he had not been exposed to any major adversity. It is unfortunately came to a painful thrust of his right arm.
But the result could be a more complete pitcher. Its distribution seemed smoother, less jerky, apparently less stressful on his arm. And his fastball, which clocked in the upper half of the '90s was just as devastating as the first. What was different was how powerful it was. I do not spend that seemed to be wasted. Nothing flew wildly out of the strike zone. Beginning on Tuesday was the kind of can not wait for Roy Halladay (notes), not the child a handful of big league starts, and surgically repaired in the arm.
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When he talked about his return to Strasbourg to talk about the command, said he felt he was doing a better job of getting pitches where he wants to go. This, he said, is the result of not trying to throw too hard. He is obsessed with shows you can throw more than all the others, and he came back better.
"I'm trying to be a pitcher out there, do not try to throw more than boys," he said.
This is obviously good news in Washington. The NAT needs. They need a brilliant Strasbourg, which can handle a staff and compete for the Cy Young Award every few seasons. So little has gone right since baseball returned to the capital in 2005. The new stadium is rarely filled and dark in the summer after his injury, the game was played in front of swaths of empty seats blue. Fans, who often wear sweaters in Strasbourg and No. 1 selection last year, Bryce Harper (notes), which has yet to debut in the major. Everything here is about the future.
So the biggest piece of the future strutted to the mound, took a ball and began a systematic destruction of the range of Dodgers as effective as what he did last year.
Yet, even for an important evening, looked like a baseball field empty. Many of those who had tickets undoubtedly stayed away because of the rain that fell most of the afternoon, and a gloomy forecast heavier rain overnight. In the game more intriguing for the poor citizens of the official participation was 29 092 and the actual number is much smaller than that. If nothing else, it was a reminder of what this franchise needs of Strasbourg, and how much you need to be good.
He threw hard, and that the public had roared for each, but he never hit the magic 100 mph on his fastball. The number is not blinking at the bottom of the dashboard and to draw everyone into a false sense of fear over a figure of meaning.
"I came to the realization that there is no need to throw 100 to get the boys," he said.
And it may be the best sign of all.
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