Kuzul

Just look at the names in this week’s UTK and you’ll see the issue. Giancarlo Stanton, Zack Greinke, Troy Tulowitzki, Stephen Strasburg—these are big-time stars, with most making big time money or carrying the hopes of a franchise on their back.

Instead of being on the field, these players and more are in the training room or worse. The inability of Major League Baseball to keep even their biggest stars healthy is a true indictment of the last decade. Some can’t be helped, but some can, and those opportunities to save money and keep the talent on the field are often being missed.

Let’s take a look around the league to see what’s going on with the biggest names and biggest injuries in another week of Under The Knife:

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Baseball is in the midst of a golden age of pitching. While many fans chide the mere notion of pitch counts for young arms and “babying” prospects as they fondly remember the days of complete games thrown with regularity and 300-inning seasons from starters, those days are gone.

In their place lies a game dominated by power arms, strikeout artists and a crop of young pitchers set to take center stage for years to come.

While Clayton Kershaw (25), Felix Hernandez (27) and Justin Verlander (30) may be the cream of the crop among pitchers right now, there are candidates under the age of 25 ready to take their spots in the coming season among the game’s elite arms.

Matt Moore is 4-0 for the Tampa Bay Rays. Matt Harvey looks like the best young pitcher to rock New York City since Dwight Gooden. Chris Sale has more in common with Randy Johnson than just a gangly figure. Shelby Miller is making St. Louis forget Chris Carpenter’s injury ever happened. Madison Bumgarner is as accomplished as any under-25 arm in recent memory.

Yet, factoring in major league experience, success and immediate and future potential, the best under-25 pitcher in baseball resides as the ace in Washington.

Stephen Strasburg, despite uneven results this month, is the best young pitcher in baseball and poised to continue his march to the top spot in the sport within the next few years.

In some ways, Strasburg’s plight from No. 1 overall pick in the MLB draft to 14-strikeout debut to Tommy John surgery to controversial shutdown last summer has overshadowed his performance on the field since 2010. When he’s been on the mound for Washington, Strasburg hasn’t just been good or flashed potential, he’s performed like one of the greatest under-25 pitchers in baseball history.

Using Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index, Strasburg’s status as an all-time great young pitcher comes into context and separates him from the other under-25 arms that have dominated alongside him.

In the history of baseball, Strasburg’s 4.51 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranks No. 1 for pitchers under-25 with at least 49 games started in the majors (the number of starts in Strasburg’s career). His ERA over that time is 2.94, better than a young Roger Clemens, Tim Lincecum, David Price, Mike Mussina or Felix Hernandez. His K/9 bests the young versions of everyone in history, save for Kerry Wood.

Last year, in Strasburg’s first year of 25-plus starts in the majors, he struck out 11.1 batters per nine innings. From 1992-2012, a span that includes expansion, the steroid era and a tremendous rise in strikeout rate across the sport, only four pitchers topped that mark in any year: Pedro Martinez (’97, ’99, ’00), Randy Johnson (’95, ’97, ’98, ’99, ’01, ’02), Curt Schilling (’97) and Kerry Wood (’98, ’03).

In terms of age, Wood remains the only comparable in recent memory. While one attribute, an elbow injury, will keep the comparison alive until Strasburg proves he can stay healthy long-term, another, control, should keep them apart. Wood could throw it by anyone, but also had the tendency to walk to ballpark. As Strasburg’s all-time best K/BB rate shows, he’s a strikeout artist with command and control.

Considering the impact Matt Harvey has had in New York, he deserves consideration. As do Chris Sale, Matt Moore and Shelby Miller. In reality, though, only Bumgarner has justified the hype, produced at a high level in the majors for years and stayed healthy long enough to challenge Strasburg for this title. With back-to-back 200-inning seasons on his ledger, in addition to contributing to multiple World Series championships in San Fransisco, Bumgarner is the second choice.

Yet his upside doesn’t match Strasburg’s.

Few pitchers in the history of the game have performed as well as Strasburg this early in a career. Thus far, he’s made ESPN.com’s Keith Law’s pre-draft analysis seem prescient. Prior to the 2009 MLB Draft, Law had this to say to MLB Trade Rumors about Strasburg’s ability to dominate baseball from the day he was selected:

“Strasburg could pitch in the majors right now and would be Washington’s #1 starter if they could sign him quickly and stick him in their rotation in June.”

There was a reason for the hype coming out of San Diego State, buzz after the 14-strikeout debut and justification for shutting him down to preserve the arm last summer.

Stephen Strasburg is the best under-25 pitcher in baseball right now. As the years pass, he’s likely to become the unequivocal best pitcher over-25, under-30, under-35 and hold those titles until his career winds down.

Is Strasburg the best young pitcher in baseball? Comment below, follow me on Twitter or “Like” my Facebook page to talk all things baseball!

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If Matt Harvey hadn’t already put his name on the list of the league’s top young aces, tonight likely did the trick.

Harvey outpitched fellow phenom Stephen Strasburg, who allowed two earned runs and two unearned runs.

FINAL SCORE:  Mets 7 – 1 Nationals

W : Matt Harvey (4-0)

L : Stephen Strasburg (1-3)

HRs: Davis (2,3), Duda (4,5)

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After six weeks of preparation, the Washington Nationals will play their first game of the regular season on Monday afternoon. Spring training is officially in the books after their final tune-up against the New York Yankees on Friday afternoon.

After a long, grueling spring which welcomed new faces such as new starting center fielder Denard Span, the Nationals will be able to reflect on their successes and failures of the spring in hopes to come together for a championship run.

Let’s take a look at the spring training stats of all of the Nationals’ starters in their lineup spots as projected by CBSSports.com.

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Stephen Strasburg dominated hitters for five months in 2012. If he has his way, he’ll have a chance to do it for six or seven months in 2013. Despite overwhelming disdain for how the Washington Nationals handled Strasburg’s workload during the pennant race last season, there is precedent to limit his innings again this season.

A case can be made that Strasburg is the best inning-by-inning starting pitcher in the big leagues right now. At the age of 24, the Nationals have one of the most desirable commodities in professional sports: a young, cost-controlled ace. Knowing that, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo devised a plan to keep Strasburg healthy on the path back from Tommy John surgery. An NL East crown and playoff appearance in 2012 didn’t change the organizational philosophy.

Some agreed, but most didn’t.

Strasburg was vocal about his displeasure last September, looked sullen on the bench during the postseason and has let it be known that he wants the reigns off completely this year. In theory, he should be a major part of the decision making process in Washington. Not only is Strasburg dominant; he knows what his body can and can’t handle at this juncture—years removed from the actual elbow procedure.

On the other hand, Strasburg was allowed to throw over 100 more innings in 2012 than he did during an abbreviated 2011 season on his path back from surgery. While comparing and contrasting 24-year-old starters with Tommy John patients can be a fruitless endeavor, the idea of Strasburg piling on too many innings this season is a legitimate issue, especially if Washington plays deep into the postseason.

The Verducci Effect has become a hot topic of baseball discussion over the years. In short, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci labels any 25-and-under pitcher who increased his innings by 30 or more to be at an increased risk from injury. Even if you disregard how diligently Washington handled his innings and the shut down last year, Strasburg still easily falls into that category.

If the kid gloves come off in 2013, he will be on the list again next year. Consider this: Matt Cain and Justin Verlander, the respective aces of the 2012 World Series participants, threw around 29 innings each in the postseason last October. If the World Series had gone the distance, those numbers would have been in the mid-30’s.

Allowing Strasburg to be a “workhorse” and achieve the lauded 200-inning plateau seems more than reasonable for a pitcher who has shown zero signs of discomfort or setbacks since Tommy John surgery. Yet, Washington is the NL East favorite for a reason. They are loaded, poised for a big regular season, and with Strasburg leading the staff, a run through October.

200 innings in the regular season is a goal; 30 more in October is a must. If Strasburg is allowed to take on a 230+ IP season in 2013, he’ll have pitched 70+ more innings in 2013 than he did last year. Due to his stature as one of baseball’s brightest stars, his prowess coming out of San Diego State, and the Nationals’ rise to league superpower, it’s easy to forget how young Strasburg still is.

While skipping starts or shutting Strasburg down again aren’t realistic notions, limiting his innings is. If Washington fully intends on playing deep into October and keeping Strasburg healthy long-term, care might still be necessary.

As Adam Kilgore pointed out in the Washington Post, Strasburg was only allowed to throw at least 105 pitches in five of 28 starts last season. Limiting pitches was a way to limit innings, and thus save Strasburg starts for the 2012 Nationals.

“I’m not trying to get out there and get used to throwing 90, 94 pitches,” Strasburg told the Washington Post. “You look at some of the top pitchers in the game, they go at least 110 every time out. I’m going to be prepared for it. I’m not saying that they’re going to let me do it. But I’m going to be physically ready for it.

He may be ready for it, but that doesn’t mean it has to happen.

Limiting pitches should be in vogue again for Davey Johnson and Mike Rizzo. Only this time, they’ll be saving those pitches and innings for October.

Joe Giglio is a MLB Lead Writer covering the NL and AL East. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGiglioSports.

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It’s one of the most sensitive topics in Washington, D.C., these days. Did the Nationals make the right decision in sitting fireballer Stephen Strasburg during the playoffs?

Could Strasburg have helped the Nats sweep or just simply beat the St Louis Cardinals? Did general manager Mike Rizzo make a calculated decision that ultimately backfired and cost the team an opportunity at a World Series title?

Those are kinds of questions people are asking. The Nats’ collapse of epic proportions will be debated in baseball circles for years to come. They blew a 6-0 lead in Game 5 of their NLDS series against the San Francisco Giants and their season ended.

Every time I saw Strasburg on television during the game, he had a blank look on his face. I’m not sure if he was disillusioned about not pitching in the hottest sporting event in D.C. in many years, or if he was tired of the camera being shoved in his face hoping for a reaction.

GM Rizzo decided long ago that Strasburg would be shut down after 160 or so innings. He was true to his word when he benched the superstar after 159+ innings. The official reason: The Nationals were trying to protect Strasburg’s arm. They were looking out for his future.

Rizzo got a lot of props for making such a bold move, but he was also raked over the coals by others. What a gutsy move. Rizzo knew if the Nats were eliminated, he’d face the critics once again.

I’m trying to figure out the logic behind this decision, and for the life of me, I can’t come to terms with it. Strasburg’s arms had recovered. Most major league pitchers who have Tommy John surgery make a comeback.

It’s a very successful procedure that has worked for the majority of pitchers who had it. Strasburg was the latest, and he looked damn good this season. Yeah, his last couple of starts in the regular season were rough, but, geez, it’s a long season. All of the players are tired, even the ones who didn’t have the Tommy John operation.

If Strasburg is on the roster, the Nats are a much better team,. With him and Gio Gonzalez anchoring the pitching staff, they’re among the strongest in the league. That’s a lot for the Cards to deal with, especially if they have to face Strasburg twice in a five-game series.

I think Strasburg would have won both his starts, with Gio winning the other, and the Nats would have advanced to the National League Championship series. From there, I had them beating the San Francisco Giants and moving on to the World Series against the New York Yankees.

I wonder how Strasburg felt. He kept giving us the “company line” when asked about being benched. But this town was crazy. There’s nothing like playoff fever for a city craving a championship, especially for a team that hasn’t seen baseball playoffs since, well, you get the idea. It’s been a long time. Strasburg deserved to pitch. He deserved the opportunity to share in the jubilation and excitement.

Heck, he’s one of the main reasons the Nats made it to the playoffs. Instead he was sitting in the dugout watching like all of us at home. It wasn’t fair to the young man and I give him major credit for not trashing the team and saying all the right things. He’s impressive off and on the mound. But he deserved better.

Lets talk about the surgery. He had completely recovered. Anyone who saw him pitch during the regular season knew that. His fastball was untouchable. He had complete command and control. He wasn’t lacking anywhere.

He was clearly one of the best pitchers in baseball. Some would argue he was the best. He is without a doubt in the same class as Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia.

By all accounts, Strasburg’s arm was fine. So what are you protecting him from? Why not let him pitch in a series he’s been dreaming about since he was a little kid? Why not give your team a better chance at winning the division series and hopefully a world championship? If Strasburg has been cleared by medical experts to pitch, why not let him pitch?

I often wonder what manager Davey Johnson “really” thought about sitting down his best player for the playoffs. There were reports of internal strife between Johnson and Rizzo during the season. Both downplayed the tension, but it raised a lot of questions about their ability to co-exist.

Was Johnson voicing his displeasure at Rizzo’s decision to de-activate Strasburg? Was Johnson telling Rizzo he was making a big mistake?

Let me just say I’m a Johnson fan. I thought he got the job under shady circumstances when former manager Jim Riggleman “resigned.” But that wasn’t Johnson’s fault. It was an ownership and Rizzo debacle. If anybody knows baseball,  it’s Johnson. He’s been there and done that. In previous columns,  I’ve sung his praises.

He was a great player for the Baltimore Orioles and a winning manager just about everywhere he’s been. Just ask the Orioles. Before this season, the O’s were mired in ruins. The last manager to take them to the playoffs? Johnson. But he had some issues with owner Peter Angelos, and vice versa, and they parted ways shortly after Johnson took Baltimore to the 1997 playoffs.

Johnson is invaluable to any major league baseball franchise. He’s tough, outspoken and opinionated. Any general manager or owner who hires him must know that before offering him the contract. Johnson’s worth it. All you have to do is look at his record.

The decision to bench Strasburg and lose a series in such disappointing fashion at home after having such a large lead will reverberate throughout the clubhouse and executive offices for a while. Trust me. This won’t blow over.

I find it hard to believe that Johnson said, “Sure, de-activate my best player.” I’ve followed him long enough to say he probably had some strong discussions with Rizzo about this controversial call. I know Johnson wants to win. He knows he has the team to do it, but in order for him to achieve that goal, people have to get out of the way and let him do his job.

I’ll give Rizzo credit for putting together a playoff team in a short period of time. He deserves accolades for that and he deserves them. Ian Desmond, Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman are some of the best young baseball players in the game. If they keep this team together, they’ll be contenders for years to come.

But upper management decisions will have to be monitored more closely. Ted Lerner and the top brass need to closely study what happened to the Nats this year. They deserve more answers and perhaps a clearer explanation about why one of the game’s top pitchers wasn’t allowed to pitch. At the very least, the fans deserve that.

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How do you think it felt to be Stephen Strasburg, sitting in Nationals Park last night, knowing he could do nothing to help?

To see a team one strike away (twice) from advancing to the NLCS denied by a St. Louis Cardinals team that refuses to die?

To watch a starting pitching staff that was one of baseball’s best all season implode in the playoffs? Sure, Ross Detwiler, who took Strasburg‘s spot in the rotation, did his job in Game 4, throwing six solid innings and only allowing three hits and one earned run.

That performance is all the more impressive given that it was an elimination game and the whispers of Strasburg‘s name were hanging all over the media, the fans and likely the team itself.

But other than Detwiler, simply put, the rest of the Nationals’ rotation wasn’t ready for primetime. Even Gio Gonzalez, who left with a lead last night, produced a pedestrian 4.50 ERA in his two starts. 

Jordan Zimmerman was shellacked in three innings in his lone start, giving up five earned runs and seven hits. That was good for an inflated 11.25 ERA in the series.

Edwin Jackson was likewise unimpressive, lasting only five innings in his start and surrendering four earned runs. In relief last night, he walked two and gave up a crucial run in the seventh inning during the Cardinals’ comeback. His ERA for the series was a less than sterling 7.20.

Simply put, the Nationals’ starting pitching was not up to snuff in this series. You can argue all you want that Strasburg was not the ace of the staff, but now that the team has been eliminated, you have to wonder if things would’ve been different had he been available, even in a relief role.

The decision to sit Strasburg after some sort of arbitrary team-devised innings limit was controversial from the start. General manager Mike Rizzo defended the decision, and in the process, angered many opposing GM’s with his logic.

“We’ll be back and doing this a couple more times,” Rizzo said in defense of the decision. (via USA Today)

To many other teams, some of which have spent years without a winning season, much less a playoff appearance, this comes off as the height of hubris. After all, the Nationals franchise has been known in the past for many things, winning not being one of them.

To make an assumption like Rizzo has—and one which he continues to defend today—is a dangerous business in baseball. Success is fleeting, teams rise and fall faster than the stock market, and a playoff appearance one year is not a guarantee of anything beyond that one season.

Sports history is riddled with teams that were built for the long-haul and had one great season, never to be heard from again. 

Baseball is a finicky game. Players get hurt, production from key guys drops, other teams improve, a bloop single this year is a pop fly next year, you lose a few one-run games that you won the year before, and suddenly you go from 98 wins and a division title to 88 wins and find yourself on the outside looking in.

In all sports, general managers need to try and strike a delicate balance between going all-in for a championship, and building for the future. Rizzo says his team is positioned well going forward and will make more, and presumably better, playoff runs in the future. 

But that loses sight of the fact that the 2012 Nationals were not a team that surprised a lot of people by becoming overnight contenders. They weren’t a Cinderella story like the Oakland Athletics, who came out of absolutely nowhere to contend and stunningly win their division.

The Oakland A’s get credit for being there. The Washington Nationals won 98 regular season baseball games this year. Between that and their playoff series with the Cardinals, they walked off the field 100 times in victory this year. This wasn’t a team lucky to be there. 

This was a team that legitimately could take the field and have a real chance to win the World Series in 2012. 

The fact that Rizzo can stand up there today given this reality, and the reality that his team should be making NLCS plans today instead of packing their stuff, is simply mind-blowing.

Rizzo today told Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post:

We had a plan in mind. It was something we had from the beginning. I stand by my decision. We’ll take the criticism as it comes. We have to do what’s best for the Washington Nationals, and we think we did.

What is best for the Washington Nationals organization would be playing tomorrow night against the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS. It’s not filling a fanbase up with vague promises of continued postseason glory, at the expense of sacrificing a real, tangible chance at this year’s World Series.

Do we know for a fact that Stephen Strasburg would’ve made the difference in the series had he pitched? Of course not. But we do know that you want to win and lose games with your best possible team on the field. And Mike Rizzo robbed his fans of that chance.

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Former Montreal Expo Ross Grimsley has company.

Gio González became the second 20-game winner in franchise history as the Washington Nationals inched a little closer to the National League East title.

He looked like an ace out there today. He pitched against a red-hot Milwaukee Brewers team and shut them down.

He pitched seven innings with no earned runs, three hits and a single walk. His ERA dropped to 2.84 and he remains in the Cy Young race.

So the Nationals will have a No. 1 starter going into the postseason, and it’s a fair bet that Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo is breathing a sigh of relief with Gonzalez’s performance.

Rizzo got a lot of grief for how he shut down All Star starter Stephen Strasburg for the season. LaVar and Dukes from CBS DC questioned the move before Strasburg was even officially shutdown.

And, as reported by Mark Zuckerman from CSNWashington.com, manager Davey Johnson blamed the media hype partially for Strasburg‘s subpar final few games.

Because, of course, the media put an innings limit on Strasburg and announced it in spring training.

Still, the franchise is in the playoffs for the first time since 1981, and the city of Washington is going to get their first taste of the post season since 1933.

A perfect storm of events—including the rapid maturation of key players and the decline of the Phillies and the Marlins—puts the Nats in this pleasantly unexpected place.

And Rizzo was removing a key arm.

If Gonzalez pitches like he did today and like he has all year, the Strasburg decision will be forgotten quicker. Most teams would be just fine having Jordan Zimmermann, Ross Detwiler and Edwin Jackson as their second, third and fourth pitchers.

Then again, having Gio and Strasburg going 1-2 in a short series would make it almost a lock for Washington.

Well, it seems like a gamble Mike Rizzo is willing to take.

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A World Series Championship is the greatest accomplishment for a Major League Baseball player, no matter what team he plays for.

But for the institution of Major League Baseball itself, the team that wins its ultimate prize carries heavy implications.

Like it or not, a small-market Cinderella team bringing home the trophy bears little impact compared to one of baseball’s legendary franchises. Teams like the Oakland A’s or the Pittsburgh Pirates are difficult to market for baseball, leaving the more casual fanbase apathetic to the story of the season as a whole.

By the same token, any sport is happy to tap into a potentially expansive market would gladly put exciting fresh blood at the forefront of advertising the sport.

For these reasons, the Washington Nationals are the perfect team to capture the World Series this year.

The Nationals moved to Washington D.C. before the 2005 season after baseball failed to catch on in Montreal. Since the move, the Nats have never finished above .500 or made the playoffs. Despite the large market of the District of Columbia and surrounding states like Virginia and Maryland, the Nats could not put up significant attendance figures due to the futility of the franchise.

Nonetheless, the area has the potential to be a big baseball market. Population is not an issue, the way it might be for teams like the Royals or the Brewers.

Other D.C. teams like the Wizards (NBA) and Capitals (NHL) have not completely monopolized the fanbase, largely because neither team has won a championship in more than thirty years.

A parade in the capital could turn the attention of millions to the Nats.

Additionally, youngsters Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper have already proven to be two of the most marketable future stars in baseball. Strasburg, of course, is shut down for the remainder of the season, but his bright future would correspond nicely to marketing a Nats‘ championship defense.

Harper is one of the most-followed baseball figures in years, and he does not shy away from the spotlight.

Strasburg, Harper and their supporting cast, including Jayson Werth, Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Zimmerman fit nicely in baseball’s strategy of promoting key players on successful teams.

Cole Hamels, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard became household names across the league as a result of Philadelphia‘s 2008 World Series victory. Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey were catapulted to stardom in 2010.

Thanks to their big-stage success, these names are as recognizable as Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Josh Hamilton.

More so than any other surprisingly successful team in baseball during 2012, the Nationals present baseball with the opportunity to add a new squad of players to its nationwide identity.

The team has compelling stars that the league can market and the potential to create a brand new rabid fanbase in the nation’s capital.

Like it or not, baseball wants to see the Nats in the World Series.

Dan Kelley has been a Bleacher Report Featured Columnist since 2011. Follow him on Twitter: @dxkelley

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The following countdown touts my best early guess of the top 20 starting pitchers heading into fantasy drafts for 2013.

(Stats compiled through Sept. 13.)

This off-the-cuff brainstorm may be rooted in hard numbers, but it’s also a soft measurement of where the market currently stands and where it’ll be in mid-to-late March.

For all we know, young guns like Dylan Bundy (Orioles), Jake Odorizzi (Royals), Matt Harvey (Mets), Gerrit Cole (Pirates), Trevor Bauer (Diamondbacks) or teen prodigy Jose Fernandez (Marlins) could somehow force their way into the next countdown, thanks to a stupendous spring.

But at this point, I prefer to lean on the following cast of savvy veterans, which includes a 23-year-old lefty who’s primed for a big jump next season.

Enjoy the show!

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