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We all know Stephen Strasburg as the phenom call-up by the Nationals back in June. But there’s a new problem he faces.

Stephen Strasburg has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. This is not exactly what the Nationals had planned for.

When the Nationals picked Bryce Harper, they expected him to be able to play with Stephen Strasburg in the near future, but that date may be pushed back. Strasburg has a torn ligament in his throwing elbow and is required to get Tommy John surgery in order to get him back to 100%. But he will not be 100% for a while. Strasburg will miss the rest of this season and it is very unlikely that he returns in 2011.

What This Means

Strasburg has been the shining star of this MLB season, and all fans wanted was watch him. His debut was a sellout, striking out 14 versus the Pirates. The Nationals will want to cross their fingers and pray that Strasburg returns to his elite status.

The Nationals were looking good going into next year, having just got back Jordan Zimmermann, their prized prospect. Their idea was to have Strasburg and Zimmermann at the top of the rotation, and the bats of Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn in the heart of the order. But Strasburg’s surgery will put a setback on the Nationals state of remodeling.

Tommy John History

For the record, not all Tommy John surgeries have turned out badly. Actually, many  have come back even better than before. Take for instance Josh Johnson. Johnson had the surgery and look where he is now, at the top of his game with All-Star status. 

Six All-Star pitchers this year were former Tommy John goers. That includes last year’s Rookie of the Year, Andrew Bailey.

The Nationals are on the road to success, but let’s just hope that the Nationals get a healthy Strasburg in return for Tommy John surgery.

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I have only myself to blame.

I got just as excited about Stephen Strasburg as anyone in baseball. After my fantasy baseball draft this season, I promptly traded away my first overall pick (Roy Halladay) for Strasburg, essentially straight up.

I spent the spring trying to convince buddies to go to one of his various minor league starts with me, whether in Harrisburg or Syracuse or where ever. No one took me up on it.

I even went to StubHub, bought three tickets to his debut with the Nationals, and took a day off work to take my father-in-law and my daughter to the game.

“We’ll never forget this game” I told them. “We’ll tell our grandkids about this one,” I exclaimed, forgetting that my father-in-law was, in fact, at the game with one of his grandkids.

We talked with much excitement about the future of the Washington Nationals with Strasburg, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman.

And so today, as I sit at my desk disillusioned with the news that Strasburg is going to have Tommy John surgery and is done for this year and all of next year, I have only myself to blame. I allowed myself to be fooled into believing that there was such a thing as the baseball version of Santa Claus: the can’t miss pitching prospect.

This in the face of baseball history, which teaches us that there is no such thing.

Here’s 20 reasons why I should have known better.

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On August 21st, Stephen Strasburg trudged off the mound in Philadelphia in obvious pain.

That will be the last we see of the young phenom until at least the end of 2011.

Today, the Washington Nationals announced that Strasburg has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right arm, and will need Tommy John surgery.

With a 12 to 18 month recovery timetable, this appears devastating for the franchise. Although Tommy John surgery has become commonplace in recent years for pitchers, there is always a risk involved with such a major procedure. Plus, many will fret over the possibility that Stephen Strasburg will never be the same dominant pitcher following the surgery.

All are legitimate concerns, and the Nationals have to be even more crushed from an attendance perspective. The National were a poor draw in Washington from the start, but Strasburg was making the team exciting for the first time in the franchise’s short history. The D.C. area was taking notice, and for the first time, it looked like the Nationals might actually be able to build a fanbase.

However, in some ways, this could prove beneficial to the Nationals from a long-term perspective.

The Nationals Now

Despite the hype surrounding Strasburg, he could not change the fact that the Nationals are simply a bad team.

Washington has only one other starting pitcher, Livan Hernandez, with an ERA below 4.00. Not exactly a long-term piece of the franchise’s core.

Ryan Zimmerman is one of the best players in baseball, and Adam Dunn is a stellar hitter, but beyond those two the Nationals have almost nothing. Aside from Strasburg, Hernandez, Zimmerman, and Dunn, only the currently-injured Josh Willingham put up a WAR over 2.0 this season according to Fangraphs.

And while a few overly enthusiastic prognosticators may have called the 2011 Nationals with Strasburg a sleeper playoff team, the chances of such a flawed squad making a run next season would have been unlikely at best.

Things will look far different in 2012.

Talent on the Way

Former top prospect Jordan Zimmerman recently returned from his own Tommy John surgery. He had a very promising rookie season and he could be a borderline ace by 2012.

Wilson Ramos and Derek Norris are both highly regarded catching prospects. While neither is having a strong 2011, the chances are good that at least one of them will pan out.

Drew Storen is the future closer. Shortstop prospect Danny Espinosa has hit 22 home runs this season, and is currently in AAA. By 2012, he could be a fixture at middle infield for Washington.

Ryan Zimmerman, already one of the best position players in the National League, will be 28 and in his prime.

And of course, there’s Bryce Harper, essentially the position player version of Strasburg. Only 17 years old now, he won’t hit the majors until mid-2011 at the absolute earliest. But he appears destined to be a power-hitting corner outfielder for years to come.

Strasburg will return to a team likely filled with blue chip talent. Plus, Washington management has shown a willingness to spend money, proven by their offers to high-profile free agents such as Mark Teixeira.

After seeing what Strasburg can do, free agents will be more likely to sign in the nation’s capital, even with his injury.

Missing a Year

But what does this have anything to do with Strasburg missing a season? He could pitch next year, deal with a poor team, and then lead the rotation of a playoff contender in 2012. How could this injury have any benefit at all for the Nationals?

Poor mechanics and wasted bullets.

Ever since Strasburg broke onto the scene, he has been criticized by some for his “Inverted W” pitching motion and poor timing. After the news today, it appears those critics had a point.

Also, pitchers that throw in the high 90s have a tendency to break down. The arm was just not built for that kind of velocity, unless your name is Nolan Ryan.

Unless Strasburg gets lucky or changes his throwing motion, he seems destined for a short but dominant career.

So why waste 200 of those innings pitching for a team with no chance of making a playoff run?

Strasburg now can sit out a season, wait for the youth in Washington to develop, and return to an actual contender.

Sure, the fans miss out on watching a great pitcher for a season. But for Washington, what does it really mean? The difference between winning 72 and 78 games?

A true disaster would have been Tommy John surgery in 2012 or 2013, when the Nationals were on the verge of making their first legitimate run at the postseason.

Of course, this situation is not positive for the Nationals, and the risk following surgery remains. But if Strasburg was going to need Tommy John, this was the best time for him to have it.

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The nation’s capital is in mourning after waking up to the news that its savior, Stephen Strasburg , would be out for not only the remainder of this season, but also all of 2011 because of a ligament tear that will require Tommy John Surgery.

Its hard to sugar coat the news because of how important Strasburg is to the Nationals. But before you jump off a building or do anything drastic, know that Strasburg will return in 2012 in dominating fashion.

While no small issue, the torn ligament that Strasburg suffered isn’t the career death sentence that it was 40 years ago. Ever since the procedure was preformed on Tommy John (hence the name), it has an estimated 85 to 92 percent chance of complete recovery.

Obviously that still means there is a 15 percent chance that Washington’s future ace will never be the same, but it’s better than this being a career ending injury.

If the scientific facts don’t console the weeping DC natives, then they should look up some of the pitchers that have had this surgery: Josh Johnson, Chris Carpenter, Billy Wagner, Tim Hudson and Francisco Liriano.

Every single one of those pitchers has had to go through what lies ahead for Strasburg and the end result is that they are some of the best hurlers in the game.

In fact, you could make the argument that guys like Hudson were actually better after they were fully healed from the surgery.

What makes Strasburg a guy that will comeback just as strong is his repertoire of pitches. People are dazzles by his 100+ mph fastball, but that isn’t what has led him to dominating baseball’s best hitters.

Armando Benitez had a 100 mph fastball too. Ask any Mets or Orioles fan about him and you’ll realize that throwing hard doesn’t always translate into success.

No, it was his changeup and curveball that make him exceptional as a pitcher.

Both of his off speed pitches are clocked in the low-80s, meaning that there is a ridiculous 15 to 20 mph difference between his fastball and changeup. That is what made the dazzling heat so powerful – the fact that a batter had to be ready to face both speeds.

Now, lets say that he doesn’t get back to triple digits when he throws his fastball, will it really matter? He will always throw hard (although I think his mechanics might need to be tweaked to make his wind up less volatile), so let’s assume he still pitches in the mid-to-high-90s.

That makes his fastball still amongst the best in baseball. His changeup will still be devastating as it is still 10+ mph slower than his fastball, and his curveball is probably one of the best in the league.

The bottom line is that velocity can make you a good pitcher, but it doesn’t make you great. To be great, you need a handful of pitches that can keep batters guessing. Strasburg, at the age of 22, already has that and his fastball is just one of those pitches.

When he comes back, whether his fastball tops out at 95 or 105, he will be amongst the best pitchers in baseball and racking up the K’s just like he did this season.

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Stephen Strasburg will likely require Tommy John surgery after an MRI revealed a torn ligament in his right elbow.

Strasburg first aggravated the elbow after throwing a pitch to Domonic Brown during his start against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

The surgery will end Strasburg’s terrific rookie season and sideline him for 12 to 18 months. He will probably not pitch again until 2012.

In 12 starts, the 2009 No. 1 overall pick pitched 68 innings and struck out a sensational 92 batters while sporting a 2.91 ERA and a 5-3 record.

It’s a major blow to the Washington Nationals, who were relying on Strasburg to be their ace. But it’s an even bigger blow for baseball.

The Nationals, sitting at dead last in the NL East with a 54-74 record, are still a few years away from being competitive. They have several talented players on their roster between Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, and Drew Storen, and they have a stocked farm system with guys like Wilson Ramos and Bryce Harper waiting in the wings. But they are still far away from having a complete roster capable of contending for a championship.

For baseball, though, the loss of Strasbug is about more than just wins and losses.

His entrance into the league was accompanied with the sort of hype and fanfare that we get to see maybe once a decade. To his credit, Strasburg lived up to all the acclaim and was well on his way to becoming one of baseball’s best and most marketable players.

The league hasn’t had a player like Strasburg in quite some time. It takes a special kind of talent and personality to sell the game of baseball to its millions of fans. Strasburg is, in essence, baseball’s unspoken spokesperson.

Why?

The biggest superstar in the game today, Albert Pujols, is a native of the Dominican Republic. In fact, most of baseball’s stars are not natives of the United States, making it difficult to use them as marketing tools in a U.S. dominated market. Other stars like Roy Halladay and Mark Teixeira are too deep into their careers to be able to relate well to the league’s young audience.

Strasburg is not only American-born (he’s from San Diego), but he also has the talent and the drive to be able to be a role model for young baseball players everywhere.

This is the guy who had no interest in pitching in the minors because he couldn’t wait to face the best. This is also the guy who had no problems calling out his now teammate Harper for engaging in a contractual dispute with Washington.

Commissioner Bud Selig couldn’t have asked for anyone better. Having him pitch for a franchise in one of the largest markets of the country is an added bonus. What will happen to the game without Strasburg?

Football revenues are growing every year, and the very real possibility of an 18-game season makes it a serious threat to baseball revenues. Basketball is also popular again with championship-caliber teams in Boston and Los Angeles, and the three-headed trio in Miami. Baseball, meanwhile, is simply treading water.

The success rate of Tommy John surgery is as high as ever, so Strasburg will be back to embarrassing opposing hitters eventually. But what can the league do to sustain interest during his absence?

Strasburg was one of the few captivating stories in the game. The Nationals will recover from his loss, but can baseball?

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Last Saturday, Stephen Strasburg, in his first game back after a short DL stint, left his start against the Philadelphia Phillies with an injury to his pitching arm. This morning, the news came down from GM Mike Rizzo that Strasburg will need to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a significant tear in his UCL, and will most likely miss the entire 2011 season.

Strasburg, who was undoubtedly baseball’s best pitcher during the first month of his career, finishes a shortened rookie season 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA and 92 strikeouts to just 17 walks in 68 innings pitched.

This situation is eerily reminiscent of Francisco Liriano’s 2006 season. The Twins ace exploded onto the scene in ’06, and looked like a Cy Young contender at midseason. After a month-long stint on the DL, Liriano made two starts, one in late August and the next in early September, before landing back on the DL and eventually undergoing Tommy John surgery.

This is without a doubt bad news. But it is important to remember that Liriano has been one of baseball’s best pitchers this year. The same can be said for fellow TJS recipient Josh Johnson.

While the road to recovery is long and Strasburg may not be himself right away, the surgery now has a very high success rate. This isn’t going to end Strasburg’s career, and he should be back to 100 percent within two years. While his questionable mechanics and electric stuff could lead to further injury in the future, we’ve seen plenty of pitchers return from TJS and stay healthy long-term.

As difficult a situation as TJS is, there is a silver lining here. This injury gives the Nationals another year to become a competitive organization. The service time clock has stopped ticking for now, and the Nationals will control their phenom for an additional year before he reaches free agency.

This not only gives the Nationals a bigger window of competition with Strasburg, but also increases his future trade value should the team not become competitive in the next three to four years.

Stephen Strasburg might be the most talented pitcher in the game, and as a baseball fan, I want to see the guy pitch. Thankfully, this is unlikely to be the end of his career or the end of his dominance, and Nationals fans can take solace in the fact that there team now has another year to become a competitor in the National League East and win with Stephen Strasburg as their ace.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Washington Nationals announced this morning that Stephen Strasburg has a “significant tear” in the Ulner Collateral Ligament in his right elbow and will “probably” have Tommy John surgery, pending a second opinion from Dr. Lewis Yocum, an expert in the procedure.

The typical rehabilitation time from this type of procedure is 12 to 18 months.

“We’ve got the dry MRI, we’ve got the MRI arthrogram, we’ve got two different doctor’s opinions,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said. “We feel it should be a typical Tommy John rehabilitation, and this is going to be no different.”

The surgery and resulting rehab will likely completely rob Strasburg of his 2011 season, but the list is long of pitchers that have had this procedure to return to previous or better results. Regardless, this is devastating news to legions of Nats fans, and baseball fans in general.

Team doctors who performed both MRIs on Strasburg believe it was an acute injury, sustained last Saturday in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Strasburg threw a change-up to OF Domonic Brown and winced in pain, calling for the trainers immediately after feeling pain in his elbow and forearm.

NatsTown has been in a daze since, waiting for the two words no one wanted to hear: Tommy John.

“It’s a tough day for him and for all of us, for everyone who’s a Nats fan,” team president Stan Kasten said on the conference call with reporters this morning. “But we saw Jordan [Zimmermann] come back last night. A year from today, Stephen will be joining him.”

RHP Jordan Zimmermann made his return to the mound last night 12 months and two weeks from his Tommy John surgery date. It’s now consecutive years that the Nats have lost their top pitching prospect to an elbow injury requiring Tommy John surgery.

“The team is confident though that the handling of Strasburg’s development was proper and industry standard. It’s frustrating, because this happens to people you think it shouldn’t happen to,” Rizzo said.

“This player was developed and cared for the correct way. Things like this happen. Pitchers break down. Pitchers get hurt. We’re satisfied with the way he was developed. I know Scott Boras [Strasburg’s agent] was satisfied with the way he’s been treated, and Stephen is also. We’re good with that.”

“Frustrated, yes. Second-guessing ourselves, no.”

Strasburg’s rookie campaign ends with a 5-3 record, 2.91 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 68 innings. His K/9 rate was the highest in the MLB for starting pitchers.

Strasburg was obviously disappointed in the diagnosis, but Kasten said he’s already determined to come back better than 100 percent.

“He was upset Monday,” Kasten said. “This is tough news for a kid with this kind of future and the high expectations he puts on himself. This is a high-achievement oriented kid.”

Strasburg did not address the media, but the team hopes to make him available soon.

Some of the biggest names in baseball have had the same procedure: Former Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter, the Braves’ Tim Hudson and Billy Wagner, the Yankees’ A.J. Burnett, the Cubs’ Ryan Dempster, the Twins’ Francisco Liriano and the Giants’ Brian Wilson all are among the names of Tommy John recipients who came back at a high level.

Nationals fans take little solace in those words, though.  It’s somewhat ironic that the Nats found out that Strasburg needs surgery on the same day they introduced their 2010 No. 1 overall pick, OF Bryce Harper, to the fans and media at Nationals Park. According to Rizzo and Kasten, Strasburg requested the announcement be delayed until after Harper’s big day.

Any goodwill generated from yesterday’s festivities has certainly been quashed with the sobering news that the “Greatest Pitching Prospect Ever” will miss the next 12 to 18 months. It’s entirely possible that the next time Strasburg takes the mound, the 17-year old Harper might actually be challenging for a spot on the roster.

And it certainly casts a pall over any negotiations with Adam Dunn and any other possible free agent over the offseason. It’s questionable at this point, without Strasburg to lead the pitching staff, whether it makes sense to sink big dollars into players for next season or to wait until the offseason before 2012 when Strasburg hopefully makes his triumphant return.

Regardless, this diagnosis opens up plenty of questions for Kasten and Rizzo about the franchise moving forward. What should have been an offseason full of possibilities now turns into more waiting.

For more coverage of Strasburg’s injury and Harper’s introduction, please visit Nats News Network.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Fans had to wait longer than they wanted to see Stephen Strasburg make his MLB debut.

Well, now they will have to wait even longer to see him pitch again.

The Washington Nationals’ rookie phenom has a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament, which will require Tommy John surgery.

While Strasburg will seek a second opinion, he will likely be out for at least a year, and up to 18 months. 

Strasburg threw 68 innings in 12 starts, going 5-3 with 92 strikeouts, 17 walks and a 2.91 ERA.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Baseball’s newest pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals has been on and off of the DL in recent weeks, and the Nationals have had their concerns about Strasburg’s condition.

If only they knew that Strasburg had suffered a career-threatening injury. Their crown gem, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 Draft, Strasburg is the present and future of the franchise.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that Strasburg’s injury is a significant tear in the ulnar collateral ligament, needing repair via a Tommy John surgery.

His injury means a lot of things, for both the Nationals and Major League Baseball. He sold out games for a franchise that couldn’t sell out a free game, prior to his arrival. He’s given the Nationals a space in the limelight in Washington, while Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals had become the D.C. team to follow in pro sports.

His arrival was so hyped, so over blown, that no one could have lived up to it, right? 

Strasburg proved us wrong. Proved he had a nasty fastball. Proved he was able to carry a team on his back for eight or nine innings, if allowed. Proved he could make even the best hitters look silly with his unfairly hard to hit curveball.

Above all else, he proved he fit the bill as a franchise savior.

Now, the question is: will Strasburgmania resume in 2012 (when he is projected to recover by) when he gets back on the mound? Will he be the elite talent that he was before the injury? There must be at least 10 or 15 different questions floating around D.C.’s sports pubs.

“Will we still have our ace?”

“Do we fall back into the cellar again?”

“What are we supposed to expect from the ‘Nats in 2011 without him?”

These are just a few of the bigger questions being asked right now.

However, the true question, is will he ever come back to 100 percent? There used to be a day and age when a Tommy John surgery ended careers. It still does at times, but as Tim Kirkjian of ESPN pointed out, Chris Carpenter and Tommy John, the man who the surgery is named for, came back stronger and better than before the injury.

So where will Strasburg fall?

We know this much: his injury recovery timetable is approximately 12 to 18 months, and any setbacks of significance will set that table back.

A recently recovered pitcher, Chris Capuano of the Milwaukee Brewers, made a return to baseball after nearly two years of recovery time from his 2007 injury.

Now, we can only wonder how long it will take Strasburg to recover, but we know just how careful the Nationals will be with him. From day one, they’ve monitored everything about him. Pre-draft x-rays on his pitching elbow, physical therapy sessions to make sure after pitching that his elbow wouldn’t become tight, and when he made his arrival to the bigs, they set a 160-inning limit on his season. 

Time will only tell how the rookie phenom will come back from this injury, but you can only wish him well. If his career is derailed like a Kerry Wood or Mark Prior, baseball will have been robbed of a possible Cy Young winning, All Star game-starting, Hall of Fame potential pitcher.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

They are the two words no pitcher wants to hear, but for Washington Nationals phenom prospect Stephen Strasburg, it appears “Tommy John” will soon enter his vocabulary.

The right-hander who took baseball by storm this summer appears headed for surgery, much to the dismay of the Nationals organization and baseball fans alike.

It is a very tough blow for a pitcher that not only the Nationals, but Major League Baseball as well, anticipate will be a star for the next decade.

Here is the latest on the injury concerns regarding baseball’s top prospect.

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