Strasburg, Tommy John and Insanity

If you were a pitcher in the big leagues, there are so many things in Tommy John‘s career I am sure you would wish for.

Pitching in 26 different seasons…
AVERAGING 200 innings a year…
A pair of Cy Young runner up seasons…
Three 20 win seasons…
A 13 win season at age 44…
288 career wins…
Multiple All Star berths…
Pitching on the biggest stage in three different World Series…

Name me a young pitcher today that wouldn’t take a career like that!

Yet when pitchers hear his name, they act like the pilots wives when the creepy preacher showed up in The Right Stuff.

It’s the death knell.

OK, maybe not that bad… but it probably means a lost year.

Now of course pitchers can heal after Tommy John Surgery and make the tendons more strong, basically make the movie Rookie of the Year come true.

But there is a certain amount of insanity here.
The Nationals treated Strasburg with scientifically precise kid gloves and no doubt had each bowel movement weighed.

And the result? Two trips to the disabled list and 2011 probably lost.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE 2011 SEASON TICKETS, WASHINGTON!

Have I missed where the kid glove treatment has resulted in great successes?

I’m not talking about avoiding blowing out pitchers arms (Clay Buchholz and David Price were held back a little early on and are now Cy Young contenders) but this insane bean counting and arbitrary pitch numbers seems to be doing more harm than good.

You can no longer look me in the eye and say that this babying of pitchers works.

How did the Glavine/Maddux/Smoltz of the world combine for 50 some odd years in the big leagues and get only ONE Tommy John Surgery (for Smoltz in 2000 after he was already building his Cooperstown resume) and a Strasburg can’t even last 1/2 a season without 2 trips to the DL?

Are pitchers like Halladay and Sabathia just freaks of nature and we need to keep handling pitchers like Joba Chamberlain until his career is ruined?

I REALLY don’t want to include Strasburg on the list of “Can’t Miss Aces Who Missed“… but so far it DOESN’T look good.

If only those guys could have Tommy John’s career.

Kirk Gibson’s homer as recreated by RBI Baseball

I have no idea how long it takes to recreate these games with RBI baseball… but I think it was worth every nanosecond.

This kind of insanity makes me so happy.

Alright Red Sox… you are either in or you are out… right now

They need to win tonight.

It is the definition of a must win. Lester on the hill coming off a grotesque outing.

Going into Tampa to face David Price and the Rays.

If this season is going to amount to anything, they have to win this series.

I mean a sweep would be awesome, but 2 out of 3 is essential and our nominal ace is going tonight.

A sweep would put the Sox 2 1/2 back, 3 in the loss column of a playoff spot with a month to go.

Winning the series would put the Sox 5 games back in the loss column.

Losing the series would mean the Sox would be 7 games back in the loss column.

A Rays sweep would make it a 9 game gap in the loss column and time to shut down the veterans.

Win tonight and I’ll get excited.

If not, the year might be done.

No pressure.

I don’t often quote Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald… but THIS IS IT.