What are your thoughts about the Nat's shutting him down?
Not many chances to win it all, and this is their year, I think he should step up and tell them he wants to pitch.

Thats their multi- million dollar investment. Guy never pitched this many innings in his very young career and and coming off a Tommy John. Their pitching staff is still very descent with out him. Their GM is looking into the big picture down the road and I don't blame him.

Yeah I can see both sides. I personally would let him pitch. The window to win is small and if he feels okay then send him out there. If they limited him to 5 innings or 100 pitches, whatever came first until the postseason it could help. I don't know how much but it could.

I heard that his agent Boros is the driving force and his angle is money driven.

Jim Kaat today said it should be Strasburg making the call.

He is young and he would always say that he is ok and wanna pitch until his arm falls off. True, the city has not hosted playoff baseballs in decades. Guys is very young and I don't blame the management to be overly protective. He will be very good and will their ACE for years if he can stay healthy.

Their staff is good and may do it without him, but will he get another chance at it. Not easy to repeat these day's.

Would you want him to pitch if he was in the same situation pitching for us ?

I'd shut him down now for about 3 to 4 weeks. Then about 2 weeks before the playoffs, I would have the doctors who recommended him shut it down after about 165 IP's hold a public forum at Nationals Stadium for all their fans to meet and hear if they still feel like the Nationals ace should remain on the sidelines. I doubt if these doctors had any idea the Nationals would have a chance for the playoffs when they made that recommendation.

Good question. It will be very interesting to see how it transpires.

The future is now, very few chances to win it all especially with a small market team. Pitch unless your arm falls off.

No, they have a solid core and good pitching and have few shots at this for the next few years.

The thing is, an injury or two can derail everything. Why take the chance when everything is in place this year.

But Royal, what if this Mayan calendar thing is right and we don't have a few more years.

And look at the Pitchers and case studies. There are tons of case studies if you look deep enough at many of the elite pitchers and the longevity of their careers if they threw more than 190 innings a season very early in their career. I think Greg Maddux was the only one to defy the odds. All the young pitchers who have pitched over 200 innings early in their career, like Steve Avery, flaming out early.

If I were you then then I would stop worrying about baseball. Better stock up your shelves with booze. Haha JK too :-)

lol

I think you nailed it because I don't think there is any precedent for this. What is he supposed to do when they shut him down, nothing? Throw at 80%, simulated games, 90%, chop down trees, lift weights? Whatever, there is always a risk for injury. It would be really ironic if they shut him down and he blew out an acl in a pick up football game. Put him on a lie detector, ask him how his arm feels and send him out there.