What about the other side of the story? Where’s that in your piece?

You know, the part about over 70% of pitchers younger than 25 who increased their workload by more than 30 innings over the previous year’s workload break down & don’t fulfill their promise?

How many pitchers just this year alone not named Strasburg are being shut down by their teams? Where’s all the hype around them?

Oh, that’s right, you can’t piggyback off others, those names don’t carry the same cachet as the name Strasburg. You’d have to actually work to buildup those stories and it’s just so much easier to pile on.

The REAL question and the REAL issues is this… Is a shot at the title worth risking a promising 15-year career over? The GM’s of the league are clearly telling you media retards in simple and plain english, “NO” it’s not but you and retards like you just can’t get that through your little tiny itty bitty brains. The idea of having a promising and rising young star and having him play for you for many many years at the expense at one shot in the playoffs just eludes you.

Face it, you’re a clown. You’ve got no game.

Tomorrow, look into a mirror and seriously ask yourself “what do I want to be in this industry?”, another idiot getting lost in the shuffle or an unpopular voice of truth with his idiot colleagues but someone who can be respected and followed by the readers?

Never mind, you just don’t got what it takes. Go back to being a lap dog. You’ve already been weighed, measured, and found wanting.

Have a nice day!

This conversation may have or may not have reportedly occurred earlier this week:

BORAS: OK, I just want to make sure we are all on the same page. Hasn’t everything has gone just as we planned?

RIZZO: Yeah! You bet! E-Jax has come through as you promised, we’ve built a nice divisional lead and I mean, other than the Strasburg shutdown hysteria, it couldn’t have gone better to this point. Stephen’s bounced back great. Better than expected, in fact. Actually, do we really have to shut –

BORAS: YES! Yes, we do.

STRASBURG: But I still feel strong. I haven’t had any lingering effects. Can I at least get an MRI and see if I have any issues to be worried about?

BORAS/RIZZO (at same time, respectively exclaim): NO/YES

BORAS: Now listen, Stephen, I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but we can NOT have you pitch well in your final two starts. We need to manage the potential for PR blowback on the outside chance that things don’t go our way in the playoffs. The best way to accomplish that is for you to go out there and throw a couple of stinkers which provide us with some public cache in the form of some evidence to support the shutdown decision. As a result, we’ll hush our critics and refocus attention on the rest of the team

RIZZO reaches for his pepto bismo.

STRASBURG: But what if this is my first and only best shot at winning a title?

BORAS: Look, we’ve been over this repeatedly. You’ll still get a ring. (then, turning to Rizzo) Size 15 for me, by the way.

Having said that, I agree that Davey did the kid a disservice. The hype and the criticism, ridiculous as it may be, goes with the proverbial territory. Strasburg has had to learn how to deal with it. At just 24, he’s still learning. Davey didn’t mean to question the kid’s determination. On the contrary, Davey has praised it numerous time. This time, he misspoke. It will probably take a few sit-downs with Stephen to repair the damage.

Speaking of condensation, ever consider a career as a rainmaker? When you think about it, if there are enough people in the agricultural red states dumb enough to vote for the John Thune et al or the Tea Party candidates, and who make up much of the readership of said sports journalists, they’ll probably be dumb enough to pay you happily to end the drought, too.

I win!

“Let’s see what Tommy John has to say!”

Why? Is Dr. John now or something? Should I schedule him to do my surgery and rehab?

I do feel that the Nationals FO was a little unprepared for the spotlight, and that doesn’t just apply to Strasburg, that applies to the Metro, the parade planning, letters about postseason tickets, and so on. Everything is a headline when you are a first-place team, things that no one except us locals cared about when the Nats were losing 100 games or even when this was a .500 team.

The first two times the Nationals were on “national TV” it wasn’t pretty. Same for the series in LA with Stras pitching and Harper’s debut. Trial by media fire.

Hopefully this will settle down until the playoffs when it will come up again if the Nats ever lose a game.

It’s with the media acting like they spent 4 years in med school, 3 years in residency and performed Tommy John surgery umpteen number of times.

Have you guys even asked what someone like Dr. James Andrews thinks? What people in the medical profession who deal with this kind of stuff think?

Media pressure on Strasburg is just a factor among others here. It’s not just that the media was affecting Strasburg, it seems from the quote it was affecting the whole team. He also alludes to medical advice from team doctors who, you know, probably know a lot more about medical things than baseball bloggers, writers and fanboys.

Also, there is no righteous indignation on Johnson’s part (unlike the author of this piece). He doesn’t seem angry. He’s not questioning the media’s roll or jobs. He’s accepting this as a part of the game and dealing with it rationally. He doesn’t knock Strasburg’s mental fortitude any more than any other player’s.

Poor and border-line irresponsible analysis on this one.

Btw, I’m not a Nats fan like the homer above.