2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

I think the difference is that baseball is just not a sport where you can really get better results by just trying really hard. Not like hockey or basketball or football. So the impact is probably minimized. That's just my guess.

 

I'm hoping it comes to a head here in the next month or two, if only because it'll be an interesting debate. And if the Nationals dismiss it out of hand, there will probably be even more debate.

At some point, someone's got to realize very few people get 6, 7, 8 chances to make a pennant run.

 

The flip side is that I'm convinced that overuse in 1985 and 1986 had as much to do with Doc Gooden's early decline as drugs.

 

The White Sox may have the same issues with Chris Sale late this season.

 

Agreed. He missed the first two months of the 1987 season due to drug rehab (as part of a plea deal to avoid being suspended after he tested positive for cocaine during spring training), but was still very-good-to-dominant the rest of that year and the following season. His career didn't really run off the rails until he blew out his shoulder in 1989.

But the overuse started before 1985. He threw 191 innings in Class A in 1983 at age 18. I've seen some estimates that he threw more than 10,000 pitches between 1983-85, when he was 18-20 years old.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ten-things-i-didnt-know-last-week20/

 

But she's a faaaantasitic gal!

 

Two words: Mark Prior.

No, I don't think that Stephen Strasburg would trade his career for a 1 in 10 shot at a World Series title this year. And if he would, that's why it's good that people other than Stephen Strasburg are making that decision for him.

 

Boswell nailed it today.

I'd be shocked if Rizzo doesn't shut him down. It's the right thing to do. For a million reasons, most of which are detailed in the Boswell column.

 

Three words: Fuck. Dusty. Baker.

He was given a once-a-decade young arm, and he decided that kid needed to throw the most pitchers/start of any pitcher in MLB. This wasn't a matter of babying him or not. It was a matter of not riding him harder than any other pitcher in baseball (outside of maybe teammate Kerry Wood).

I swear it almost became a matter of obstinance for him. Nobody was going to tell Dusty how to manage his rotation. So by the end of the season, you had a 20-year-old pitcher throwing 130+ pitches in blowouts.

Again: Fuck Dusty Baker. So hard.

 

I also predict the "Will they or won't they" storyline to be the most annoying topic of discussion later this summer. Then again, by that time, a lot of people will have switched their focus to RGSilly and the Skins.

 

From Sept. 1 through Oct. 3, he threw at least 129 pitches in five of seven starts. The other starts were 109-124-116-119. He was 22 years old at the time.

 

The Nationals: We try hard for five months, then cross our fingers for the stretch run.

It'll be interesting to hear Nats fans during September if Strasburg joins them in watching the team lose a division lead.