Except for the fact that Derek Lee was on a milk cartoon for the whole series. Holy bad first impression.

But hey, I'll keep taking series wins the rest of the way.

what were you expecting from him in the midst of by far his worst season?

What's this shit going on in Texas right now?

This Phillies-Astros game is bonkers. Ryan Howard gets thrown out real quick for arguing balls and strikes in the 14th inning for really doing not much more than looking at the 3rd base ump, who did it knowing that the Phils didn't have anybody left on their bench. So they have to move Raul Ibanez to 1st and put Roy Oswalt in left.

And of course the first batter hit it right to Oswalt. Lucky it was an easy play.

This Johnny Damon story is pretty great. Glad he stuck it with the Tigers.

Yes, this was happy news to wake up to this morning.

No, this is the best Johnny Damon story

http://www.google.com/m/url?client=ms-a ... p1u3Xn44cA

That site sucks, I can barely read the headline before the screen goes blank. I've tried two different browsers. That said, the headline is entertaining/sad enough for me.

yeah I dunno what's up with it.

Strasberg needs Tommy John Surgery. Out for the Year and probably all of next year as well.

The 'Nats can't buy a break, but they did beat St. Louis last night, heh.

It seems like that always happens with phenoms.

It's not just phenoms but they get the most press. To me it's more indicative of a couple things.

The cost of aces has gone through the roof and as such organizations have been over protective of their upcoming phenoms. These guys have been coddled since they were probably 15 or 16 and their pitch counts monitered, etc. Ironically when they finally get the show their arms aren't ready to handle to load that an ace is required to handle.

There are examples that contradict this of course but the protection of pitchers is a big debate.

Also, the rise of the middle relief guy has play some role as well.

But was Strasburg already given that load?

This isn't really that new of a thing either. Jim Palmer pitched 200+ innings as a 20-year old in 1966, but less than 50 in 1967 and 0 in 1968. And I think Tommy John may have had Tommy John surgery.

Anyway, this is not unexpected at all. My brother almost got into fights in the DC area when he suggested Strasburg would soon be on the DL after he was promoted. The perils of an O's fan.

Further proof that baseball players have got to be the dumbest athletes: Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols to be guests at Glen Beck rally in DC

I say they are dumb not because they are going, but because LaRussa believes

I'm not sure what your point is and how relevant it is to Strasberg's injury. The whole point of how most teams coddle their phenoms is to slowly build up arm strength through carefully managing the number of innings a pitcher pitches year by year so that a young pitcher can handle 200+ innings at the MLB and not risk injury or having a dead arm the next year after his first full season as a MLB starter. Are you saying that somehow makes pitchers more susceptible to injury?

A) That doesn't make much sense
B) Even if it did, Strasberg was having his innings managed and was due to be shut down soon but was kind of thrown right into the fire with little time at all in the minors.

If this is a pitch count issue that you are trying to raise, Strasberg was never allowed to even hit the 100 pitch count in any of his ML starts. I'm not really sure what you are saying. I don't know if the Nats did anything wrong here or if this is just one of those things. Lots of young pitchers have arm injuries. Thankfully, most come back as good as ever after TJ surgery. He'll just lose some time which is a bigger deal for him than most given his big contract and how he's already the Nats biggest star.

Wasn't speaking about him directly. The Nats have done what everyone says you're supposed to do. He's not even topped 100 pitches in any start as of yet (I don't think) and it still happened. Sometimes shit just happens. Was speaking more generally. I don't know the stats but it seems like Tommy John has become more and more frequent with guys in the last 15 years.



I'm not sure what you're getting at here. I'm sure that the term "pitch count" was almost non-existent back then though.

I'm just coming around to the Nolan Ryan school of thinking in that up and comers need to pitch MORE, not less.

See my response to bort, bilgy.

Part of the reason for this though is that they've become so good at it that it isn't nearly as big a deal to have TJ surgery. Now some guys come back and actually gain a few MPH on their fastball post surgery.

In other words, is the trend more injuries or more surgeries?

I'm shmoo.

I think a big part of ti is simply that the media blow up every prospect to be the next Cy Young when very few pan out over an entire career. That's just the way it is. Pitching consistently is hard.

Especially when their post surgery rehab includes HGH.

Some, for sure, but look at Mark Prior, Francisco Liriano, Erik Bedard... There's no guarantee that Strasburg is going to be better than ever.

Read somewhere the Nats were tweaking his change up and repeatedly throwing that pitched caused the damage to his elbow. Pretty ironic if true.

They lowered the mounds in 1969, first Tommy John surgery in 1974. THINK ABOUT IT.