Strasburg better than advertised

For over a year, we’ve heard about just how good Stephen Strasburg is. He’s the best pitching prospect ever, we were told. His stuff is unhittable. He could have jumped into a major league rotation right out of college.

On Tuesday night, Strasburg made those claims seem like understatements. He was somehow better than advertised, as Strasburg struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates and walked none, going seven innings and giving up two runs (both earned).

(I had a video here of Strasburg’s 14 strikeouts, but the video was disabled).

In his post-game press conference, Strasburg said that he didn’t go over single scouting report in preparation for his big league debut against the Pirates. 14 strikeouts without a single scouting report.

Impressive, to say the least. But I’ve heard that young pitchers can over-think on the mound after studying scouting reports on a team. For instance, if a pitcher learns that particular hitters struggle on a given pitch, that pitcher may overuse his less effective, secondary stuff. That means his most effective pitch is under-utilized. Or something.

Anyway, Strasburg displayed the best stuff that I’ve ever seen a pitcher display. His fastball sat at 98 MPH for the evening, and even touched 100 on a few occasions (Strasburg even hit 103 on the MASN gun in the seventh inning.) He threw his fastball with pinpoint command and used it quite effectively, which set up maybe the best pitch I’ve ever seen, his power curveball — or as Strasburg calls it, his slurve. The slurve is straight filthy. It drops off the table at 83 or 84 MPH. It starts at the top of the strike zone and finishes out of the zone. Strasburg works quickly and comes right at hitters with his big heater.

Simply put, a pitcher can’t be much nastier than Strasburg was on Tuesday night. One instance really pops out in my mind — Strasburg fell behind 3-0 in the count to Pirates’ cleanup man Garrett Jones in the second inning, and Strasburg struck Jones out by blowing three pitches right by him.

Strasburg gave up a two-run homer to Delwyn Young in the fourth inning on a changeup, which apparently wasn’t as sharp as it could have been on this night. Strasburg’s changeup sat at 91 MPH on the night, a speed that apparently is a little too close to his monster fastball in order for the changeup to be as effective as it can be. Young hit a changeup that stayed in the middle of the zone out of the park.

Strasburg finished his outing by fanning his last seven hitters with electric stuff — it’s almost as if his stuff got better as the game went along. The atmosphere of Nationals Park as Strasburg was striking out the side in order in the seventh inning was almost as electric as Strasburg’s stuff.

Now, let’s be real here — Strasburg wasn’t facing the lineup of the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay Rays. He was facing one of the weaker lineups in the big leagues. Coming into Tueday’s games, the Pirates are tied for last in the league in average (.237), next-to-last in runs (187), and third-worst in wOBA (.300).

Strasburg will face much better lineups in the future. He’ll face much more patient lineups in the future. There will be nights where Strasburg’s stuff isn’t as godly as it was on Tuesday night.

But Tuesday night may very well turn out to be the night where the Washington Nationals truly arrived, because this could turn out to be the start of something huge, both for Strasburg and for the team.