Strasburg makes his debut tonight vs. Pittsburgh

No young pitcher has been hyped like this since Dwight Gooden.

Prior wasn't hyped as much as Strasburg. I may not have watched Gooden's first start, but I did see a lot of his starts in 1984, 1985, and 1986. His starts in those three years were events.

 

I hate to be a pessimist but...It WAS versus Pittsburgh.

 

Yeah, it's not even AAAA, it's still AAA. His next start is against the moderately less terrible Indians.

 

Does anyone know when he faces a decent hitting team?

 

If I'm reading the schedule right, he gets the Indians, ChiSox, Royals, then the Braves. Not a very fearsome group. Royals have a decent AVG, Sox have some pop...

I say skip the formalities and put him in Canton now.


EDIT: Not Canton, of course. I meant Springfield, Mass.

 

He's going to look like a god playing all of those teams..:shit:

 

That would be a very strange place to put him.

 

But he's that good.

 

I think you meant Cleveland.

 

Yeah, that's the one. Cleveland pitches.

 

Nice edit. Or not.

 

Trust me, he doesn't want to come to Springfield.

 

OK, trivia time. What's the record for strikeouts in a debut? Hint: two guys share it.

 

15. Didn't they say it on the telecast?
Or was that the Mets game..

 

Karl Spooner (Brooklyn Dodgers) and J.R. Richard (Houston Astros). Spooner had a grand total of 31 appearances in his major league career, and Richard almost died at the age of 30 from a stroke and was homeless and destitute at the age of 44. Not such good precedents for Strasburg.

 

Coupla crazy stories, those two. Richard had back-to-back 300 K seasons in 78-79. Then almost died in 1980.

 

Some idiot in Washington threw a very valuable baseball back onto the field. The first home run he gave up could have gotten a good price on ebay.

 

I think we should focus on what's really important here:

Mike Pelfrey-103 pitches 9 IP 5 H 1 ER 0 BB 6 K