Strasburg's Night

Steven Strasburg put together a hell of a debut, to please the countless hypers that have been doting on him.

7.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 14 K, 0 BB, 94 Pitches

I just buzzed through the 7 innings of Strasburg pitching and he certainly is impressive. He consistently through 97-99 with his 4-seamer. The 2-seamer was 95 and 95. His curveball is incredibly dynamic, very hard and very sharp-breaking, and he threw a change up that, when it worked, fell right off the table. It was only the pirates, but it was no fluke that he struck out 14 hitters. The Pirate hitters were able to adjust to the fastball the second time around the order, and were not helpless against the changeup (Delwyn Young hit one over the right field wall) but they were hapless, hopeless and helpless against that curveball. It reminds me a lot of Kerry Wood's power curveball, when it was great, and a little bit of Adam Wainwright. What was crazy was how, for the late 2nd, early 3rd time through the batting order, the hitters were once again lost on the fastball. This was the impact that the curveball has. Strasburg also set himself up for strikeouts later on, by being consistently accurate in the strike zone with the fastball early. This led Pirate hitters to chase the fastball up in the later innings (Strasburg struck out the last 6 hitters he faced, most on fastballs).

He is a long way from Cooperstown, but the kid surely will be fun to watch.

Note

The Bolt is curious what happened to Chien-Ming Wang. All this Strasburg talk, and the possibility of trading for Roy Oswalt has put the Wang acquisition completely on the back burner. I will look into what's going on with Wang's rehab and get back to you all in the next MLB Sprites.

-APT