Nothing I’m going to say here will add anything to the millions of words already spilled over Stephen Strasburg’s debut. It’s just that whole posterity thing again, my desire to make note of events that feel important so I can have them in the archive down the road.
I wrote last week that I was rooting for Strasburg to be a pretty good pitcher but not an exceptional one. I still think that would be funny — especially now — but I changed my mind when he struck out Jason Jaramillo looking on a backdoor curveball to start the third. Holy lord, he’s got some ludicrous stuff. I hope he stays awesome.
I love dominance and spectacle and pitchers who manipulate opposing batters. Strasburg provided all of that in his Major League debut. 14 strikeouts and 0 walks. Fourteen, zero.
And when Strasburg was up against his predetermined pitch count after the first out in the seventh, with Jim Riggleman sitting on the bench clearly wondering how he was expected to pull a pitcher who was effortlessly imposing his will upon the pitiful Pirates, Strasburg was all, “don’t worry, Skip, I got this.” Six straight strikes and the inning was over. Crazy. Crazy crazy crazy.
Bob Costas kept trying to keep things in perspective, then in the next breath would mention Bob Feller, Tom Seaver, Walter Johnson. It’s not fair, of course, to expect a Hall of Fame career out of any 21-year-old. But who’s to say what the hype machine would have churned out if Feller, Seaver or the Big Train made their debuts in 2010? And who knows if it matters? Competitors like those probably couldn’t care less about any expectations besides their own; to get to that level, they’ve got to be awful, awful driven.
Maybe Strasburg’s a Hall of Famer. Heck, maybe he’s the greatest pitcher of all time. Sure, Dwight Gooden had 58 Major League wins with a 2.28 ERA and a 155 ERA+ by the time he was Strasburg’s age, and Kerry Wood struck out 233 batters in his first 166 2/3 innings, and back in 1967 Gary Nolan whiffed five times as many guys as he walked across his first 10 starts when he was only 19 years old.
Who cares about that? Everyone knows pitchers flame out. It happens. But every so often a Roger Clemens comes around, or a Seaver or a Greg Maddux. That happens too. At some point in our lifetimes, we will see more historically great pitchers. And though the odds are long for everyone, it’s hard to bet against the guy who struck out 14 batters without walking any in his Major League debut.
Tedquarters 
Meh, I’m not impressed. I could strike out a Pirate or two. Call me when he picks up a 20th inning save.
Talent wise, in terms of ‘stuff’ as they say, he certainly looks like he has it together. But even as impressive as he was, I think we need to put the HOF and all-time great talk on hold at least for a few years.
14 K’s was impressive, but it was the pirates, and he was probably quite juiced up for his debut. He wasnt K’ing 14 a game in AA or AAA leading up to this, so expecting this type of performance day in and day out from him is like you said Ted, unfair.
But the key to becoming an all time great, as we all know is longevity. There has been Stephen Strasburgs before, like you mentioned Doc Gooden, Kerry Wood, Mark Prior etc. And with pitchers, its just so common to fade out, and either face injury or just loss of stuff.
I say lets enjoy what we are seeing now, and hope it lasts, but put the all time great stuff on hold for at least a couple years.
I think they should just award him wins for whenever he promises to pitch. Lets not waste anyones time, you know?
I’ve spent the better part of the day wondering how they got the wig on him too. If he did it himself, boooo. If his teammates did it along with the shaving cream and he rode it out, well, maybe the kid is alright.
I remember thinking the same about Mark Prior or Kerry Wood. Wood’s fastball used to have crazy movement as did his curve. So did Gooden.
But baseball is about longevity and staying healthy. Guy with obscene velocity for some reason hardly make it 10 or 15 years.
He’s an amazing pitcher no doubt, but until you do it a few years it’s all cheap whiskey. Even guys like Lincecum and Grienke seems to be coming to earth so…