Phenomenal

Well, there you have it. All the hype was justified. In his major league debut, Stephen Strasburg went 7 innings, giving up 2 runs, walking none and striking out 14 on 103 pitches. Thanks to the MLB Network I was able to watch the 5th and 6th innings live and it was amazing. It was so amazing that C-buns texted me a very uncharacteristic 'OMG'. I have seen the future and his name is Strasburg. I am all-in on the hype.

Here's the only thing that bothers me - Strasburg threw close to a 100 pitches in his debut. I mean, wasn't he supposed to be on a pitch count? I'm afraid that what is going to happen is that Strasburg is going to be so amazing that fans and the media are going to want too much of him; that the Nats will have no choice but to trot him out more than planned. For a pitcher his age, he should probably be only throwing 100-125 innings a year. He is going to be there real quickly if Washington keeps him in for 7 innings a game.

His debut brings me back to the great Kerry Wood's debut season in 1997. I was all-in on Wood and he did not disappoint. Anyone who remembers the 20k performance against Houston knows how amazing he was. Unfortunately, his arm gave way and he was never the same. Costas and his broadcast partner couldn't resist discussing the similarities between Strasburg and Wood. After all, not only were they both hard throwing phenoms, they were both managed by Jim Riggelman (crazy). Anyways, they noted that with Wood, it wasn't that he was overworked, but rather that his motion was not good from the start. Unlike Wood, Strasburg has a windup that will not be prone to injury. I'll take their word for it and continue to be on the hype machine.

Besides the big debut, I have a a few other comments about the night in sports:

• Great win by the Lakers. I only was able to watch the last 4 minutes of the game, but Boston could not stop LA on offense. Every position seemed to result in a bucket. And wow, what was up with Ray Allen? 0-13 from the field and 0-8 from 3-point range. I was watching SportsNation last night and Michelle asked Colin if the Celtics had anything to worry about going home for 3 games with the series tied. To his credit, Colin said they should be worried - Allen had 32 points, Rondo had a triple double, Bryant only had 21 points and yet it was a one point game as late as 2 minutes left in the game. Gotta hand it to him, he was right.
• The National League is going to be dangerous in the All-Star game because of their amazing pitching. Think about this for the first 7 innings: Ubaldo Jimenez (11-1, 0.93 ERA), Adam Wainright (8-3, 2.05), Tim Lincecum (5-2, 3.20), Roy Halladay (8-3, 2.03) and Mike Pelfrey (8-1, 2.23). Filthy
  
• Another great performance by Pelf - 9 innings of 1 run ball only to get a ND as the Mets could not muster more than 1 run for him.
• Finally, I'm sitting here watching Al Leiter on MLB TV and he is great. I always remember him being such an animated guy in the dugout. He is the perfect guy for TV.