Never has news about an injury devastated me as much as today's news about The Phenom. ESPN broke the news that I had been expecting to hear even though every ounce of me hoped not to hear it: Stephen Strasburg needs Tommy John surgery and is going to miss 12-18 months.
This is just a crushing blow to a sport that hasn't seen talent like his since Kerry Wood in the early 90's. I'm not a Nationals fan. In fact, I support a team that is in the same division as the Nationals. Strasburg should have been destined to be an enemy, yet every time he pitched I was like a kid in a candy shop. Bulking home run hitters come around every year. Dominant, filthy pitchers come around once a generation.
The thought that Strasburg would throw his arm out was always a legitimate concern. The Nationals planned from the beginning to limit his innings in hopes of preserving his arm for the future. After all, there is compelling evidence that young pitchers who throw too many innings have a high rate of injury.
Strasburg threw only 68 innings this year in the majors, but combined with the 55 in the minors, he pitched 14 more than his previous high in college. When I look back, I can't definitively say that they misused him. He did not throw 100 pitches in any of his starts and at the first sign of arm discomfort, they held him out of his July 28 and Aug 3 starts. But in the end, they weren't careful enough. It's easy for me to say since hindsight is 20-20, but they should have shut him down completely when he first felt a pain in his arm. The past three starts meant nothing - the Nats were not going anywhere. But the organization decided to let him pitch, knowing damn well that he would increase the attendance for each game (Nats averaged 12k more when he started). And now they have set themselves back a minimum of two years and Jim Riggelman can get credit for being both Wood's and Strasburg's managers when they destroyed their arms.
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