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Pitching phenoms spring into action

by Matt Smith

You wait days for a ‘pitching phenom’ to make his debut and then two come along at once.  Aroldis Chapman wowed the Royals, scouts and speed guns yesterday; today it’s the turn of the Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg.  The Nationals are playing the Detroit Tigers today, with first pitch set for 18.05 GMT.

In days of old, this would be smothered in politics: Chapman from Communist Cuba against a Star Spangled Strasburg.  There may still be a bit of that in the background, but for the majority of us it’s just pure baseball.

Chapman came on in relief of Bronson Arroyo yesterday evening, British time, after the Reds’ starter pitched two perfect innings.  That sequence was broken straight away as fellow Cuban Brayan Pena singled to lead off the third inning, although it didn’t seem to bother Chapman all that much.  He ended up pitching two scoreless innings, striking out three batters in the process.  The only live commentary on MLB.com was via the Royals’ radio crew, the Reds’ being conspicuous by their absence, but they did a great job of putting across the ‘event’. 

A small crowd of just over 2,000 meant that the loud ‘oohs and ahhs’ I had anticipated didn’t thunder over the airwaves, or the Internet in my case.  Still, the appeal of listening in to the game was not so much that it was a big moment in itself, but that it was the start of what could be a very promising career. The comments after the game, most lyrically described (as always) by Joe Posnanski, suggested that the “I remember listening to his Spring Training debut” tales will be broken out in years to come.

The same applies to Strasburg, although in his case MLB.TV subscribers will be able to say they “watched” his debut.  He’s scheduled to pitch two innings today and they are sure to be two of the most-watched innings of Spring Training.

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6 comments

Steve Keene March 9, 2010 - 1:40 pm

This is such a fantastic time of year for British baseball fans – I’m really enjoying all the games being early starts, so we can easily catch some baseball every day.

Looking forward to seeing Strasburg tonight, should be really interesting.

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Matt Smith March 9, 2010 - 6:41 pm

Well that was impressive. Strasburg took just 7 pitches to get 3 groundouts in the first inning (5-3, 4-3, 6-3). He gave up 2 singles in the second, but the extra work was probably welcome for the Nats. He got to pitch out of the stretch and broke off a few nice breaking balls, including two beauties to Miguel Cabrera.

With Rick Porcello starting for the Tigers, it made for a very neat couple of innings.

You’re completely right Steve, this time of year is great for catching lots of games at a convenient time. It’s certainly nice to listen to A’s games at 20.05 rather than 3 in the morning!

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peter March 10, 2010 - 8:56 pm

its great to see baseball back

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Owen March 13, 2010 - 10:46 am

Another good outing by Chapman on Friday. Talk is he will either be AAA or Majors due to him needing a Spanish speaking catcher and other people round him who speak Spanish.
I do believe once batters see him again will be the real test but so far this guy has made me eat my words!!

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Owen March 15, 2010 - 1:01 pm

Nationals 0-10 in Spring and Strasburg does another 3 strong innings. How can they send this guy down?

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Matt Smith March 15, 2010 - 5:52 pm

Strasburg has certainly looked the part so far. Like Greinke with the Royals, his starts would make for a real bright spot for the Nationals’ season. I hope for their fans’ sake that they get to see plenty of him this year.

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