Tag Archives: Stephen Strasburg

No ordinary Sunday evening

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MlbHlSqYou don’t normally expect there to be much breaking baseball news on a British Sunday evening.  I innocently logged on to my computer with the intention of having a quick check on the latest rumours at around 10 p.m., only to spend the next hour or so clicking from website to website and tweet to tweet chasing all the stories and the immediate reaction to the news.

Every offseason move turns into a drama, but the Washington Nationals’ signing of Jayson Werth was one case where the ‘major event’ billing was fully justified.  It was genuinely stunning, leaving me doubting my eyes, even my sanity, for a few seconds as the news sunk in. 

Part of the shock was that it was completely unexpected.  That’s almost unheard of nowadays, as even the most banal developments and vague hints of potential interest are blogged and tweeted about on a non-stop basis.  That will become even more prevalent over the next few days during the MLB Winter Meetings.  You normally have some inkling that a deal is being discussed, followed by a flurry of activity just before the signing is officially announced.

In Werth’s case, I didn’t read a single story seriously linking the outfielder with the Nationals prior to last night.  There were rumours that the Tigers could have enough money left to pair him in the batting lineup with new recruit Victor Martinez, while some were planning out a potential Red Sox lineup including the former Philly and Adrian Gonzalez (more on him in a moment).  Continue reading →

Saturday’s early MLB games: Dickey versus Strasburg

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It promises to be an exciting weekend of baseball, with the British Baseball NBL Independence Day event and the Welsh Baseball annual international taking place today on home soil, before the first MLB show on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra tomorrow evening from 19.00 (with accompanying live blog here). 

Today’s early MLB games will be another part of this baseball feast.  The match-up of the day has to be the game between the Mets and Nationals which pits resurgent knuckleballer R.A. Dickey against the phenom Stephen Strasburg in a fascinating clash of very different pitching styles. 

The Blue Jays and Braves both came from behind to win extra-inning games yesterday, making the Yankees and Marlins all the more keen to fight back with a victory today.  The Reds pummelled the Cubs 12-0 at Wrigley so there’s a lot of room for improvement from the home team today, while the Brewers were shut out 5-0 yesterday in their game against the Cardinals.

Scott Baker and the Twins narrowly prevailed over David Price and the Rays 2-1 to level the 5 Live weekend series at 1-1.  Davis and Liriano take the mound today to try and give their team the series advantage before the final game tomorrow evening live on BBC radio.  All times are in BST.

18.05. Toronto at NY Yankees (Ricky Romero – Andy Pettitte)
18.05. Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (Johnny Cueto – Randy Wells) * ESPN America
21.10. Tampa Bay at Minnesota (Wade Davis – Francisco Liriano)
21.10. Florida at Atlanta (Anibal Sanchez – Tommy Hanson) * ESPN America
21.10. NY Mets at Washington (R.A. Dickey – Stephen Strasburg)
23.35. Milwaukee at St. Louis (Manny Parra – Chris Carpenter)

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv).  ESPN America is showing two live games back-to-back this evening, as noted above. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Draft works like a dream for Washington

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WhgbHlSqMonday and Tuesday last week showed the MLB amateur player draft in all its glory.  The system is not perfect, and maybe a perfect system that meets everyone’s needs is not possible, but you’ll hear no complaints from Washington.

A franchise that has bordered on the hopeless for most of its brief existence now has more hope than most.

On Monday, the Nationals selected 17 year old Bryce Harper, as expected, as the number one overall pick in the 2010 draft.  They still have to agree a contract with his agent Scott Boras, but Washington are unlikely to let him slip from their grasp.  Harper, a Wayne Rooney-esque man-child, is the type of talent that scouts dream of discovering.  His superhuman home-run-hitting feats have already attained mythical status and only injuries seem capable of halting his ascendency to star status once he hits the Majors in three years or so.

Any killjoy wanting to dampen the excitement surrounding Harper (‘wait ‘till he has played in the Majors for a few years’ etc) was soon firmly put in their party-pooping place by the Major League debut of the Nationals’ number one pick from the 2009 draft.  Stephen Strasburg unquestionably lived up to the hype on Tuesday night against the Pirates, which is scary when you consider just how much hype there was.

This is what the draft is designed to do, to take a team that is in the doldrums and give their fans a reason to be excited once again.  Continue reading →

Pitching phenoms spring into action

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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.