Thursday, July 29, 2010
Playing It Safe With Strasburg
It is a little scary, but hopefully just playing it extremely safe. The Nationals have put phenom Stephen Strasburg on the 15-Day DL. He should miss 2 or 3 more starts, though I would not be surprised if Rizzo shuts him down for the year. I don't mind playing this situation extremely safe considering who it is and the number of arms we will have coming back within a month. Jordan Zimmermann will be back in two weeks. Scott Olsen is pitching as I type. Wang and Marquis will come back at some point, as will John Lannan and Luis Atilano. So shutting him down and playing it safe is not a bad idea. Our attendance will drop back to where it normally would be, but as long as Stephen is good to go in the spring, everything will be alright.
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Sometimes, being out of the race enables a team to be sellers and retool for the future. The Nats made a potentially great trade by sending their closer, Capps, to the Twins for lefty Testa and highly touted catching prospect, Ramos, who could be their starting catcher as soon as next year. This fills a void since Rodriguez is near the end and it's always good to add a lefty arm like Testa. Capps is old and you got good value back from a team desperate for a closer with Nathan out for the year. Hopefully, Strasburg will not go the way of a Mark Prior or Mark Fidrych.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of attendance, the Mets are having one of the highest drops in ticket sales compared to last year. They should make a push to improve but ownership is not aggressive so I doubt that any big trade will happen. Phils remain aggressive so Oswalt makes them the team to beat AGAIN in the NL. If they go to the World Series again, it may have been worth draining their farm system of prospects. Although they do run the risk of not being competitive for a long stretch in the future (wishful thinking).
My team has refused to let go of prospects and teams always ask for John Niese and Ike Davis in trades (Lilly, for example). Mets want to add a starter to enable them to put Takahashi back in the bullpen where he belongs. Replacing Niese with a Lilly doesn't make them better. Niese is a young bulldog (shut down the Cards last Tuesday) and Davis will be our 1st baseman for the next 10 years (15 hrs so far).
Last off season, fans screamed for Minaya to sign Sheets and Marquis and hooted when he signed a nobody named R.A.Dickey. Well, Dickey is 7-4 with a <2 ERA in 14 starts and both Sheets and Marquis are done. Go figure!
Hey Jim,
ReplyDeleteYesterday, Albert Haynesworth couldn't complete the 25 yard sprint series set by Shanahan so the fat bastard was put on the "unable to play" list.