OT: Strasburg likely requires Tommy John surgery

An arc like a meteor... very bright but burns itself out quickly.

Man, that sucks. Luckily for him though, TJ surgeries have come a long way and if he takes his time in rehab, he should be in good shape afterwards. All the best to him. He's a heck of young player with a (hopefully) bright future ahead of him.

...Rob Dibble now realizes what an ass he is?

Doubt it.

I am starting to believe that it is impossible to possess stuff that nasty and not have your arm blasted away. As the team, you think you would start to avoid drafting pitchers with stuff this good as the trend is suggesting that they will only last a few years, and then fade away as Mark Pryor or Kerry wood.

But...

Tommy john surgery has advanced so much that it is almost a sure bet that you will return to your old form, and i hope and will stay optimistic that it will work like that for SS.

Sucks

As a DC local we are all very excited about Strasburg and it sucks that he has to be shelved like this

Nats have been pretty much losers here since they came from Montreal and he was supposed to sell tickets and bring up hype and attention towards the Nats...hopefully he returns soon

Nats need him

I hope the Nats weren't planning on selling tickets for the next, oh, season, season and a half...

Not a big surprise here.. A high percentage of recent players who throw that hard, that young and that have been throwing big time breaking stuff for a while are prone to injuries..

It is the reason why they have started to cap little league and high school players now to prevent damage to kids arms so early in their career.

If anything they should of limited a lot of his innings in college.  They weren't gonna have him pitch very much longer this year, but it was def no surprise when he got hurt.

Hopefully he heals up well, but if I have to bet he won't have a long career, or he will eventually be strictly a closer.

Look at some hard throwers from the past 10 years.  Prior - done, Kerry Wood- Injury prone and now a closer.  Zumaya-  Who knows if he will ever play a full season again, probably not.  I could find a lot more examples, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.

As a Mets fan, I still cringe when I think of what could have been with "Generation K" in the mid-90s. 

As usual, Joe Posnanski's take is excellent. He chronicles a litany of hurt arms and lost promise:

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2010/08/24/the-pain-of-pitching/

Let me throw a name at you: Jim Pittsley. Heard of him? Probably not. They still talk about him in certain circles in Kansas City. The Royals drafted him with the 17th overall pick in 1992, when he was 18 years old. And if you buy a scout a steak he will tell you that Pittsley had everything. Absolutely everything. Great fastball. Great breaking pitches. Great command. But more than any of that, he had something scouts treasure — he had presence, authority, an aura. He struck out 171 in 161 innings in High A ball the year he turned 20, and his first three years of minor leagues his strikeout-to-walk was 306-to-90. There was no doubt about him. “I’m telling you,” one of those scouts says, “he was like another Tom Seaver.”

I'm not surprised about Strasburg's elbow injury.  He has fantastic stuff, that's for sure.  With that being said, I do not like his mechanics and delievery.  Not that it's too violent, but I do not like his follow through.  He doesn't always follow through and has too much of an elbow whip.  I am not sure at the time when elbow problems would start to surface for Strasburg but it came sooner than I expected.

However, with the medical advances, TJS isn't much of a hindrace for a pitcher's career as it once was.  Plenty of pitcher came back strong.  The amont of TJS is alarming because I know that at least 75% of the pitchers have bad mechanics.  It goes back to coaching and you have to emphasize mechanics when there's a young kid who is starting out as a pitcher.

that TJS isn't the career ender it used to be.

I feel bad for the kid, but not for Mike Foster (2006 grad).

He owns him in our keeper fantasy league and is a fantasy D-Bag.  Guy hasn't even paid his league fees yet and it's almost September. 

KARMA BOOM FOSTER.

earlier this year. With the amount of money and with so much of the Nats future riding on his arm, I was wondering why they brought him back as quickly as they did. They aren't in contention this year, why rush things?

Despite the nauseating hype, I enjoyed watching his debut when he had 14 K's. Nasty stuff. Hope he comes back.

I read this article after I blew up my shoulder in 1988 and was doing rehab trying to be able to pitch in college.  I think I also found it in a journal, but obviously it was a VERY long time ago.  I agree with the author's finding 100% and will add Strasburg to the list of evidence.

http://cnnsi.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=A+new+statistical+theory+makes+it+possible+to+predict+-+05.22.89+-+SI+Vault&expire=&urlID=408197352&fb=Y&url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068416/1/index.htm&partnerID=289881

Edit:  Even though TJ surgery isn't shoulder surgery, I think it is relevant.

The arc of this feels scarily Fidrychian.