Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
Last season brought a lot of buzz late in the year about what should be done with Stephen Strasburg coming off Tommy John surgery. Strasburg was shut down by the Washington Nationals, and Washington lost in the first round of the playoffs when a healthy Strasburg could have helped the team move on to the next round and potentially even deeper. It sounds like there will be no limits on Strasburg in 2013, and he could become a pitcher that competes for the Cy Young award.
Strasburg was dominant in 2012 before Washington threw the anchor out and took Strasburg off the mound, even with Strasburg healthy. Since that won’t happen this coming season, Strasburg will likely throw near 200 innings with 16-18 wins and an ERA of around 2.90. Those numbers will put Strasburg into the conversation for the Cy Young award if the Nationals play anywhere close to how they did in 2012.
This is the season for Strasburg to do something special if he can stay healthy, which I think he will. Washington is a team on the verge of doing something special, with a great offense and pitching staff that will be tough to hit against. There will always be people who thought that shutting Strasburg down in 2012 was a bad decision, and those people won’t be happy until the restrictions are off of Strasburg and he pitches a full season. If Strasburg does win the Cy Young and leads Washington into the World Series, the shutdown will have been worth it.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports or like his Facebook page.
