After he was drafted first overall in the 2009 MLB first year player draft, Stephen Strasburg had the world ahead of him. A 102 mph fastball, a $15.1 million contract, the highest ever for a first year player, he was on the fast track to Cooperstown.
Strasburg was a pitcher with talent and hype that only comes around once a generation. The Washington Nationals seemingly have the right arm of Jesus in their organizaton.
Not only was this an impact on the success of their team, but D.C. fans actually became interested. Baseball games in Washington, D.C. were being sold out for the first time ever in anticipation of their new star.
Strasburg was put through the almost obligatory minor league starts just so the Nationals could say that they didn’t “rush” him to the major leagues. Things after this quickly became dark.
After spending time on the DL with shoulder problems, Strasburg delivered a pitch in the fifth inning of a game on August 21st against the Phillies, immediately felt enormous pain and was taken straight out of the game. Initial MRI’s pointed to a strain of the forearm, but it is now reported that Strasburg has a severely torn ligament in his elbow requiring the infamous Tommy John surgery. This surgery would put him out indefinitely and would require him to miss all or almost all of the 2011 season.
Normal players can come back from these injuries in normal situations. Statistics show that about 75 percent of pitchers that undergo the surgery come back to make significant impact in the major leagues.
Strasburg however, is not your average pitcher and this is not your average situation. With this kind of hype, an injury of this magnitude could mean that he will never be the same. There have been many pitchers that were the next big thing that ended up with disappointing careers due to injury. Kerry Wood, 3rd overall pick in 1998, was the top pitching prospect of the last few years at that point. Wood had tommy john in 1999 and has had 69 career wins since. Mark Prior, second overall pick in 2001 and quite frankly I don’t have room to rattle off all of his injuries.
There have been more post-tommy john success stories than disappointments, in fact 10 of the pitchers elected to this years all star game had the same surgery at some point in their respective careers. I hope that this is another success story and we really get to see the kid that has been called the top pitching prospect ever. I dream that we get to witness this possibly ground breaking career unfold.
Through the next couple years it will be fascinating to see if Strasburg becomes the pitcher that could’ve been or if he has just hit a speed bump and we will see him back throwing harder.
In the mean time he will be out and people will lose interest and seemingly forget about the prodigy altogether and the hype will never be the same upon his return. Whether or not he ends up becoming Zeus on the pitchers mound (that we all have been waiting for) or an afterthought, the legend of Stephen Strasburg will never be the same because of this injury.
But, hey, it is something that will get ESPN to stop talking about Brett Favre.
