On Sept. 7th, Stephen Strasburg threw his final three innings of the year for the Washington Nationals due to an innings limit placed by management during spring training. Too bad this happened during the best season Washington baseball has seen in over half a century.
The Nationals have already clinched a playoff spot and are within a few games of clinching the division thanks, in part, to some phenomenal pitching. Strasburg, along with Geo Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman, have combined for 46 (over half) of the Nationals wins. This could very well be the best pitching staff in baseball but how will they accustom to not having the hard-throwing Strasburg (197 K’s) in the postseason?
The postseason rotation could look like this:
Geo Gonzalez – 20-8 2.84 ERA 201 K’s 1.12 WHIP
Jordan Zimmerman – 11-8 2.96 ERA 141 K’s 1.17 WHIP
Ross Detwiler – 10-6 3.10 ERA 99 K’s 1.17 WHIP
Edwin Jackson – 9-10 3.77 ERA 162 K’s 1.18 WHIP
Thanks to winning the division, they will avoid the one-game wild card which allows them to start their No. 1 (Gonzalez) in Game 1 of the Divisional. They could go with the four-man rotation if they wanted to but they do have a fifth option in John Lannan (3-0 4.43 ERA 12 K’s 1.43 WHIP – four games) He looked to be Strasburg’s replacement in the rotation for the final month of the season.
Could Strasburg make it onto the playoff roster and possibly start? I think that’s really doubtful due to the time off and the way he pitched in his final couple of outings. The thought of being in a late-inning relief role seems more reasonable but again, he will have had a month off. No one (except Nats management) will know Strasburg’s status until the playoff rosters are posted after the end of the regular season on Oct. 3.
Photo Credits: Rant Sports
