Today I went to Pilot...er, Coca Cola Field in downtown Buffalo and saw the phenom of the ages Stephen Strasburg pitch for the Syracuse Chiefs against the Buffalo Bisons. If you've followed baseball at all in the last couple of years, you know that Strasburg is hailed as the greatest pitching prospect since, I don't know, maybe Christy Mathewson.
He attracted a crowd just warming up, and the game was actually televised nationally on a couple of different cable stations. I don't know if this has been formally announced, but everyone assumes this was his last minor league appearance before being called up to the Washington Nationals to begin his major league career next week. He's blown through two levels of opposing hitters already this year, and based on what I saw (and of course, what everyone says), I think he'll do pretty well when he hits the bigs.
He throws with an easy, efficient and fluid motion that appears to take little effort but generates consistent speeds of 96-97-98 mph on his fastball, and I do mean consistent. He went five innings in this game (limited by a pitch count, I believe), and I would guess three quarters of his pitches hit in that range. This made his off-speed stuff, dropping down to the low eighties pretty devastating. The Bisons, who have the best hitting team in the International League, were clearly over-matched, managing just a couple hits off him, plus one walk. He struck out five-- a bit below his average going into the game, so I guess that's a small moral victory.
This was easily the most dominating performance I've seen at a minor league game since I saw Bartolo Colon toss a no-hitter for the Bisons back in 1997. If Strasburg becomes the big star that seems his inevitable fate, it'll be nice to be able to say I saw him when...
Today I went to Pilot...er, Coca Cola Field in downtown Buffalo and saw the phenom of the ages Stephen Strasburg pitch for the Syracuse Chiefs against the Buffalo Bisons. If you've followed baseball at all in the last couple of years, you know that Strasburg is hailed as the greatest pitching prospect since, I don't know, maybe Christy Mathewson.
He attracted a crowd just warming up, and the game was actually televised nationally on a couple of different cable stations. I don't know if this has been formally announced, but everyone assumes this was his last minor league appearance before being called up to the Washington Nationals to begin his major league career next week. He's blown through two levels of opposing hitters already this year, and based on what I saw (and of course, what everyone says), I think he'll do pretty well when he hits the bigs.
He throws with an easy, efficient and fluid motion that appears to take little effort but generates consistent speeds of 96-97-98 mph on his fastball, and I do mean consistent. He went five innings in this game (limited by a pitch count, I believe), and I would guess three quarters of his pitches hit in that range. This made his off-speed stuff, dropping down to the low eighties pretty devastating. The Bisons, who have the best hitting team in the International League, were clearly over-matched, managing just a couple hits off him, plus one walk. He struck out five-- a bit below his average going into the game, so I guess that's a small moral victory.
This was easily the most dominating performance I've seen at a minor league game since I saw Bartolo Colon toss a no-hitter for the Bisons back in 1997. If Strasburg becomes the big star that seems his inevitable fate, it'll be nice to be able to say I saw him when...
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