I’ve never agreed with basketball coaches who remove their best player as soon as he or she gets into foul trouble. Two fouls in the first half? The coach calls for a sub almost reflexively. The thought is that if the player stays in the game, he might foul out and therefore not be available later. In other words, he won’t get to play as much as he usually does. But of course he might not foul out. By removing him for long stretches, the coach is guaranteeing he will miss significant minutes.
And that brings us to Stephen Strasburg, the 24-year-old star pitcher for the Washington Nationals. It had been speculated for months, but recently Washington general manager Mike Rizzo made it official: Strasburg will be shut down for the season after reaching an innings limit of approximately 160. Strasburg has thrown 145 innings to this point, meaning the first-place Nats won’t have their ace for the last 2-3 weeks of the regular season or the playoffs. Continue reading Should the Nationals Shutdown Stephen Strasburg?→
I wonder what Matt Harvey was thinking. The 23-year-old pitcher spent his first day in a big league clubhouse yesterday, having been called up from Buffalo in preparation for his first major league start on Thursday. Did he look around Citi Field and ask himself, “What the hell did I get myself into?”
Other thoughts that may have passed through Harvey’s head:
There weren’t this many Storm Troopers in Buffalo.
I’ve never seen a Jersey Shore cast member do play-by-play before!
Pudge. Double X. Catfish. The Say Hey Kid. Crime Dog. The Big Unit. The Big Cat. Nails.
Part of me just wanted to list some of my favorite baseball nicknames. But I also wanted to point out that great players—and sometimes not-so-great players—often get nicknames because their given names don’t do them justice. While there aren’t as many nicknames as there used to be, a few players are lucky enough to have real names that are just as good—no player more so than Colorado Rockies pitcher Josh Outman. But, no player has failed to live up to his name quite like Outman this season. Continue reading Josh Outman? Not Quite→
The Sportswriting of Andrew Kahn 
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