Heels new fav player

[Cannon Shell]

Seriously there is zero % chance that he wont be successful in the MLB because of his stuff. You dont have to be a grizzled scout to see that. The key is can he stretch it out to 200+ innings per year? He has been throwing 100 innings a year and low leverage innings at that since he allows so few baserunners. Obviously in the majors the talent level is much higher than the majority of what he has faced. But the dominance that he has displayed in Spring training and the upper levels of the minors is rare. There simply aren't any cases of a pitcher this dominant not making it in the majors without injury issues. ALL pitchers are injury risks as none of them escape not getting hurt at least occasionally. There are some that are critical of his mechanics yet those guys were also pessimistic on Lincecum and K Rod as well. We have seen how that has worked out.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Seriously there is zero % chance that he wont be successful in the MLB because of his stuff. You dont have to be a grizzled scout to see that. The key is can he stretch it out to 200+ innings per year? He has been throwing 100 innings a year and low leverage innings at that since he allows so few baserunners. Obviously in the majors the talent level is much higher than the majority of what he has faced. But the dominance that he has displayed in Spring training and the upper levels of the minors is rare. There simply aren't any cases of a pitcher this dominant not making it in the majors without injury issues. ALL pitchers are injury risks as none of them escape not getting hurt at least occasionally. There are some that are critical of his mechanics yet those guys were also pessimistic on Lincecum and K Rod as well. We have seen how that has worked out.

I expect SS to immediatly be a top 10 pitcher in the league (stuff wise). Once he's able to throw 9 innings he'll be a top 3 pitcher immediately.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

I expect SS to immediatly be a top 10 pitcher in the league (stuff wise). Once he's able to throw 9 innings he'll be a top 3 pitcher immediately.

LOL There isnt any such thing as a 9 inning pitcher anymore, Halladay the freak notwithstanding...

Because his innings will be limited for at least this and next year it is hard to put him in the top 10. There are a lot of really good pitchers right now.

In no particular order off the top of my head
Halladay
Jimenez
Linecum
Sabathia
Santana
Wainwright
Carpenter
Kershaw
Lee
Hernandez
Lester

thats a tough 11 to crack

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

LOL There isnt any such thing as a 9 inning pitcher anymore, Halladay the freak notwithstanding...

Because his innings will be limited for at least this and next year it is hard to put him in the top 10. There are a lot of really good pitchers right now.

In no particular order off the top of my head
Halladay
Jimenez
Linecum
Sabathia
Santana
Wainwright
Carpenter
Kershaw
Lee
Hernandez
Lester

thats a tough 11 to crack

Lots of good NL pitchers on that list!!!

thats why I said "stuff wise". Obviously if he's given a 80 pitch count or 6 inning limit, he cant come close to those 11, but as far as his stuff, I think he'll immediately belong on that list. Once his endurance is up he'll be near the top.

How crazy, after this draft, Nationals will have Nolan Ryan re-incarnated and Mickey Mantle re-incarnated (that 17 year old kid). Nationals sure picked great years to finish with the worst record in baseball!

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

Lots of good NL pitchers on that list!!!

thats why I said "stuff wise". Obviously if he's given a 80 pitch count or 6 inning limit, he cant come close to those 11, but as far as his stuff, I think he'll immediately belong on that list. Once his endurance is up he'll be near the top.

How crazy, after this draft, Nationals will have Nolan Ryan re-incarnated and Mickey Mantle re-incarnated (that 17 year old kid). Nationals sure picked great years to finish with the worst record in baseball!

Harper plays C now and may be moved to a corner OF position. Washington has some pieces. Drew Storen the #10 pick last year has already been called up and is a set up man and will be the future closer. They have a 5 star catching prospect named Derek Norris that should be ready mid year 2011. They also have Danny Espinosa who is a 4 star SS who may be ready to start next year. Jordan Zimmerman might be back late this year and Ryan Zimmerman is already one of the best 3b in baseball. They arent that far from being good.

[Crown@club]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Riggleman is on a short leach. It is incredible that teams continue to hire Baker, he makes the same mistakes everywhere he goes...

Dusty Baker Foundation: "Been Ruining Pitchers Since 1993"

[Crown@club]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

How do you know what his fastest pitch ever was? There was no public radar readings in the late 60/early 70's when Ryan started. Your inference that somehow Ryan was not throwing that fast when he was Strausburgs age is faulty. Ryan had already pitched over 200 major league innings at the same age that SS is going to debut at as well. There is zero evidence that throwing a baseball a certain mph causes injuries. In fact the fastball is generally considered to be the kindest and most straight forward pitch a player can throw.

I'm not sure why you think that Nolan Ryan wasnt regularly throwing as fast as SS. As for SS, he doesnt rely on throwing the ball over 100 mph. I'm not sure where you got that impression. The guy throws very hard but lives in the 95-98 range with very good breaking balls, a hard slider and slurve. He has even mixed in a little changeup though it may not be ready for too much MLB exposure.

This reminds me of the dumba$$ on ESPN that claimed Bob Feller threw 115 mph. "I work at Cooperstown, and its darn true!"

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Crown@club

This reminds me of the dumba$$ on ESPN that claimed Bob Feller threw 115 mph. "I work at Cooperstown, and its darn true!"

And here I didn't even know Cooperstown had a team. I always though Feller played for Cleveland.

[Cannon Shell]

Stephen Strasburg
It was a year ago when Strasburg was drafted and tomorrow, he'll make his major-league debut. Since he first burst onto the national stage featuring a 100-plus mph fastball and secondary pitches that alone would have made him the first overall pick, we've had armchair biomechanists predicting breakdowns using every letter in the alphabet. The simple fact is that I don't know, you don't know, and the Nationals don't know either, but neither do these experts. While Strasburg could be the next Joel Zumaya or Mark Prior—and would that be so bad?—he could just as easily be the next Nolan Ryan or Jamie Moyer. I asked Dr. Glenn Fleisig if velocity could predict the forces on an arm and he answered with the following:

"Faster ball velocity is not always associated with more force on the shoulder and elbow. From Isaac Newton, force = mass * acceleration (not velocity). The first part of the equation is "mass" which, in this case, is the mass of the ball and throwing arm. The second part is acceleration—and this is a function of mechanics. Pitchers with better mechanics can produce ball velocity with less acceleration and force produced at their shoulder and elbow (by producing more energy and better coordination throughout their body)."


http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...rticleid=11101