Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days

Posted on: July 29, 2010 10:43 am

Edited on: July 29, 2010 11:57 am

Stephen Strasburg is being shut down for 10 days and has been placed on the 15-day disabled list.

This means the righty will miss his second start Sunday after having trouble getting loose in the bullpen in advance of Tuesday's start.

The injury was described as inflammation, and the Nationals took every precaution available to them by shutting Strasburg down. Strasburg chalked up the inflammation to "hitting the wall a little bit," according to ESPN.

Manager Jim Riggleman appeared on MLB Network Radio on SIRIUS XM Thursday to say that the right-hander will be shut down for about 10 days.

"We will shut him down probably for ten days or so and get him ready for some more starts," Riggleman said.

Washington backdated Strasburg's DL assignment to July 22, the day after his last start, as expected. It gets Strasburg off the disabled list as early as August 6 -- nine days into the 10-day shut-down period. It's a smart move by Washington -- there's no reason why he shouldn't hit the disabled list if he's being shut down for 10 days.

In a corresponding move, lefty Scott Olsen was activated to start Thursday against the Braves.

Riggleman isn't concerned about a long-lasting injury, saying Strasburg will not be shut down for the rest of the season.

"All the reports are good, the MRI, the exams, everything came back negative in terms of injury," he noted. "So he’s got some basic pitching stiffness but we’re going to be very precautionary and very cautious and basically shut him down for a little while. Get him back throwing some sides and bullpens and maybe a simulated game and see how he feels and then get him back in the rotation."

According to White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper, however, he wouldn't be surprised if Strasburg has shoulder issues continue to plague him -- not just for the season, but for his career.

"The real concern is what I call an upside-down arm action," Cooper told MLB Network Radio.

"I am not wishing this guy bad, but for him to be having problems right now when they are really, really watching him what are they going to see when they are trying to get 220 innings from him? He does something with his arm action that is difficult, in my mind, to pitch a whole lot of innings on."

Cooper compared Strasburg to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, two pitchers who have had their promising major-league careers derailed by arm woes. Unfortunately for Strasburg, Cooper doesn't think anything can be done to save him and adjust his arm action, which is too difficult to pull off.

Strasburg is entering, in his words, uncharted territory. In 2010, he has thrown 109 2/3 innings total -- 2/3 of an inning more than his total for San Diego State in his final college season. This means that every pitch from now on is adding extra stress on the arm, to say nothing of 109 professional innings being far more taxing than 109 college innings.

"You are talking about a guy coming out of college, probably pitching on Friday nights, and now he has a major-league workload," Cooper added. "I guarantee you throwing pitches in the major leagues is a whole lot different than throwing pitches in college. There’s physical and mental stress that goes along with every major-league pitch."

Strasburg will not pitch more than 160 innings on the season. Given he has averaged six innings a start, that leaves roughly eight or nine starts to go. Even though Strasburg will not do so, if he takes the mound as soon as the 10 days are up, that would be August 8. Eight starts from then leaves him with a final start of September 12.

Riggleman, for one, can't wait to get him back on the mound.

"He’s just been a tremendous challenge to hitters," Riggleman said. "With all the stats and everything that have come about one of the little subtle things that gets overlooked sometimes is just, does the other team hit your guy?

"And he’s tough to hit."

-- Evan Brunell

For more baseball news, rumors and analysis, follow @cbssportsmlb on Twitter.

Category: MLB

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kkjyywlpo Since: Dec 2, 2011	Posted on: December 13, 2011 10:58 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days Really good return! I choose to notice a particular abide by through this cowboys super bowl jerseys excellent study?? [ Reply to Comment ]
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lpmagic Since: Apr 11, 2007	Posted on: July 30, 2010 10:16 am Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days I think there are somegreat comments in this thread! Kids today are way to focused on one sport, training???? lol. As a point of interest that I think is related, I'm 42 years old, and when I played Little league (yes I know the stone age) there were actually so many kids that wanted to play, you had to try out so the coaches could pick and choose who would be on what team, some kids did not make it, only because you could only have so many kids on a team, and still have them all play, in todays world, Little leagues have had to merge, and teams scour their neighborhoods for enough kids to field a team, this really goes directly to the "one sport theory" as Basketball, soccer, and football have all become larger then baseball (in my opinion, unfortunately :)) and kids practice year round for the sport they are interested in (or their parents are). Point in case, if you were a weightlifter, would you say, just do curls???? or, just do bench press? this is akin to what these kids are doing, as one poster suggested, these kids do not get to become atheletes, they become specialists. I can only hope this kid is alright, I love what he and Jason heyward have done for the sport this year, this kind of buzz is awesome, hope he does not get hurt, I want to see some records broken. At least he is not playing for Dusty Baker, he would already have 200 innings......(just ask Volquez and Cueto how their arms feel) [ Reply to Comment ]
winks31 Since: Feb 7, 2008	Posted on: July 30, 2010 9:50 am Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days i pitched in college and the best i ever felt and hardest is when i threw every day. i agree american pitchers are babied. ask maddux, glavine, and smoltz. when they all pitched in atlanta there biggest thing was throwing every single day [ Reply to Comment ]
bsballcoach32 Since: Jul 3, 2010	Posted on: July 29, 2010 7:52 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days Absolutely 100% agree with everything in your post! It's actually funny because I was saying the exact same thing with a college baseball buddy of mine just this past weekend. There doesn't seem to be any "down" time for these kids today. They play year round, they lift weights constantly, they have other sports they may play, and they don't stop to let the body heal. Back in the days before the million dollar player, they took time off to enjoy life and to recover, leading to fewer injuries. It's a trend that I don't see stopping. [ Reply to Comment ]
Jeppydog Since: Jan 10, 2007	Posted on: July 29, 2010 5:17 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days I think that pitchers of the past weren't as big and strong and didn't generally throw as hard, with some exceptions. Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan had amazing arms that could take the punishment. But today, pitchers throw in the 90's and put a lot of stress on their arms with a multitude of breaking pitches that didn't exist back then although Koufax hurt his arm. Maybe those guys got used to throwing so many pitches and developed stronger arms, who knows. It does seem that young pitchers should be watched as so many careers end early. Billy Martin made his young starters pitch a record number of complete games in the 70's and ruined several of their young careers. [ Reply to Comment ]
jazznbluz Since: Jan 9, 2007	Posted on: July 29, 2010 5:14 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days 1. Have you ever heard of Sandy Koufax? How about Nolan Ryan? Steve Carlton? Bob Gibson? Don Drysdale? Jim Palmer? Roger Clemons? Tom Seaver? Randy Johnson? J.R. Richard? Do any of these names ring a bell? 2. If I was a business owner, I would want to protect my assets by making sure they are the best they can be. Unfortunately, owners don't want to protect their business. These pitchers come to the minors with piss poor mechanics and blow out thier arms within the 1st year of pitching in the ML's. Why? Because after spending a gazillion dollars they don't want to "mess" with what was working in H.S. or college. Strassburg needs to be taught how to pitch, from mechanics to the nuances of when to strike someone out and when to ease up a bit. Not every pitch needs to be 100 mph. Again, look at Koufax before he learned how to pitch when he was trying to K everyone, and after he learned how to pitch and was K'ing everyone. 3. I agree with this, butyou also don't hear about the many pitchers from the bygone era going down and blowing out thier arms at all. They knew how to pich, not just throw hard. 4. Ok. How about after the FA period. Again, Clemons, Ryan, Johnson, Don Sutton, Catfish Hunter, Orel Herhiser, Greg Maddux, etc... The list goes on and on of 200+ innings pitchers who did not blow out thier arms. 5. This is one argument I will agree with. [ Reply to Comment ]
dmax57 Since: Jul 13, 2007	Posted on: July 29, 2010 3:22 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days Great post. Particularly disturbing is #5. The pressure that kids and parents are under to participate in a year-round, specific sport, program now is ridiculous...and it's going to ruin lots of bodies. You just can't keep doing the same repetitive motion over and over forever. Your body is going to give up. Kids who play multiple sports and use different movements will be much better long term athletes with fewer injuries. Unfortunately, especially in a place like Southern California (where I am), if you haven't gotten into the club soccer (insert almost any major sport there) scene by like age 9, you can forget being considered for teams at the next level - that's a disgrace. What's interesting is that Strasburg was a different case, wasn't he? Picked up baseball later? Forget his whole story... [ Reply to Comment ]
Fothead Since: Apr 5, 2007	Posted on: July 29, 2010 1:39 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days Im sick of the whole argument that basically says MLB babies youg pitchers because back in the "old days" pitch counts, inning limits or apparently any sort of measures whatsoever that involve protecting players were not employed at all. 1- The onus on pitchers now, as was stated on here by someone else, is velocity and strikeouts. Then it was pitching to contact and using your defense. Which is harder these days because lineups are better 1-9 then ever, even in "post-PED" baseball (which I think is bull but I digress). Furthermore, with the deterioration of fundamentals, defense is now a luxury, where as back in the day it was a requirement and hitting was the luxury. It was easier for pitchers to pitch to contact with much better defenders, not to mention larger ballparks, less manicured fields slowing ground balls, and larger stirke zones forcing hitters to swing. The higher mound prior to the 70's didnt hurt either. 2- Like it or not, baseball is a business. Businessmen protect their assets. Whether an owner protecting his investment, a manager protecting his job, or a pitcher protecting his money maker. Enough said there. 3- We don't hear much about what must have been the boatload of great promising pitching prospects that DID blow out their arms as a result of the old philosophies because the media coverage of minor leagues was almost non-exisistant, and a young player no matter how good always had to "earn his respect". So I'm sure with more reasearch you'd turn up a bunch of guys who did fall to the Wood/Prior career path. 4- As was also said, most players prior to the free-agent era had to work other jobs in the offseason. In even older days, many were uneducated (Shoeless Joe Jackson infamously sealed his own fate by not being able to read) so the income they made in a few years of playing wouldnt be enough to survive on like today. So they probably pitched with all sorts of ailments that were never spoken of in fear of the reprecussions ruthless owners might dish out. The lacking of a players union and veritable slave-like ownership of players contributed greatly to the idea of the iron-man pitcher of days gone by. 5- Kids growing up then were not as regimented from such an early age. Even when I was growing up (Im 32) it was a no-no for kids under 12 to be taught a curve-ball. Or to lift weights before high school. And kids played all sports in an unorganized fashion. Now kids are in year-long training for one specialized sport. IT doesn't allow their bodies to fully develop athletically as all sports of course use different muscle groups more prominently. The "baseball muscles" are often carrying years of intense strain that would not be had by pickup games of baseball in the park instead of 6 am training sessions for little league. [ Reply to Comment ]
jazznbluz Since: Jan 9, 2007	Posted on: July 29, 2010 1:26 pm Strasburg on DL, shut down for 10 days The first time I saw a video of Strassburg pitching I said he would blow out his arm within 2-3 years. Whay? Becasue of piss poor mechanics. The upside down arm motion is just one of his issues, but probably the most important one. Watch a video of Greg Maddux, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, etc... All guys who could pitch 200 + innings and with Ryan and early Seaver, guys who could throw as hard as Strassburg with just as good, if not better, breaking balls. You will see why Strassburg, if he does not fix his mechanics, Strassburg will end up like Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, and a whole list of other phenoms who could throw a ball through a brick wall, but faded out rather quickly. Somone mentioned the mound being lowered in 1970. Still, all of the above mentioned pitchers pitched over 200 innnings per year for many years after 1970. Sandy Koufax learned a very valuable lesson. After 6 years of throwing harder than anyone else, and having almost as many walks as K's and an ERA of over 4.00, he learned that you do not have to throw the ball through a brick wall in order to be effective. He changed his mechanics and learned how to pitch, but it was too late. He already injured his elbow and arm so bad, there were days he could hardly lift his arm. But, he had the best 6 years of any pitcher in baseball and he was essentially a 2 pitch pitcher; a fastball and a curve ball. There were days when he could only throw his fastball and he would pitch a no-hitter. Get it now before it's too late. Otherwise we will be adding Strassburg's name to the list of Wood, Prior, etc.... [ Reply to Comment ]

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