Strasburg shut down 2-3 starts & entire playoffs

[love_that_reefer]

Stephen Strasburg is expected to miss two to three regular season starts to limit his 2012 innings.
Furthermore, MLB.com's Bill Ladson reports that Strasburg will not participate in the playoffs once he is shut down. Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said Friday that nothing has changed regarding Stephen Strasburg's innings limit, and that there's no significance to the 180 number that is currently floating around. It had been reported that the Nationals had changed from a 160-inning limit to 180. Strasburg is 13-5 with a 2.90 ERA through 133 1/3 innings. He perhaps has five starts left before Washington will end his campaign.

I like the skipping starts part but no playoffs? That has to be a tough pill for Nats fans to swallow.

[Hammer]

with the leagues best record, you would think theyd shut him down now... so they could have him available for the playoffs. but what the hell do i know?

[HollywoodLeo]

Shut him down for regular season starts? Sure.

Shut him down for the playoffs? STUPID

[GiantsFanatic]

I honestly hope that this innings limit shit that they are talking about back fires on them.

[Slyder]

I like the skipping starts part but no playoffs? That has to be a tough pill for Nats fans to swallow.

I think they should have moved him into the pen during June to stretch him a bit longer and see if he could do like David Price did for D Rays and provide that shut down reliever late in games.

[Tobywan]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous decisions I have ever heard. In the interest of “saving” a player, it could just as easily turn out to be the most selfish act by a GM with respect to not only Strasburg but also the entire current roster of the Nationals.

What if this is the only play-off season the Nationals get near in Strasburg, the Zimmermans’ or even Harper’s career? Rizzo possibly could be screwing all of them out of their best chance to EVER win a play-off series or even get to a World Series let alone win it all. I can’t believe that someone that has been in baseball as long as Rizzo doesn’t understand that “saving a guy for the long run “ could mean saving him for mostly missing the postseason rather than making them.

[Providence A's]

He is officially shut down for the season as of today.

[zodious]

Nice! Lol!

[Kingdom]

Anti climatic.

[Foster]

Did anyone else get a chance to read his statement?
He seems really bummed out about this.

Also Davey Johnson spoke about this being decided TWO years ago.

[Slyder]

I personally would have not shut him down because you never know when an opportunity like this will arise again. You are not guaranteed to have a team that plays as well as the Nati nals have this year. If he's not having any sort of physical problems with his arm then I would move him to the pen and just try to get another ~10 innings out of him for the rest of the year. I think you're punting something solid for the unknown in the future and you have no guarentees. Which would you rather try to be the Marlins and actually win it or the Marineers who had the best record in baseball and lost rd 1 of the playoffs?

[realmofotalk]

But since there are no guarantees in baseball, then why use up the bullets in his arm for one run at it? There's no guarantee you'll win it all even this year.

[Tobywan]

Considering that there have been some great baseball names that never even got a shot to go to a WS and many that got one shot and never had another there is a very good possibility of saving the arm for regular season baseball until he retires. It is baseball and they have nice careers, but I haven't heard any non-rookie player ever say...yeah,, my main career goal is just to play games April-Sept.

[realmofotalk]

That's all it is: a shot. When that shot doesn't result in a championship, like the Dodgers in '08 and '09, you're at back at square one anyway, having to hear from douchebag rival fans like Leo rubbing your team's championship drought in your face.

[HollywoodLeo]

Could be worse. You could be hearing it from douchebag non fans who don't even claim a team.