Washington Nationals Editorial: Examining The Enigma That Is Stephen Strasburg

On a beautiful evening on June 8,2010 in Washington D.C., a sellout crowd of 40,315 saw possibly the greatest single game performance in Washington Nationals history. Stephen Strasburg made his first career MLB start and pitched the most dominant game of his career to date. Strasburg went seven innings and struck out fourteen batters, including retiring the last seven in a row. His fourteen strikeouts became the second most all time in an MLB debut.

Being lucky enough to attend this game, there was an atmosphere at Nationals Park I had never experienced before. The crowd was on its feet at every two strike count from the fifth inning on, and a playoff like atmosphere reigned throughout the stadium. There was an electricity throughout Nationals Park that had been lacking since it opened in 2008.The future had finally arrived, and single handily, Strasburg brought a sense of hope to a city that had endured a lot of losing over the years.

It is hard to believe that today that game was almost six years ago and Strasburg is in the final year of his contract with the Nationals, with his future up in the air. So far, it has been a career with many highs and lows for the big right-hander. In 2010, he was forced to undergo Tommy John Surgery and he had to miss all but one game of the 2011 season.

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Strasburg came back strong in 2012 and was selected to his first All-Star game in a dominant season, but eventually he was shut down for the Nationals first playoff appearance in team history due to hitting his innings limit. The most interesting season of his career might have been this past season.

Strasburg battled injuries and mechanical issues for most of the year, but came back strong and was one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers in the final two months. In his last ten starts of the 2015 season, he gave up more than three runs only one time, and struck out eight or more batters in six of those ten starts. He also showed great durability, going six or more innings in all but one of his final ten starts.

These are all very encouraging signs for the Nationals and Strasburg, but many concerns still linger. Can he stay healthy an entire season and possibly into the playoffs? Will the former best prospect in baseball finally have the breakout, Cy Young contending year Nats fans have all been expecting since he made it to the major leagues? Finally, the most important questions facing the Nationals and the veteran right-hander is can he replace, and maybe improve upon, the production and durability of Jordan Zimmermann, arguably the Nationals most consistent pitcher in franchise history?