Clock You

After his latest scintillating spring training outing, pitching uberprospect Stephen Strasburg has thrown five scoreless and mostly dominant innings in spring training, proving that he has absolutely nothing left to prove to the Washington Nationals, the team that drafted him #1 overall last year. With the eyes of a drooling fantasy nation upon him, he's been as good as advertised. The Nationals, a team that lost 103 games with pitching being the main culprit (a team ERA of 5.00 in a pitcher's park, with no one on the current roster with the talent to rank above a fourth starter role), need him to the point that he could be the team's MVP, even as a rookie.

Strasburg's performance so far is, of course: no fluke. There may not have been a bigger hyped college pitcher in MLB history than Strasburg, who combines top-shelf stuff with great control. Mechanically, he's sound, and there is no part of his game that isn't ready for the Show right now. Sure, he might struggle with composure or nerves, and he's probably not going to love having to swing the bat for himself, but that's all secondary. Starting in the majors would do more than help the Nats win games and sell tickets - though that wouldn't hurt, seeing how the Ex-Pos have given the DC fan base absolutely no reason to embrace these skinflints. It would also tell a very useful fiction to themselves and others; that they actually care about winning, and are playing the same game as everyone else.

They are, of course, not.

Just like last year with Tampa and David Price, and the Orioles with Matt Wieters, the Nationals are going to deny their fanbase even the illusion of hope on Opening Day... and if they *don't*, and do the right thing to the paying public and put the best team possible on the field, they'll be accused of callous stupidity, since they'll be using up Strasburg's service time before the team is ready to contend.

And isn't that just wonderful, really? That baseball has gotten so diseased about competition that MLB- teams will take grief for putting their best team on the field, and even the sanctity of hope on opening day -- the day that every team's fan base should feel good about life, because miracles can happen -- has been tossed aside.

I'm pretty sure that baseball, at least in its current condition, will cease to be in my lifetime, with league contractions, different tiers for different leagues, and maybe even a class-action lawsuit or two from a disaffected fan base.

And it couldn't happen to nicer people, really.