Stephen Strasburg Shut Down

What do you think about the Strasburg situation? On the one hand, you have a team in 1st place that is headed for the post-season for the 1st time since the franchise moved to Washington. Sometimes you need to grab onto lightning when it strikes & make the most of the opportunity before you - perhaps a World Series in the Nats case. On the other hand, you have a 24-year old pitcher who is very gifted returning from Tommy John surgery. Management said from the start of the season that they would shut him down after X amount of innings so as not to risk further injury. And that happened recently. Compounding the situation is Strasburg's agent who threatened to sue the Nationals if they didn't shut him down. And then the doctor who performed the surgery comes out yesterday & says that he was never consulted about the shutdown. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. While it is a good human interest story to think that the Nats management put Strasburg's health ahead of one year of competition, my negative side says it's all about money. Strasburg puts people in the seats. And the Nats want people in the seats for years to come. I guess time will tell whether this was a good strategy or not.