Knowing less about baseball than perhaps Y.E. Yang, I need to tread carefully and briefly in comenting upon it, but it seems to me to be a great thing that beyond the eleventh hour last night the Nationals signed the first overall pick from baseball’s June draft, Stephen Strasburg. Such is the present state of Nats’ pitching: when Capitals’ head coach Bruce Boudreau walks to the mound at Nationals’ Stadium to throw out the first pitch this Thursday evening, there will be Nats’ scouts in the stands who feel compelled to sign him. Strasburg, he of the reputed 102-mph fastball, represents an Ovi-like aura for the beleaguered franchise, though far from being as sure a thing as was the Gr8 in 2004.
“No team has ever paid more to an amateur,” WaPost pointed out this morning of Strasburg’s $15 million deal, “And perhaps no team has ever gained more by signing one of its draft picks.”
Just as it would have been unimaginable for the New York Islanders to have failed to sign Jonathon Tavares this summer, so too would it have been for the perenial 100-game-losing Nats to fail to come to terms with the most talked about pitching prospect baseball has seen in at least a decade.
As signing deadline drama goes, it couldn’t have been more hypervetilating for area seamheads: according to the Post, the Nats and Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras, came to an agreement last night at 11:58 and 43 seconds. The team had to inform Major League Baseball of any deal no later than 12:01 this morning.
It’s more than sobering to think what the future might have held for the Nats had another three minutes of failed negotiations lapsed; though there was little chance of it happening, what if the Caps had failed to come to terms with Ovi five summers back, and he’d opted to remain home in Russia and skate with the RSL? Again, while Strasburg can’t fairly be thought of in sure-thing terms as Ovi was, symbolically, this agreement, arriving at so crucial a time in this franchise’s history, casts an entirely new and pleasant shine on an otherwise sorry baseball season locally.
And like the Caps of a few years back, the Nats have needs well beyond a single new star prospect. The Capitals returned to the Entry Draft lottery in 2006, and secured a no. 1 center for their All-World left wing — Nicklas Backstrom. The Nats have an excellent chance of drafting no. 1 overall again next June, and waiting for them there then could be much-hyped Las Vegas diamond stud, Bryce Harper.
Washington sports needed this signing. Badly. It is good and fun to see Caps’ caps on the heads of fans at Nats’ games, and likewise it would be good and fun to see red Nats’ caps on puck patrons at Verizon Center soon . . . and not wince at the sight.
5 Comments
Good blog,
I agree that the Strasburg signing has the opportunity to right a franchise much like Ovie’s signing did for the Caps.
50 years of baseball history indicate that this signing means nothing. There has NEVER been the equivalent of a Gretzky, Lemieux, Ovechkin taken at the top of the baseball draft because it is impossible to know what kind of player they will be at 28 based on their performance at 18-21.
Baseball drafting is a numbers game: get more GOOD prospects into your system so 5% of them can become contributors to the big club (maybe) and 1% of them can become stars (bigger maybe).
I’m rooting for Strasburg to do well, but if you think this is 2% as important as getting Ovechkin was to the Caps you are kidding yourself. Strasburg would be well advised to save all of this money that he can.
Go Natinals!
Correction PM2416, there have been plenty of great players taken at number 1. (Alex rodriguez, Ken Griffey jr, chipper jones). There just haven’t been any pitchers taken at number 1 that have gone on to become great players.
The nats neede this signing as much as the caps needed ovy, Pitt needed Crosby, and the islanders needed Tavares. A player such as strasburg has the potential to Inject new life into a dying franchise. The nats aren’t in danger of moving like the pens were and the isles are. The latter 2 happened to draft franchise saviors. Maybe, just maybe, the Natinals as you so affectionately refer to them, did as well.
Blackaces, I stand corrected. Yes, I was thinking of pitchers, not position players. However, I think further inquiry will show the percentage of true superstars at #1 is probably the lowest in baseball of the four North American team sports.
Agreed further that the Nats did this as much as anything as a demonstration of good faith that the Lerners are interested in building a winner. I had season tix for the Natinals (gotta love that) for their first four seasons and dropped them this year because the team is not delivering value for my sports dollar on just about every level you can imagine. Hopefully this means there may be change in the offing.
I stand by my earlier post in that I think the chances of Strasburg (or any other high selection pitcher) becoming a solid major leaguer, let alone a star, at 3-1 at best.
Why are you saying Y.E. Yang doesn’t know anything about baseball? That’s not very nice.
Post a Comment