Ridonkulous Debut

There are absolutely no words to describe what Washington Nationals Rookie Stephen Strasburg did last night. Want to talk about living up to the hype; I can’t think of any player in any sport ever who’s ever dominated as much as he did last night in their debut. Not LeBron, not A-Rod, not Griffey, not Crosby, not Tiger, not Federer, not Peyton, not anyone that was hyped up this much put on a performance like the 21 year old righty did last night.

His line was ridiculous, 7 IP, 4 Hits, 2 Earned Runs, 14 K’s and 0 Walks. He was one strikeout away from tying the record for a MLB debut with Bob Feller who in 1936 struck out 15. It wasn’t even his fastball that impressed me the most which he consistently was pumping 97-98 mph on the gun and topping out at 101mph but it was his curveball that was so f’n ridiculous it was scary. Kid was painting corners with the hook which was making All Stars like Andrew McCutchen look like they belonged back in Single A ball.

Truth be told I am not surprised Strasburg dominated like he did. Yea 14 K’s is absurd but he has been dominating the Minors like he was playing in the Little League World Series the past two months. He already would be an ace on more than half of the teams in the Majors now and he is just starting out. It is going to be scary to see how good this kid is going to get. Stuff like this comes around once in a generation. He has Hall of Fame caliber stuff already and he is still learning how to get even better.

His next start will be Sunday against the Cleveland Indians on the road, it was reported today that an additional 1,000 tickets have been sold within the last 24 hours and it will sure be a sell out to watch him make his follow up start to his debut. Worst part about this is the fact that he is going to have a field day with the METS over the next 15 years if he remains a National for his entire career (c’mon we all know the Yanks are going to swoop in when he becomes a free agent and hand him some record breaking contract).

Anyway, this is the kind of thing that makes sports so awesome. When kids like this come along and leave you astonished at how amazing they really are. So sit back and enjoy the next ten years because Stephen Strasburg has arrived and is about to make baseball history.