Stephen Strasburg Immediately Impresses

Those who follow baseball have been eagerly anticipating this debut. Stephen Strasburg, the pitcher who's basically been deemed the savior of the entire Washington Nationals franchise, made his spring training debut today against fellow phenom Rick Porcello and the Detroit Tigers. And, as ESPN's Major League Baseball coverage on Twitter seemed to indicate, he has already arrived as promised.

His pitching line was two innings, two hits, two strikeouts, no walks and no runs allowed. Of his 27 pitches, 15 were for strikes. As Rob Neyer Tweeted, "Strasburg is pretty obviously ready to pitch in the majors, so now Q for Nats is how to best limit his innings this year." As of last week, manager Jim Riggleman was dropping hints that Strasburg would start the season in the minors, probably Double-A or Triple-A. As Riggleman said, "Spring training is great, but even as opposed to Double-A or Triple-A pitching, it's just not the same."

Now, with this debut and the buzz that will emerge, Nationals fans will most likely be clamoring for Strasburg to start the season with the team, if not be the opening day pitcher. And with a team that lost 103 games last year (most in the majors) and had an ERA of 5.00 (last in the National League), really, could you blame them?

I distinctly remember how excited people were when Fernando Valenzuela and Dwight Gooden exploded onto the baseball scene in their rookie seasons back in the 1980s, and with the 24/7 news cycle we're in today, I can only imagine how excited people will get if Strasburg is as good as experts think he could be. Assuming he's for real, this will be good for baseball, and especially good for the Nationals.

Photo by samballew via Flickr.