‘Stephen Strasburg has no business being in the minor leagues’

Stephen Strasburg made his latest and perhaps second-to-last Triple-A start last night, tossing 6.1 shutout innings against the Twins’ affiliate in Rochester, New York. My friend and former SABR convention roommate Ben Jacobs was in attendance and offered up this scouting report:

Strasburg touched 99 mph on the park gun a handful of times and worked consistently in the 96-98 range. He made several hitters look silly with his curveball, either freezing them on a pitch that dropped into the strike zone or getting them to swing at a pitch that ended up in the dirt. Throughout the night, he probably hit 15 numbers on the radar gun between 79 and 99.

He did struggle with wildness at times, walking two. In fact, after throwing 24 pitches in the game, he had thrown 12 strikes and 12 balls. He settled down after that, throwing 48 strikes and 20 balls the rest of the way. The Red Wings managed three hits ... but none of them were hit hard.

The first hit was an infield single that third baseman Chris Lambin made a nice bare-handed play on, but Trevor Plouffe beat it out at first. The other two were grounders up the middle. In fact, the Red Wings only hit two balls hard all night off Strasburg: a line drive right at center fielder Justin Maxwell and a hot shot down the line on which Lambin made a beautiful diving snare.

Jacobs’ conclusion? “Strasburg has no business being in the minor leagues.” With one start likely remaining until the Nationals are done suppressing his service time and call Strasburg up to Washington, he’s logged 18.1 scoreless innings in three outings at Triple-A and is 6-1 with a 0.89 ERA, .123 opponents’ batting average, and 49/10 K/BB ratio in 40.1 total innings as a minor leaguer.