Stephen Strasburg

A quote from Stephen Strasburg in the April 12 Sports story, " Strasburg extends himself ," brought me up short. Expressing pleasure at manager Davey Johnson's decision to leave him in in a tough spot, Mr. Strasburg said, in part, "You don't want to go 5 1 / 3 innings. You want to go six. " Ah, baseball's 21st century version of tenacious goals! I remember listening to a Brooklyn Dodgers double header one day when Don Newcombe pitched a complete first game and then, because manager Burt Shotton was short of...

DENVER — Ten weeks into this Washington Nationals season of disappointment and injury, a starter plucked the day before from the minor leagues stood on the mound here at Coors Field on Wednesday night and provided life. These Nationals have been worn by the weight of high expectations and injuries that have disabled their star hitter and two-fifths of their starting rotation. Yet right-handed starter Ross Ohlendorf , pitching in a major league game for the first time in 10 months, delivered one of...

VIERA, Fla., Oct. 5 -- Stephen Strasburg's first professional baseball appearance will surely go down as one of his most humble career outings; many Little League games draw bigger crowds. Space Coast Stadium was so sparsely attended Monday afternoon, players left the ballpark when taken out of the game by climbing up through the stands and strolling through the main concourse. Strasburg's performance fit in with the sleepy atmosphere, which is exactly what his overseers in the Florida Instructional League wanted to see. Strasburg, who...

Expectations are the context we impose on our experience. Maybe we would be better off with less of the darn things or even none. But that's not our human way. We can't stop expecting. We wake up, greet the sun and tell the world what we expect of it as if the very clouds were listening to us. Then those expectations meet the day, and they evaporate. Or, in baseball terms, the Washington Nationals start the season as slight favorites to win the World Series; then one day they are 31-31 with the second-worst offense...

Regarding the Sept. 13 front-page article " Nats' Strasburg can only sit, watch ": Politicians can't seem to look beyond the next election, corporate executives can't seem to look beyond next quarter's earnings, and most people can't seem to look beyond next week. Thank heavens the Washington Nationals have a long-term view. I look forward to seeing Stephen Strasburg pitch for many years. Richard Knapp, Reston

Is John Feinstein's opinion that the Washington Nationals should let Stephen Strasburg pitch until "his shoulder, elbow or arm are hurting" really a sports issue? [" Strasburg's situation is simple: If he feels good, let him pitch ," Sports, Aug. 27]. Shortly after The Post printed an article reporting that leading medical experts agree that limiting the workload of this talented young pitcher is sound practice [" The end is near ," Aug. 16], Mr. Feinstein complained that Mr. Strasburg's agent, Scott Boras, wanted to protect...

Should Strasburg have a personal catcher? The disparity had never struck Stephen Strasburg. He did not know the difference — and it is significant — between his results when Wilson Ramos or Kurt Suzuki crouches behind the plate for him. This, though, he did know: In 52 career starts, Strasburg has pitched to seven catchers. "I'll say this," Strasburg said. "In college, I threw to one guy. We were on the same page. He was the best man at my wedding. It seemed like it helped me out a lot. But I haven't had the luxury of...

Stephen Strasburg fielded the sharp, one-hop comebacker with textbook form, jogged a few steps toward first base and underhanded a flip to the first baseman, closing out the third inning on Friday night. Then he kept jogging, across the foul line, across the ribbon of grass, and into the arms of the awestruck Potomac Nationals teammates awaiting him in their dugout. For 33 riveting pitches, in the second minor league start of his rehabilitation assignment following elbow surgery nearly a year ago , Strasburg looked...

Let's begin today with Stephen Strasburg's opening line to the media after his first 45-minute workout on Sunday as an employee of the Washington Nationals: "I thought I'd get a little bit of peace out here, but you guys are following me everywhere. It's something I guess I gotta deal with. I guess it just goes with the territory. " Yes it does. It goes with the territory when you're the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball draft and when you are seen as the potential savior of a woebegone franchise.

At some point, Stephen Strasburg's bullpen sessions will just be bullpen sessions and stop existing as newsmaking events. That day is not today. Strasburg threw his third bullpen session of the spring this morning, throwing to Wil Nieves for 12 minutes against an oppressive wind. (General manager Mike Rizzo dressed as if he was going as Sir Edmund Hillary for Halloween.) Even while the 30-mph wind made it difficult for Strasburg to spot his curveball, the electricity of his pitches made it difficult for the...

A pair of rainouts Thursday and Friday meant the Washington Nationals had nearly 72 hours — a lifetime in baseball — to chew on the bitter aftertaste of Wednesday night's blowout loss to the New York Mets, a new low point in their star-crossed season. Since they had last won a game, Tuesday night, Stephen Strasburg had gone on the disabled list , Bryce Harper had scheduled a meeting with James Andrews and the revolving door that is the Nationals' bullpen had spun...

WASHINGTON — Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson says star pitcher Stephen Strasburg has done well in a bullpen session. The injured right-hander threw Saturday before the Nationals played Minnesota. Strasburg is on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained muscle in his back. Johnson said Strasburg is scheduled throw a simulated game Tuesday and is on track to come off the disabled list June 16 and start at Cleveland. Johnson also said All-Star...

Roughly two months and 60 aimless games after they entered the season as World Series favorites, the brightest hope for the Washington Nationals on Friday was the fact that they had been rained out for a second consecutive game. In his office the previous night, Manager Davey Johnson beamed. The weather had provided a break for his beleaguered team, fresh off a 10-1 loss to the New York Mets the night before that crystallized so much of what has gone wrong. Fans streamed out of...

WASHINGTON — Nationals manager Davey Johnson got what he wanted, a second consecutive rainout to give his battered team an extra day to heal. Maybe the mental break will turn out to be the catalyst the Nationals have been seeking. Certainly, nothing else has worked so far. The preseason NL East favorite remained one game below .500 Friday, when a series opener against the Minnesota Twins was postponed as rain from Tropical Storm Andrea moved north. The game will be...

Oh Nationals, didn't we almost have it all? The best record in baseball. The best young pitcher in the league. The best young hitter in the league. A new stadium. Davey Johnson. The 2012 season was a dream. Which is what makes the nightmare of 2013 — at least so far — so hard to take. Stephen Strasburg, the man with the golden arm, has never looked comfortable on the mound. Now he's sidelined with something called a lat strain . Bryce Harper, the wooden-batted wunderkind, is on the disabled...

When a manager greets a rainout with glee, and hopes for another, it's possible there is a problem with his ballclub. In fact, it's a certainty: The 2013 Washington Nationals are struggling to match their success of 2012. This is not an unusual state of affairs in baseball, which plays 162-game seasons for a reason. But the way the Nats are playing has furrowed the collective brow of Washington. The team, plagued by injuries, has dropped to third in the NL East. More troubling to Nats fans (and I...

The seats behind the screen in Hagerstown are so close to home plate that you feel like you are watching a Nationals ' bullpen session in Viera in spring training. You're as close, 45 feet away, as if you leaned out of a seat in Nationals Park over the bullpen to see a starter warming up before a game. So you could, for a $10 ticket, be as close to Stephen Strasburg on Monday night on rehab assignment in the minors as you were when you first saw him in '10 spring training the day Pudge Rodriguez compared his stuff...

I read with great disappointment Adam Kilgore's March 10 Sports story about Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg [ "Should Strasburg tweak his delivery?" ]. It was inaccurate to say that I made a "definitive assertion" that a specific mechanical movement led to Strasburg's injury. Rather, I agree with Dr. Tim Kremchek, who was quoted as saying that it is impossible to know for sure how Strasburg's injury happened.  Findings on how mechanical flaws correlate with pitchers in general, not...

WASHINGTON — The swelling in Bryce Harper's left knee isn't getting any better, so the Washington outfielder will see a specialist next week and won't be coming off the disabled list when he is eligible. Nationals manager Davey Johnson said Thursday that Harper visit Dr. James Andrews on Monday for a second opinion on the knee that has been troublesome ever since the 20-year-old slugger ran into the wall at Dodger Stadium on May 13. "We've just got to get the swelling out. We've got to...

As a Washington Nationals and Stephen Strasburg fan, I was dismayed to learn from Adam Kilgore's June 1 Sports article " Strasburg injury clouds Nats' win against Atlanta " that Mr. Strasburg uses chewing tobacco. The use of chewing tobacco may greatly increase the risk of many serious health problems, including oral, esophageal and other types of cancer. As role models for many baseball fans, especially young ones, and for their own good health, Mr. Strasburg and other Major League Baseball players...