Stephen "Jesus" Strasburg's Timeline?
By: mbohn
According
to Bill Ladson, who covers the Nationals for MLB.com, Stephen
Strasburg could make his debut in the Bigs when the Pirates come to
National Park June 8th through the 10th. Ladson says that a "team
source" supplied the information, but it does not seem to be
confidential to the team. Just take Nyjer Morgan's take on dude
possibly making his first start against Morgan's former team:
"This kid is a monster. He is a special breed," Morgan said. "I'm fired
up that he will face my former team. I just want to see him pitch really
good against them. He is going to bring an energy that we haven't had
before here. It's something I'm looking forward to."
The other thing we just learned is that Strasburg officially has a
nickname from Morgan. Apparently Nyjer calls him Jesus. Nice.
The other big news surrounding the Nationals is their pursuit of Roy
Oswalt. Rumor has it they are trying to trade for Oswalt, which could
give them a dominant one-two punch if Strasburg pitches the way he is
expected to.
The obvious fantasy impact would be Strasburg arriving early enough to get about 20 starts, which should get him at least 120 Ks and 10 wins. I think Oswalt would actually see his value increase in the NL East, mainly because other than Citizen's Bank Park the stadiums are not hitter friendly, and even the Bank is not as hitter friendly as advertised.