With 26 strikeouts in his last two starts, Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg put the finishing touches on an impressive first two months of the season.
Since his major league debut, Stephen Strasburg hasn’t always been the pitcher the Washington Nationals envisioned when drafting him first overall in 2009. A career 3.16 ERA (125 ERA+), 1.09 WHIP and 4.56 K/BB ratio paint a nice picture, but injuries and inconsistency have prevented him from turning in that one trademark season establishing him as one of the game’s elite.
The closest he came was in 2014, when Strasburg logged over 200 innings for the only time in his career thus far while posting a 3.14 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 5.63 K/BB. He finished ninth in the NL Cy Young race. Over the following two years, the right-hander managed a respectable 3.53 ERA but averaged only 138 innings per season.
Ten starts into the 2017 campaign, and Strasburg appears on track toward his best season yet as a big leaguer. He boasts a 2.94 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 4.11 K/BB in 67.1 frames. His 2.43 FIP is currently the top mark among National League hurlers. And yesterday’s outing against the San Diego Padres put quite an exclamation point on the month of May.
Strasburg struck out a career-high 15 batters over seven scoreless innings. He allowed just three hits and walked one as the Nationals claimed a 3-0 victory. It was as dominant as he’s looked in recent memory. Had it not been for his pitch count of 108, he may have been given the chance to chase history.
The strikeouts have been coming in bunches for Strasburg of late. In his previous start, he fanned 11 against the Atlanta Braves, surrendering a pair of runs while pitching two outs into the eighth inning. However, that wasn’t exactly the case over his first eight outings. Strasburg averaged 8.2 K/9 during that span, which is certainly on the low side for him. He has averaged double-digit strikeouts per nine innings in four of the last five seasons, cresting the 11.0 K/9 mark in each of the past two.
Strasburg has been inducing more ground balls and fewer fly balls than he did a year ago, his GB/FB ratio rising from 1.01 to 1.43. As a result, he’s done a great job limiting home runs so far. The righty has served up four long balls, which comes out to an NL-best 0.5 HR/9 rate.
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A .282 BABIP and 75.3 percent strand rate suggest that Strasburg isn’t due for any sort of massive regression as the season unfolds. However, fans know it’s hard to predict continued success, even when everything seems to be going right for a pitcher. Strasburg was similarly cruising last year before injuries erased much of his second half and the entire postseason.
If he can stay healthy, Nationals fans have reason to hope this is the season Strasburg can put a star next to on his resume. Due to turn 29 in July, he’s beginning to exit the category of “young pitcher.” The seven-year, $175 million extension he signed last spring only adds to the pressure to perform. Nevertheless, Strasburg is demonstrating that the next stage in his career could be his most noteworthy yet.
With question marks at the back-end of the bullpen (Koda Glover is the latest closer), the starting rotation is even more important to Washington’s goal of advancing deep into October. It’s certainly holding up its end of the bargain. Strasburg, Max Scherzer and a surprisingly resurgent Gio Gonzalez all have sub-3.00 ERAs. That combined with a powerful offense has the Nats at a 30-18 record and first place in the NL East.
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Another playoff run looks likely, and Strasburg is making it clear he wants to be there this time.
Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs.