Watching it now(with mets in pip).In second inning. 4 K's 1 hit.Has hit 100mph on radar gun.If your not watching,turn on the MLB Network.The movements on this kids ball is amazing,curve ball drops like crazy.Very impressive!!!!!!!!

hes basiclly playing a minor league team tonight. The pirates are terrible

Yes it's the Pirates but still........6 Innings-21 batters 11K's,0 walks,2 runs 4 hits,leading 4-2.Not sure if he will come back out to pitch the 7th.I would say on hell of a debut

Did come out for the 7th and struck out the side,and even reached 100 mph on the gun(Struckout the last 7 batters he faced)
7 innings,24 batters faced,14 K's,0 walks,2 ER,94 pitches.hard to do much better in a debut.


Next start Sunday against the Indians,Possible he could have even better numbers against them

I'm not that impressed. The Pirates are a Triple A team. Let's see him do this against American League line-ups. Pit him against Tampa Bay, or the Yankees, Boston, or the Angels, and see how he does. The Pirates are a swing and miss team. Teams like Boston, and the Yankees take a lot of pitches, and make pitchers work.

The nats played it smart though, his first 5 starts will all be against the worst teeams in the league. He faces indian and than the orioles and than 2 other **** teams.

Have to say he sat 2 batters per inning down, that's impressive, with no walks. Yeah he is playing the lowest level team and the teams schedule has stacked the deck in his favor, but he looked confident. Wish him well!

My regret tonight was benching Niemann.

I think anyone poo-poo ing the Strasburg start because its the Pirates need a bit of a reality check. Yes, maybe they aren't a very good Major League team. But keep in mind there are thousands upon thousands of young men who will never be as good as those "bad" players on the Pirates. Make no mistake. He posted those numbers against a Major League team

You've got to be kidding me. This kid has electric stuff and most of his first pitches were strikes. I d'ont know the stats but based on the announcers the Pirates are not a team that strikes out a lot. I d'ont think a great hitting AL team would have fared much better than the Pirates with the stuff this kid showed tonight. When you face a guy that can paint the corners with 4 pitches (contrast that to Rivera who has 1 pitch) including a drop dead curve and 2 great fastballs you can't afford to take pitches. On top of that he was getting stronger as the game progressed. Let him run 9 innings and he may have struck out 18 men. You're kidding yourself blind if you d'ont think this was a great performance.

Tim Kurkijan just said he is the first player to walk 0 and strike out 14 in his debut and only 6 players have done it period since 1900. Not impressive? Really? He may be better than his hype.

I remember a game Koufax pitched with total domination, 18K's a few pop-ups and a few weak ground balls and they asked the opposing manager if Sandy would have done so well had the game been in a smaller park like Fenway. The manager laughed and said the game would have been the same in a little league park. This game reminded me of that. Other than the homer and the single I d'ont think anyone got the ball out of the infield. The K's and that shattered bat, and the almost un-needed outfield tells you that when he's on he will be unhittable, no matter who he plays against.

Personally I like Danny but that was one comment I'd wish I could take back if I were him. If you weren't impressed by him tonight than you d'ont know much about dominant pitching.

he certainly was impressive no doubt but this is basically a triple a team just like hes dominated to date. I use to be a pirate fan I know what they have and thats only 2 legitimate pro players. They set up his rotation on purpose, they certainly were not going to feed him to the yanks.

going into tonight the pirates have struck out 397 times which is probably about avg. Highest was diamandback at 530+ and less was white sox at 220+

one more tid bit, the pirates have scored the lowest runs in all of baseball to date

Hmmmm, well how about this.Halladay and Lincecum have faced the pirates this year and this is what they did

Halladay 9 innings,9 hits,2 runs, 6k's,1 bb,loss
Lincecum 7 innings(same as Strasburg) 6hits,3 runs,6 k's,2 bb,no decision

Strasburg 7 innings,4 hits,2 er,14 k's,0 walks, win(major league debut!!)


Still not impressed?

Next 5 starts(if no rainouts or change in rotation)

Indians,White Sox.Orioles,Braves,Padres.

No other pitcher has struck out 14 Pirates in a game this year

ok so its 4 of the worst, pirates,indians ,white sox and orioles are pathetic. I thought it was another team than the braves though to be honest(at least what I saw 2 nights ago)

no ump has had a bigger strike zone than last night, not making it up just saw it mentioned on espn(lol). Also fine Pitss the best hitting team in baseball and stras will strike out 15 or higher every start(lol)

Not saying he will strikeout 14 every game.But people saying it wasn't impressive because it was against the Pirates.


another note,he never did strike out 14 in any of his minor league starts

Got to give credit were it is due..No matter what team good or bad.the kid looked very impressive.The movement on the ball,the drop on the curve.Did not get all shook up after the homer(like most rookies making their debut would) and seemed to pitch better and better after it as the game went on.Hit 100 mph in his last inning of work,struck out his last 7 batters.Did something Nolan Ryan only did once.

Not saying he is a definat hall of famer after one start like alot of people have said(not on here, seen it on sports boards).But on hell of a debut.If he gives up 10 or 0 runs in next start am i gonna change my opinion on him.No,the kid has great potential and gonna be fun to see if he can reach it.

Yes, I was sort of impressed. To be honest, I was only expecting 5 or 6 innings with half the amount of strikeouts. He didn't walk anyone, which to me was more impressive. You do have to factor in the Pirates line-up. 4 or 5 of his strikeouts were on fastballs up in the zone. And as Ray pointed out, and I agree, the strike-zone was pretty big for Mr. Strasburg. I just didn't like the fact they were anointing him the next Nolan Ryan, or the next 300 game winner, and he hadn't thrown a pitch yet. He has a chance to get to 5-0, he does pitch against Atlanta, so we'll see. But he has never faced any adversity, either at San Diego State, or in the minors, or in his first start. How he does when he faces some adversity is the real key for me. Any pitcher can be good when he pitches ahead in the zone, and that's what Strasburg did last night. After going back and reviewing the game again, you need to hit Strasburg early in the count. Once he gets you 0-2, or 1-2, he's either going to throw that curve or that change-up or that 99 MPH fastball up in the zone and change your eye level. It'll be interesting to follow this guy. There's always bust potential, we all remember Mark Pryor and to a extent, Kerry Wood.

I will agree that how he faces adversity will be a big key. Every pitcher has bad starts in the majors. And I have seen some of these young phenoms tear through the minors; then hit some bumps in the majors and have no idea how to deal with it (Ian Kennedy and, before this year Phil Hughes come to mind). When he has a bad start (and he will), how will he bounce back his next start? I know what you're saying about Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. But in their cases, injuries were the culprit. Not lack of ability or overhyping. Of course, Strasburg could get injured as well. That's a wild card nobody can predict or control. But the superlatives being thrown around by current and former players as well as baseball historians are off the chart. Pudge Rodriguez...who has caught a few games here and there...said it was "unbelievable." Tim Kurijan called it "historic" and Adam Dunn said it was the best pitched game he had ever seen. Now that I don't know about. For me it was either Jack Morris in the 7th game of the 1991 World Series or Dave Stieb on August 4, 1989 against the Yankees. But the fact that a guy who is a major league veteran would say such a thing says a lot.

Come on Ray. Did you see the stuff he had? Let me see another pro pitcher destroy the pirates the way he did. As long as folks want to use the logic that this was the pirates I'll reverse that logic and someone point out to me a pitcher that struck out 14 pirates in 7 innings and had a hard time getting the ball to the outfield, fair or foul. Given the pirates are as bad as everyone here makes them out to be than 14K's a game in 7 innings s/b routine against them from the best pitchers in MLB. The guy was still throwing 98-99mph effortlessly in the 7th inning and could easily have finished the game and struck out 18, maybe even run the table for 20. But the electrifying stuff is what got me last night. This guy has tools that I haven't seen in a pitcher in a long time. He actually reminded me of Bob Gibson, who had a devastating fastball, change and curve. Seaver did'nt develop a change up like that until late in his career and by then his fast ball wasn't what it was.

Let me name you some of the historic pitchers you can say that about:

Koufax
Gibson
Marichal
Carlton
Palmer
Seaver
Koosman
Ryan
Clemens
Martinez

I could go on but you could honestly say that every one of those pitchers were capable of 12+K's a game and a shutout in any game. They are all very special pitchers, many in the hall or will be save for Clemens because he's a cheat with no character. I agree that comparisons to legends this early were silly but one reason why Walter Johnson came up (easily the greatest pitcher ever) was that he threw 100mph with 3 other devastating pitches so those comparisons were on stuff not on career.

Ice dont get me wrong I said I was impressed with the performance but im not going to make him the cy young winner based on a game against a weak pirate team that people seem to want and due. This will be his best game of the year imo, a few pitchers this year had their best game against the pirates as well ex.- sanchez from the giants,8 innings 0 runs 11 ks, cueto form the reds shutout 1 hit allowed I believe and Gallarod from the brewers 10ks in 5 innings 0 runs allowed. Lets see what he does against a solid team and the indians are not that either though at least they ahve a few guys that can hit

I was impressed for sure. If he can knock a few MPH off his change-up (it was around 90 - for Pete's sake), he will become even more unhittable. That curve ball of his is ridiculous.

Ill add some more, Bailey reds shutout 6ks 4 hits allowed, Hudson 8 innings 0 runs 3 hits,Arroyo 7.2 innings 5 hits 0 runs. Im sure I can find more

Ok since people are saying it is a weak pirates team he did this against,so you can't get to excited.

Then I guess you can say Teixeira did not break his slump because he did it against a pittiful Baltimore team,and the grand slam by Granderson,and 5 rbi's by Swisher are not that impressive because they came against Baltimore

Oh,and by the way,the other stud phenom that debut yesterday for the Marlins(Michael Stanton) went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored.

He's got a curve and a change-up. You may be getting them mixed up. The curve comes in around 88-89 and the change-up around 82. His four seam FB moves right which is going to make him very tough on right hand hitters. It's been clocked as high as 103mph. He also throws his cutter harder than Mariano Rivera ever has, usually in the 98-99mph range.

I for one hope MLB covers everyone of his starts. They'd be smart and get great ratings, especially if he adds to his legend with more overpowering games. One thing that was impressive last night was that there was phenomenal pressure on him, and he brushed it aside.

But when was the last time you saw any MLB team get overpowered like that. Give me that evidence against the pirates. It is overpowering performances that are entertaining, not Greg Maddux junkball games. I'm basing my judgment on his devastating mix of pitches, excellent control and overall demeanor. Again whether that was the Pirates or Red Sox last night, he'd have been dominant against either one because of his control and the fact that hitters are not used to facing pitchers with so many different pitches. Your best hope is to guess the fast ball. The guys got an Adam Wainwright Curve and a Bob Gibson 100mph FB plus two other pitches. Good luck hitting that for any decent average.

His change-up averaged 90...his curve was around 80 (see link)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...rasburg_numbers


I think Cleveland has already sold out for his next start. He's going to add a lot of money to every city/ballparl they vist when he starts.

I got the the two mixed up.

They said it on ESPN last night after the game...he does hitters a favor throwing a 90-91 mph change-up after they can't catch up with the fastball. The home run he gave up was on a 91 mph change-up. If he gets it down to 85-87, forget it.

Here is something else for the naysayers to digest. In the 6th and 7th innings he struck out the side both innings and threw a total of 4 balls. 4 balls to 6 batters combined.

He looked stronger in the 6th and 7th then he did earlier in the game.Was fun to watch him pitch


when he pitches a citifield,definatly gonna get tickets to game

I would imagine the swings and misses against him in this game were astoundingly high.

His second game will be on TBS today at 1pm

So far today 4 innings 1 hit 1 er(hr by Hafner) 63pc--2bb--7k's

Today's stats..Was a bit wild at the end,and was having problems with footing on the mound

5.1 inn
95 pc
2 hits
1 er
8 k's

Not as brilliant as game 1, but another great start. That mound was really bothering him and the ump was denying him strikes on some very close pitches. Basically Cleveland coudn't really touch him.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writ...in&hpt=Sbin

An article about him.

Unbelievable stuff tonight. 10 more K's in 7 innings in a brilliant performance. This kid has the best stuff I've seen in a pitcher since Sandy Koufax.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...djemLifeStyle_h

Apprently difficult to call balls and strikes with Strasburg.

If everythings holds together,Mets will face Strasburg on July 4th

hes certainly living up to the hype. 10 ks against the white sox was more impressive than the 14 agaist pit considering the white sox have the lowest strike outs as a team. (unless i have them mixed up with another team)

http://espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=30373

Here are his stats.

.149 BA against him.

I read somewhere that several scouts thought that Stasburg was already the equivalent of an AJ Burnett when he was a freshman in college, except that he threw harder at nearly 100mph then. That's amazing. Let's hope he stays healthy as he will be fun to watch. There is nothing in sports, to me at least, greater than a phenom pitcher.

Agree. He is exciting. Let hope he stays healthy and doesn't have problems like another phenom, Kerry Wood, did.