Stephen Strasburg: The Best College Pitcher Ever?

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Stephen Strasburg: The Best College Pitcher Ever?

Filed on March 10th, 2009 in Baseball ⋅ ⋅

Stephen Strasburg is a pitcher at San Diego State University, and right now, he is not a household name.

Give him a year.

Strasburg’s name is on the short list of greatest college pitchers of all-time, and according to some, may be the greatest pitching prospect ever (subscription) to hit the draft.

Bold statements? Yes. Stats to back it up? You bet.

So far this season, Strasburg has 45 strikeouts in just 20 1/3 innings pitched. He’s K’d 58 percent of the batters he’s faced — not the outs he’s earned — batters faced. He’s whiffed 45 of 61 outs.

In his three starts this year, he fanned 11 in 5 2/3 innings, 16 in 6 2/3, and 18 in 8 innings. That’s just not fair.

As a sophomore, Strasburg finished the year with an 8-3 record, a 1.57 ERA and 133 strikeouts in 97 innings, and only got better in the second half of the year. In a game against Utah, he threw a complete game one-hitter and struck out 23.

What makes him so good, you ask?

How about his fastball that hit 102 mph seven times against Nevada this year.

In addition to a blistering fastball that moves, he also has a 93-94 mph slider and a solid changeup. Several scouts have said that he would walk in to almost any team in the show and be their number two or three starter — right now.

One scout told ESPN’s Buster Olney that he is already better than A.J. Burnett, and there is a good chance he is the ace of the Washington Nationals before the season is over. But…

So in other words, in this scout’s eyes, Stephen Strasburg, the ace of the San Diego State Aztecs, is better than the No. 2 free agent pitcher in the offseason, and he could be the ace of the Washington Nationals by the end of the summer — if they decide to take him.

Here’s the primary mitigating factor about the greatest pitching prospect that this scout has ever seen: He’s represented by Scott Boras, who has been known to hold out players for months, for years, in his effort to get his clients what he deems to be a fair-market price. Who knows what Boras has in store.

Ahhh, the Boras factor. Boras is likely going to want big money for the biggest prospect out there, enough money that perhaps a team like Washington that needs him so badly could pass on him.

Either way, he’ll end up somewhere. I don’t want to turn this into a Scott Boras/will he sign article, so I’ll just tell you to keep an eye on this kid.

Here’s a glance at his stuff, as he whiffs 23 Utes a year ago.

Sure it’s tough to see it all from that video, but it’s pretty clear that the kid has a variety of pitches and can control and locate all of them.

It’s not that often that we can get top-level sports minds to use the phrase “best ever,” so when they do, it makes your ears perk up a bit.

The last real “best ever” prospects that we saw recently were Lebron James and Sidney Crosby. That worked out pretty good for the teams that landed them.

Keep an eye on Stephen Strasburg — he might just be that good.

UPDATE I: Start Four: 7 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs, 14 strikeouts. Season stats: 4-0, 1.98 ERA, 27.1 IP, 19 H, 5 BB, 59 K.

UPDATE II: Start Five: Strasburg goes seven shutout innings, giving up just two hits and striking out 15 more. The team lost though for the first time in any of Strasburg’s starts this year. In just 34.1 innings on the year, he now has an amazing 74 strikeouts with just seven walks.

UPDATE III: Strasburg improves to 5-0 with another great performance — 8 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 14 K, 1 BB. Season totals are now 5-0, 1.70 ERA, 42.1 IP, 24 H, 88 K, 8 BB. Wow.

UPDATE IV: Strasburg showed he’s human, only striking out six in six innings. Of course they were six shutout innings allowing just three hits, but it was his lowest strikeout total of the season.

UPDATE V: Six innings, 13 K’s against UNLV. Strasburg improves to 7-0, 1.49 ERA, 54.1 IP, 34 H, 11 BB 107 K. He’s good.

UPDATE VI: Strasburg hurls his first complete game of the year – 9 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 K. He now has 121 K’s in 63 1/3 IP. Damn.

UPDATE VII: Season’s over. Final numbers for Strasburg: 15-1 (lost final start of the year), 1.32 ERA, 109 innings, 65 hits, 195 K’s, 19 BB’s. That’s a pretty solid season right there.

UPDATE VIII: Washington is definitely drafting Strasburg first overall.

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