Diamonds For Women

[dodgerblue6]

Expectations are big for San Diego State junior RHP Stephen Strasburg, who has been named the preseason National Collegiate Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball. Whether the 20-year old San Diego native can live up to them will be fun to track this season. Sunnyblue and I have talked about catching him at an Aztecs game (if our hectic schedules will actually allow for coordination when he's pitching!). SDSU is offering six-pack packages of games he is scheduled to start, for a mere $24 (can't beat that!). Details are here.

Congratulations, Stephen!
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

Good article in Sports Illustrated. link is here

[dodgerblue6]

Last post of the night and then it's off to bed for me. I was going to save this for later, but I am still so pumped up I wanted to post now.

I was at the SDSU game vs. Utah the other night, and Stephen was clocked at 102! That's unreal! And they got that reading seven times! The article you posted gives some very good examples as to why the buzz about him is so strong. He also had 16 Ks in seven innings! There were at least 20 major league scouts in attendance and some were left just shaking their heads.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

DB my friend Mike was there too. Let's see if we can work a game in the next few weeks but after I get home from Arizona.

[dodgerblue6]

Will it be tonight, Sunny? Stephen takes on the BYU Cougars.

Just an FYI to everyone else, so many people are coming out to see him pitch that SDSU has had to add ticket windows on nights he pitches to accommodate the demand. And it's not just locals who are interested. My neighbor who was at last week's Aztecs win over UNLV in which Stephen pitched met several out-of-state visitors who were curious about the young fireballer.

According to last Saturday's San Diego Union-Tribune:

[sunnyblue]

I'll have to call you later and let you know. I've got a lot of running around to do but I'll see if we can work it out. I'm looking forward to a game too. One of my co-workers said he must be really slacking off. He's down to only 14 Ks a game! lol

[dodgerblue6]

Don't stress about missing it. He left the game leading after pitching seven solid innings, then SDSU's bullpen blew it. Aztecs lost, 4-2. Stephen struck out 15 and surrendered two hits. He struck out the side three times that night.

The buzz is out there, though. There's something special over on Montezuma Mesa. Catch him now before Scott Boras fully takes control.

_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

I hope we don't see another Jered Weaver episode.

[dodgerblue6]

[dodgerblue6]

Stephen Strasburg is a freak of nature. It is that simple. I've seen some pretty good young pitchers come out of San Diego in recent years--Mark Prior, Cole Hamels, etc.--but Strassy is #1.

He's Baseball America's mid-season collegiate player of 2009--not surprising, given he was the preseason player of the year and has lived up to the hype.

Last Friday, the Aztecs rolled into New Mexico and Stephen took it to Los Lobos of UNM. The temps were in the low 40s during the night game, but as Glen Rosales' article in the San Diego Union-Tribune described it, "Strasburg's heat leads SDSU out of the cold."

[sunnyblue]

As you know I was there for that game a couple of weeks ago and I look forward to seeing him coming up this week. Some scouts were saying they have never seen any one pitcher so dominant at this level.

[dodgerblue6]

A sold-out Schott Stadium in Santa Clara, CA was site of Friday night's SDSU-SCU game, the latest scheduled start by Stephen. He is 10-0 now on the season.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

[dodgerblue6]

I don't know how much better it gets than this...or how much worse my timing could be.

In his final home start of the 2009 season, the awesome, amazing, every-superlative-imagined Stephen Strasburg, threw a no-hitter vs. Air Force, behind a loud and raucous crowd at Tony Gwynn Stadium. His fastball was clocked at 101 in the third inning.

The news even made it onto MLB.com's top headlines.

The 20-year-old SDSU right-hander walked two, while striking out 17, en route to a 5-0 Aztecs win.

It was a wonderful early birthday gift for his head coach, Tony Gwynn, who turned 49 on Saturday--and a very special pre-Mother's Day gift for Stephen's mom, Kathleen Swett.

From MLB.com:

[dodgerblue6]

Today I'm going out to lunch with Sunnyblue and her brother, who was at the game, to a special lunch honoring Stephen at San Diego State. Sunny is coming down to meet me shortly and we'll drive over to SDSU together.

Meanwhile, major props to Stephen, who some are now speculating may be the best ever. That puts him in some mighty fine company, with a lot of Hall of Famers. Will he live up to the hype? One thing I know, he's got his head on straight, and I'm hoping Justin will be inspired by him.

Full article from MLB.com is here.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[stlred]

Sounds like a fun lunch. How is Justin by the way?

[dodgerblue6]

Justin's doing great. I keep saying one day I will post about him again, and that will have to be soon.

The lunch was great, but I still haven't posted about the luncheon event I went to last Tuesday. I've been working on that, too.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Stephen may have made his final collegiate start last night. Whether that is the case depends on whether his team can rally from a first-round loss to Virginia on Friday in the regional NCAA baseball tournament.

He threw a great game, but was out-pitched by Virginia starter Robert Morey, who limited the Aztecs to five hits over six shutout innings.

Facing the Cavaliers in the first round of the Irvine regional playoffs, Strasburg struck out 15 over seven innings and walked none. However, he exited the game losing, 2-0, in what was eventually a 5-1 setback for SDSU.

As noted in the San Diego Union-Tribune:

[sunnyblue]

[dodgerblue6]

[sunnyblue]

[sunnyblue]

Whatever happened to this? I know Stephen signed at the last minute. We never got any updates before that. I'll be back later to post in other threads as the game is going to start now.

[dodgerblue6]

Right, I never heard from any of our posters who were at the All-Star festivities about this. I've been meaning to post ever since then, but just never had time with all the games, visiting guests, and other activities I've been involved in. In fact, there have been a lot of topics I've been meaning to post about over the past month.

However, one of the guys who was out here for the Cardinals' series over the last couple of weeks did tell me a few things about it. He got his autograph, and was impressed with the modesty and level-headedness he showed--in particular, "for a Boras client", he added.

What a phenomenal year for Stephen! Winning the Golden Spikes Award was just the icing on the cake.

He signed with the Nats about two minutes before the deadline on August 17. Washington fans snapped up 6,000 tickets just to see Stephen's news conference at Nationals Park.

From MLB.com:

[dodgerblue6]

Nice Christmas gift from Stephen to SDSU--a donation of $141,000.

From MLB.com (linked article published in mid-December):

[sunnyblue]

I didn't hear about this, myself, until someone sent me the link. I think I was working too much last month. With the holiday rush over it's been nice the last week and a half. Thanks for posting this though. It is good to see him give a nod to his roots.

[dodgerblue6]

Congratulations to Stephen! He married long-time girlfriend Rachel Lackey--to my knowledge no relation to John--right here under our noses in S.D. on January 9, but not even the Union-Tribune reported it. Instead, I just learned about it via the Washington Post and MLB.com.

Best wishes to the newlyweds.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

I hadn't heard about this either. We knew he was engaged and my son had said he knew it would be happening sometime before pitchers and catchers reported. They must have kept it pretty quiet.

[dodgerblue6]

Well, as everyone here knows from the excitement he generated during spring training, Stephen is beginning to show he's the real deal.

How exciting it was to see his debut in the minor leagues, in perhaps the most heralded start for the Harrisburg Senators at the Altoona Curve on April 11. And he did not disappoint! He surrendered one earned run on four hits and notched the victory for Harrisburg--in front of a sellout crowd and over 70 members of the media. He struck out eight over his five-inning performance, with his fastball averaging 98 MPH. Not to mention the game was shown live nationally on ESPNews!

Since then he has breezed along in his next two outings. And so the question remains, how long will it be before the call-up comes?
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

We saw it! wooohooooooooooooooooo Stephen

[forloveofthegame]

How about did any of you see last night's start. I saw bits and pieces of it. 5 innings, no hits allowed.

[dodgerblue6]

Yes, he just keeps rolling along! And he's only 21!!! And he's lowered his ERA to 0.52! What an amazing performance against Reading.

From MLB.com: