Watching Stephen Strasburg, And What To Expect

Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll chimes in with a viewing guide of sorts for tonight's...well for tonight's only game, as far as anyone's concerned. He runs down the five key points, as he sees them:

1) Fastball

Everyone comes to see the fastball. It's why he's famous, and with good reason. Strasburg's fastball has been credibly recorded as high as 102 and lives in the mid-90's. The fastball comes with all five elements: velocity, control, command, movement, and touch.

2) Slider

As good as Strasburg's fastball is and as much as hitters have to sit on it for any chance to get to it, the slider might actually be as good, if not a better, pitch...One [scout] gave me the great line that when he first saw it in-game, he thought it had hit something mid-flight.

3) Mechanics

Strasburg's mechanics are both smooth and repeatable...As Strasburg accelerates through his delivery, he "stacks up" very well. That means that his foot, knee, glove, chest, and head are lined up over a theoretical pivot point.

4) Stamina

Let's assume that Strasburg is human and has some serious adrenaline going when he gets the big stadium and pro hitters at the plate. If he's able to control that and "stay within himself," that's a big plus. If he comes out playing to the crowd and the radar gun, we might see him tire a little bit as he approaches 60 pitches.

5) Composure

As I said above in the stamina section, Strasburg's demeanor on the mound has been described as everything from "controlled" to "robotic" to "aloof." Observers can see what they want to see in his dispassionate exterior, but he never seems to lose his composure on the mound.

In sum, Strasburg is pretty much flawless, and each of his pitches belongs in a museum.