Lesson number 5,000 about how pitching prospects don't usually pan out. Not only can they suffer the usual failings of hitting the bigs, but history is littered with people who came up, pitched amazingly for half or one season then tore up their arm and never recovered right again (Mark Fidrych, Kerry Wood and so on). I hope Strasburg recovers, but looks like he is down 18 months, so we will see him in 2012 again, maybe.
When I watched him pitch his first game (they put it on ESPN), Kerry Wood just sprung to mind instantly, I kept thinking about Wood's 20K performance and hearing Nolan Ryan comparisons, and then his arm went out and I was thinking that same thing might happen to Strasburg considering his huge hype and 14 strikeout game. On top of that, people were selling first born children to get his baseball cards and I was thinking "better sell those now before he gets injured and they become worthless." I'm sad it came true, but I kept thinking about an injury from his first start.
