[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by mooby

Sure.

Two years ago in Stras' rookie season, he injured his throwing arm and the procedure to fix it is called Tommy John surgery, named after a pitcher back in the day who had the procedure. Research done by professionals far more knowledgeable than I indicates that in the years following the procedure, pitchers arms' have a tendency to wear down and not become as effective, and that it doesn't help that they are given full workloads after surgery.

Given that Strasburg is one of those "once-in-a-generation" phenoms, the Nats were worried about his arm wearing down post-TJ surgery in the fashion of other starting pitchers who had had the surgery at some point in their careers. So in an effort to preserve his long term health and keep his arm from wearing down they decided before the season even started to keep him on an innings limit, so that his post-surgery workload wouldn't increase dramatically and to help his career last longer.

They did the exact same thing last year with another starting pitcher, Jordan Zimmermann, (and nobody complained about it then because the Nats' weren't in a pennant race), and this year Zimmermann has been very effective and he's not on any innings limit whatsoever. So the strategy is, by limiting Strasburgs' innings now, it will preserve his effectiveness later. And I agree with that, because I am concerned about the long term for the Nats as well, not just this season. The naysayers keep saying it's crazy to shut down a healthy pitcher (who is also your ace) in the middle of a pennant race, but I agree with Rizzo and the experts who have done the actual research on this one.

Actually it's less about the TJ surgery and more about the org's natural growth. Generally they avoid major inning increases. Since both he and Zimmerman reached majors quickly they didn't get to grow their innings over several seasons in the minors. This is what they do with all their pitchers just usually in AA.