{"id":12868,"date":"2016-09-09T14:12:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T18:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12868"},"modified":"2016-09-09T14:42:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T18:42:45","slug":"strasburg-flexor-mass-whats-plan-b-for-the-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12868","title":{"rendered":"Strasburg Flexor Mass; what&#8217;s plan B for the playoffs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_767\" style=\"width: 270px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/strasburg-elbow-injury2-260x208.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-767\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-767\" class=\"size-full wp-image-767\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/strasburg-elbow-injury2-260x208.jpg\" alt=\"It could have been worse; it could have been this. Photo credit unknown.\" width=\"260\" height=\"208\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-767\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It could have been worse; it could have been this. Photo credit unknown.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Its been a greek tragedy the last few days in Nats town. \u00a0<strong>Stephen Strasburg<\/strong> (you know, that guy who we just paid $175M for the next 30 years with deferred payments) clutches his elbow in his first game back after hitting the D\/L for a different &#8220;elbow soreness&#8221; issue. \u00a0Nats town fears the worst. \u00a0MRI comes back and <a href=\"http:\/\/m.nationals.mlb.com\/news\/article\/200255990\/stephen-strasburg-sidelined-by-forearm-injury\/\">its &#8220;just&#8221; a Flexor Mass Strain<\/a>. \u00a0They say it isn&#8217;t going to be season ending but&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But we have some rather recent and close-to-home examples to use to gauge his D\/L time out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mat Latos<\/strong> was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/mri-shows-healthy-ligament-flexor-mass-strain-in-mat-latos-elbow\/\">diagnosed with the same injury<\/a> in Mid April 2014 and missed exactly 2 months of that season.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Homer Bailey<\/strong> had a more <a href=\"https:\/\/redlegnation.com\/2014\/09\/07\/homer-baileys-flexor-mass-strain\/\">severe case of the same<\/a> in August 2014, had to have surgery and was back in time for the beginning of 2015 (where he subsequently had a different injury).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jonathan Broxton<\/strong> had an even more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/jonathan-broxton-out-six-months-following-elbow-surgery\/\">severe &#8220;torn&#8221; flexor mass<\/a> in August 2013, had surgery and was out 6 months.<\/li>\n<li>(h\/t to Nationals101 on Twitter):\u00a0<strong>Andrew Miller<\/strong>, who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/yankees\/index.ssf\/2015\/06\/yankees_place_closer_andrew_miller_on_dl_what_is_a.html\">strained it in June<\/a>\u00a02015 against the Nats and missed about a month (injury on 6\/10\/15, next appearance 7\/8\/15).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, best case he takes a couple of week off, it magically feels better, we shoot him up with cortisone and toradol (Hey they&#8217;re both legal!) and run merrily into the NLDS (not likely).<\/p>\n<p>Worst case, he has to have a surgical procedure to clean stuff up and he&#8217;s ready for April 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Most likely case, the conservative Nats management team shuts him down for the season (he is after all due $175M &#8230; and it&#8217;d be kind of foolish to risk that kind of investment for one playoff appearance) since it seems like its at least a month of rest.<\/p>\n<p>In the mean time, the Nats have a playoff series to plan for. \u00a0Now what do we do?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scherzer, Roark, Gonzalez are all healthy and ready to go.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Who is the 4th starter? \u00a0Instead of arguing about whether we take\u00a0<strong>Joe Ross\u00a0<\/strong>or\u00a0<strong>Gio Gonzalez<\/strong>, are we now asking ourselves who makes that 4th start? \u00a0Do we think Joe Ross is going to be ready? \u00a0I dunno; I certainly hope so but we&#8217;re out of minor league games for him to rehab in and I havn&#8217;t heard much about his progress. \u00a0Assuming Ross isn&#8217;t ready to go either &#8230; Are we to the point where we&#8217;re wondering who is better,\u00a0<strong>Yusmeiro Petit<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>A.J. Cole,\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Reynaldo Lopez<\/strong> or\u00a0<strong>Lucas Giolito?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pros\/Cons of these options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Petit: was brought in to be the spot starter so he should be able to handle this. \u00a0But he&#8217;s been a bit shakey lately; his ERA has risen from 2.72 to 3.90 in just his last 8 appearances, which include a 5 run implosion against Colorado to blow a game the Nats had come back to tie late, an appearance in early August against Atlanta where he couldn&#8217;t record an out, and a bunch of other unclean appearances.<\/li>\n<li>Cole: he has shown signs of life (looking awesome in New York against our closest rival) and then signs of ineptitude (giving up a 3-run homer to the only guy on the Phillies who could hurt him).<\/li>\n<li>Lopez: great fastball &#8230; and great hittability.<\/li>\n<li>Giolito: well, we don&#8217;t need to go into the pro- and anti-Giolito arguments, do we?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I dunno; who among that list are you thinking is best suited for it?<\/p>\n<p>Are you thinking outside the box instead? \u00a0<strong>Mat Latos<\/strong>? \u00a0I dunno; do you think he&#8217;s ready to go? \u00a0Would you think that to be a slap in the face of all the guys who busted their butts with this organization for years to have a post-season start opportunity given to a guy they signed off the street two months ago?<\/p>\n<p>Me? \u00a0I think you give the start to Lopez. \u00a0I don&#8217;t trust Petit, Cole seems too hittable, and Giolito needs an off-season to get his mechanics (and his head) straight.<\/p>\n<p>(post-publishing update; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/nationals-journal\/wp\/2016\/09\/09\/what-ever-happened-to-bronson-arroyo\/\">just saw this at NJ<\/a>: we know it isn&#8217;t going to be\u00a0<strong>Bronson Arroyo<\/strong>&#8230; who just couldn&#8217;t come back and likely faces the end of his career).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Its been a greek tragedy the last few days in Nats town. \u00a0Stephen Strasburg (you know, that guy who we just paid $175M for the next 30 years with deferred payments) clutches his elbow in his first game back after hitting the D\/L for a different &#8220;elbow soreness&#8221; issue. \u00a0Nats town fears the worst. \u00a0MRI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[17,891,385,892,2691,816,852,586,1875,38,2313],"class_list":["post-12868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","category-natsgeneral","tag-aj-cole","tag-bronson-arroyo","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-homer-bailey","tag-joe-ross","tag-jonathan-broxton","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-mat-latos","tag-reynaldo-lopez","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-yusmeiro-petit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12868"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12875,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868\/revisions\/12875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}