Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg And Drew Storen Sent To Minors.

Washington Post writer Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP):

“This surprised me: Strasburg had totally convinced himself, despite all the evidence against, he had a shot to make the #Nats. Says a lot.”

“I wasn’t really shocked. I was trying to just go up here and do my thing and not really worry about what happens. Because it’s a business now. It’s completely out of my control. There’s no point worrying about it. I was focusing on baseball. I’m still going to focus on baseball. They have a plan for me. It doesn’t matter what I think or how I feel. They’re going to stick to their plan, and I’m going to do what they tell me to do.”

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/why-the-timing-of-strasburgs-m_pf.html

(The San Francisco Giants famously miscalculated on this in 2007, calling up Tim Lincecum on May 6, which wound up being about a week too soon to prevent his Super Two status in 2010. The cutoff for Super Two eligibility in that particular year was two years 141 days, and Lincecum had two years 148 days. As a result, Lincecum will make $9 million this year in salary/signing bonus as a Super Two, instead of the $700,000 or so the team could have paid him as a zero-to-three player, had they kept him down an extra week in 2007. We’ll return to the Lincecum example in a moment.)

Finally, let’s also take a guess and extrapolate Lincecum’s third and fourth arbitration years from his first two.

Prorating the signing bonus in the new contract he signed last month, Lincecum will earn $9 million and $14 million in 2010 and 2011, his first two arbitration years. We’ll be conservative and say those figures will rise to $18 million and $22 million in 2012 and 2013, his remaining arbitration years. (The actual figures will depend on several factors, including how well he peforms.)

Then keeping him down could maybe costs us the postseason. But, we aren’t, so this is best for the future for sure.

My guess is we see Storen first. When an injury happens in the Pen. Strassburg will be brought up to stay once he gets here. That wont happen for an injury.

This is strictly a business move and nothing else! Stephen Strasburg has been the best starting pitcher in camp and Drew Storen has proved that he belongs as well! The Nationals have said this was coming, but with the way Strasburg has pitched I thought he was going to force them to keep him on the big league roster! After all the struggles the team has had since coming to D.C. the fans deserve to have the best team on the field that the front office can provide! This move prevents that from being the case as the 2010 season will open with our best pitcher starting in Double-A for financial reasons! Welcome to life as a Washington National, Mr. Strasburg.

This team is going to struggle mightily in April and May, again. Even if Strasburg won all of his starts in the 1st half of the season, the team would still be out of playoff contention by June. Strasburg will have an innings limit for the season so it doesn’t matter how good he will be this year. He won’t be able to fully lead the rotation as a full-time/full-year player in 2010. No need to mess up the salary situation down the road just to sell a few more tickets in April and May.

There is very little reason to keep them up. We need both to be in the best mental and physical shape possible and them starting in Double-A is best for both of them