Stephen Strasburg and the Perfect Storm

[DOUGHBOYS]

The pitch count rules baseball. Managers will say it don't. But it does.
Pitchers are not taken out because 'they don't have their best stuff' anymore. Instead, they will falter through innings, killing ratios while working their way to around 100 pitches. It is then, that Managers feel like they got their money's worth.
Innings eaters.
Managers say that with fondness.
Fantasy owners say it in between pukes.
Fantasy Managers sit in front of their tv or computer waving white flags and repeating, 'For the love of God, take this guy out of the game!'
We are slaves to the system. Managers hate disrupting bullpens. Even more than they hate deflating a starters ego by giving him the slow hook. So, they choose the ladder. Leaving fantasy owners wanting to climb that ladder and hurl themselves head first.

With this preface, there is one pitcher and Manager who is bucking the system. It's not because they're smart. It is because their circumstances warrant the shift. The circumstances trump the bullpen. The circumstances trumps the pitch count.
Davey Johnson and Stephen Strasburg.
The Nats stated defiantly that Strasburg would be on a 165 inning limit.
That was before the season.
Now, they're not talking.
Now, they think they may actually have a chance.
No team has ever been in a pennant race and pulled their best pitcher to 'save his arm'.
It won't be done this year either.

Strasburg could have gone a little longer in some of his starts, especially today (82 pitches) but the Nats are on a mission. They want to limit Strasburg as much as possible during the season so that he can give them more at the end.
Perfect for fantasy owners. Strasburg didn't have his good stuff today.
Gone.
The way it should be.
Roto doesn't award extra points for shutouts or complete games.
Johnson and Strasburg are a dream for their owners. The threat of innings limits kept down his value, and the limitations themselves are lessening the blow to WHIP and ERA when Strasburg does not bring his full arsenal to the mound.

Even with scaled innings, Strasburg will put up as many k's as those pitchers drafted around him.
Right now, he is third in baseball in strike outs.
28th in baseball for innings pitched.
A ratio that keeps both Nats ownership and fantasy owners happy.
He is a special pitcher. One that'll most likely be one of the first five pitchers off the boards in next years draft.
And for this year, he is a pitcher with a perfect storm for his owners.