Major League Baseball

Strasburg makes sense for All-Star Game

Published Jun. 18, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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If Stephen Strasburg keeps pitching like this, he should spend the All-Star break in his native California.

Wearing a uniform.

It may sound sacrilegious, the suggestion that a rookie with two starts would be a viable candidate for the National League All-Star team. Any veteran pitcher snubbed to make room for Strasburg would have a legitimate gripe. In a just world, years of excellence ought to trump a summer of sizzling hype.

But no one would confuse the All-Star selection process with a meritocracy. The Midsummer Classic is two things — a show for the fans and the means of determining which league has home-field advantage in the World Series.

On both counts, a case can be made that Strasburg belongs — particularly with the rosters newly expanded to 34 players.

• The masses want to see Strasburg, recently described by one baseball man as the “most Googled” player in the major leagues.

• And NL manager Charlie Manuel, burdened by a 13-year winless streak, might like the idea of Strasburg’s 100-mph cheese appearing in the late innings.

Imagine Strasburg jogging in from the bullpen at Angel Stadium — less than 100 miles from where he attended high school in Santee, Calif. — to face Miguel Cabrera with the NL clinging to a one-run lead in the eighth . . .

I’d watch.

I bet you would, too.

We are assuming that he would be available to pitch at all, given his schedule. But weather permitting, that shouldn’t be an issue. His last start before the break is tentatively set for July 8. He would be fully rested for the July 13 All-Star Game.

We are assuming that the Nationals won’t call Manuel over the next couple weeks and say, “Charlie, pal, congrats on the back-to-back pennants. By the way, would you mind keeping your mitts off our guy?”

The latter scenario wouldn’t be as underhanded — or surprising — as it sounds. The Nationals have regimented almost everything when it comes to their franchise pitcher. Pitches. Innings. Interviews. Other teams surely understand and respect that.

Aside from President Obama (who dropped in to watch on Friday), Strasburg might have the most tightly controlled schedule in D.C. If the phenom throws one inning in the All-Star Game, will it discombobulate the Flux Capacitor currently humming in the office of team president Stan Kasten?

While the Nationals were in Detroit this week, I asked general manager Mike Rizzo about the possibility of Strasburg pitching in the All-Star Game. He smiled and politely declined comment.

We know this: Strasburg won’t campaign for himself. He’s not wired that way. He isn’t relishing the international attention. But at least he’s being a good sport about it.

“You know, it’s more enjoyable for my family than myself,” he said this week. “I’m not really about all that stuff. I like to come out here, get with the guys, go out and play the game. ... That’s what I love.

“I don’t play this game for the notoriety, the hype, being noticed by fans. I play because this is something I love to do.”

Strasburg indicated that fans didn’t pay much attention to him earlier this week, when he went to a suburban Detroit shopping mall. He was noticed at P.F. Chang’s, he said, but that was “because Pudge (Rodriguez) was there.”

He’s a little more recognizable when wearing No. 37. His debut was the most-watched program on MLB Network since the channel became Nielsen-rated, according to a network spokesperson.

No one would describe Strasburg as the best pitcher in the NL. Clearly, that title belongs to Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez, who is 13-1 with a 1.15 ERA in 14 starts. At this point, it would be a surprise if Manuel picked anyone other than Jimenez as his starter.

But if you’re talking about which starter has the filthier stuff ...

“Ubaldo’s figured it out — that’s why I can’t take nothing away from him,” Nationals outfielder Nyjer Morgan said. “But this kid right here, ooooh, he’s nasty, man. He’s electric. I don’t think the kid threw anything in the 80s — even his curveball.”

Strasburg won’t get a chance to pitch in his hometown this year, since the Nationals visited the Padres just before he was called up. Dodger Stadium in August is the closest that he will come, and there’s no guarantee that he will pitch that weekend.

So, how about an All-Star Game in Orange County?

There is some precedent for Strasburg to be included. Dontrelle Willis was an All-Star in 2003 after debuting in May. And he didn’t become a true rookie sensation that year until throwing eight shutout innings at Cincinnati on May 25.

Willis made 13 starts before the All-Star break; Strasburg should have seven.

“I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Tim Wallach, the five-time NL All-Star, said Thursday in a telephone interview. “If he’s pitching well, like he has the first couple starts, then why couldn’t he be? He’s going to end up with more innings than some relievers who make the team.”

Good point.

And let’s not forget the hockey-esque numbers that we will be talking about in a few weeks: 0-12-1. That is the NL’s record since 1996, Wallach’s final year as a player.

“You want to put together the best team possible,” said Wallach, now the manager of the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. “You have to take the best players you can. With all the excitement and notoriety that’s been out there for (Strasburg), it would be good for baseball. But he needs to be pitching well.”

Precisely. If Strasburg gets shelled in two of his next three starts, it would be foolish to send him to Anaheim. At the moment, though, he is the most closely watched pitcher in baseball and certainly one of the best. Sure sounds like the type of person who belongs on the first-base line, with Joe Buck calling his name.

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