Mystifying Plan To Bench Superstar Pitcher - If the Nationals reach the playoffs, they’ll have to make due without ace Stephen Strasburg. Even rival Chipper Jones mystified as to why Nats would sit Stephen Strasburg with title on the line, What if this is the best chance? What if Washington’s greatest baseball season in decades is in fact THE season? What if this was to be the World Series year and the Nationals now squander it by sitting their best pitcher – maybe the best pitcher in baseball – for the postseason?
The thought settled over Braves third baseman Chipper Jones like a sigh on Wednesday afternoon, mainly because he spent a career chasing a mountain of World Series titles that never came.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” he said, sitting in the visitor’s clubhouse at Nationals Park. “I made it for 12 years and won one championship.”
He stopped and the words stood still in the air.
Twelve postseasons. One championship. In Jones’ case he won a title his first full season and then never again. You don’t know when the magic is right.
This is important because on a night when the Braves kept the Nationals from running away with the National League East, Jones could look into the future and know Washington is making a serious mistake in holding Strasburg back from the playoffs.
Yes, the Nationals are worried about pushing Strasburg past an arbitrary number of innings they have determined to be proper in his first full season after Tommy John surgery. It’s a number that floats somewhere between 160 and 180, though it is fluid. What seems certain is Strasburg will miss the postseason. And that Jones can’t fathom.
“If I was him, I’d be throwing a fit,” Jones said of Strasburg.
It has not escaped Jones or the rest of the Braves that sitting Strasburg might be a gift to them.
The thought settled over Braves third baseman Chipper Jones like a sigh on Wednesday afternoon, mainly because he spent a career chasing a mountain of World Series titles that never came.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” he said, sitting in the visitor’s clubhouse at Nationals Park. “I made it for 12 years and won one championship.”
He stopped and the words stood still in the air.
Twelve postseasons. One championship. In Jones’ case he won a title his first full season and then never again. You don’t know when the magic is right.
This is important because on a night when the Braves kept the Nationals from running away with the National League East, Jones could look into the future and know Washington is making a serious mistake in holding Strasburg back from the playoffs.
Yes, the Nationals are worried about pushing Strasburg past an arbitrary number of innings they have determined to be proper in his first full season after Tommy John surgery. It’s a number that floats somewhere between 160 and 180, though it is fluid. What seems certain is Strasburg will miss the postseason. And that Jones can’t fathom.
“If I was him, I’d be throwing a fit,” Jones said of Strasburg.
It has not escaped Jones or the rest of the Braves that sitting Strasburg might be a gift to them.
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