The famous Sports Illustrated Article by George Plimpton recalls the story of a mythical pitcher for both his pitching prowess and eccentricity named Sidd Finch signed by the Mets. Endowed with unbelievable arm reaching other-worldly speeds in the high 150s and an even more other-worldy demeanor it seemed to good to be true. Of course the story is a hoax famously published on April 1st, but it seems there are those in the baseball community to believe we have found him in our midst, the real Sidd Finch in the flesh, and he pitches in San Diego. Blessed with an unbelievable fastball reaching 102 reguarly and an unhittable slider that comes in at 91 on average he has decimated the college ranks like never before. Striking out an unbelievable 147 in 57 innings while only walking 15 this year, which includes a 23 strikeout game, he has descended onto the baseball scene like a revelation, embarassing the best hitters out there like never before. Indeed, his feats are so unbelievable and so unprecdented, and his story so unlikely, undrafted out of high school, nearly run off of his team for being out of shape, that it is almost too much to believe too much to fathom. Is this real? Is he as Scott Boras so aptly put "fucking Sidd Finch come to life?" or is it merely an mirage, vanishing before you get too close.
To be sure, as a no doubt first pick for the Washington Nationals, the odds are surely not stacked in his favor to become a great pitcher. Tom Boswell of the Washington Post puts its succintly
In the entire history of the June draft since 1965, NO PITCHER who was taken in the Top 10-overall picks has ever had a Hall of Fame career. Zero. None. Zilch. And none close.
The closest, and they aren't even remotely close, are Kevin Brown (211-144), Dwight Gooden (194-112) and J.R. Richard (107-71). No one else has more than 169 career wins; and of all pitchers drafted since '65, only 14 have won 125 games.
Among active pitchers, Josh Beckett (91-64) may have a chance to be a Hall of Famer someday. Or we can dream about young Tim Lincecum. But the pickings are very slim.
The closest, and they aren't even remotely close, are Kevin Brown (211-144), Dwight Gooden (194-112) and J.R. Richard (107-71). No one else has more than 169 career wins; and of all pitchers drafted since '65, only 14 have won 125 games.
Among active pitchers, Josh Beckett (91-64) may have a chance to be a Hall of Famer someday. Or we can dream about young Tim Lincecum. But the pickings are very slim.
For certain, if Strasburg is as great as he is billed to be, he'll be one of the few if not the only to ever live up to the billing of the next great phenom, and its not hard to see why they fail so often. Especially in todays world of sports where everything is so scrutinized these players are under the microscope from the very start, expected to come out of the draft and be everything that the teams paid for, dominate major leaguers the same way they did with high schoolers and college kids, but its not that easy. These guys are professionals who take their jobs very seriously and if you aren't going to be smart and just throw in there even if you do have great stuff its going to be a hard adjustment. You put all of that together and dump it all on a kid who has been told how great he is and had his ego stroked for years about what a revelation he is, its easy to see why all too often phenoms fizzle under the pressure.
But as so many say, this guy is different. Indeed, as it has been re-told countless times already, Steven has worked very hard to realize his unbelievable talent. Coming out of high school he was by his own admission a fat piece of crap not even hitting 90 on the gun and looking very unspectactular. And whats worse is he lacked the fire and desire to become a star, opting to hit up taco bell instead of the weights and even telling scouts "don't draft me, I'm not worth it" which they in turn obliged going barely noticed to San Diego State of all places. Here he continued to wallow in obsurity and not taking his career seriously until one day the light went on and everything changed. He lost the weight, got in shape and seemingly out of nowhere his boundless talent emerged. His fastball improved as he became stronger 90, 95, 98, and now he lives in the 100s, and become a wonder like no one had seen before. What a turnaround for sure.
With the first pick in the June the much maligned Washington Nationals are expected to draft him, along with his allegedly borderline insane contract demands of 50 million thanks to his agent, the much viriled Scott Boras, but is it worth it? Especially for a franchise that has been just god awful for a long time, making dumb move after dumb move this is a move that could make or break them, crippling their franchise with a horible contract that will keep them from making other moves in the future and stuck with a lemon or immediately vaunted to the top of the league with the world's most unhittable pitcher, is it a risk worth taking? This of course is the decision for the Nationals to make to decide whether he's worth the risk if he is really every bit as talented as they say he is, but if it were my decision I would say yes. Sure, the odds are against him and he's no sure bet, but in truth which prospect is? As anyone who has followed baseball for any length of the time there's a hundred "next big thing" guys who never pan out for everyone one who does, its a crapshoot. Even if a guy dominates high school, college and minors theres no promise that he'll be every bit as good in the majors, so even the most conservative drafts or sure thing is never a sure thing.
All that said, if every draftee is a risk, why not take the big risk, take the leap and shoot for the moon? If you've ever suffered through a Washington National game you know that they might be the biggest collection of stiffs ever assembled on a ball field, what are they going to do, suck more? Who knows, despite their extreme indeptitude the Nationals may have stumbled upon a revelation, a phenom like we've never seen before, our real Sidd Finch.
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