Seeing highlights of Nationals’ pitcher Stephen Strasburg from yesterday’s game against Detroit bummed me out just a little. I love watching great pitchers do their thing, and it’s especially exciting to see young pitchers like Strasburg break into the bigs and blow hitters away. But I’m just a bit bummed out, because he’s in the Mets’ division and will most likely be facing our team a lot over the next few years. I’m bummed out because when I start to think about it, there are going to be three aces in the division that will be considered as good as or better than our ace, Johan Santana.
You’ve got Strasburg, who is projected to reach the big leagues as early as July of this coming season. Then you have Florida’s Josh Johnson, the Met Killer. And Philly, despite trading away Cliff Lee, replaced him with the perennial all-world Roy Halladay. The Braves are the only NL East team without a so-called “ace” (or in Washington’s case, potential ace) at the top of their rotation.
Sure, the Nationals and their fans have earned the right to have the type of dominant pitcher that comes along a few times every decade. Strasburg is being compared to a young Pedro Martinez, and that’s really saying something. But Johan had another elbow surgery, he’s a year older, and the Mets’ rotation behind him has more question marks than ever. So every time we see a guy like Strasburg or Johnson or Halladay join a rival team or get called up, it’s effectively and by association making the Mets a little worse.
I’m curious what you all think, so feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions on this matter below.
