This Strasburg guy looks like something special. He won't sustain THAT level of performance, of course... scouts will figure some things out and he'll face real offences. But he could be good... REALLY good.

If the Nats are in a position to add a piece or two in July and start selling out home games I think it sets them up as major players next year. Step aside Philadelphia.

I saw the highlights if his game...I could not believe how much it looked like his fastball moved.  He had one strikeout to a lefty, fastball started outer half, looked to be top of the zone.  It looked like it just kept moving out and up.  Ended up way outside the black and still way at the top of the zone.  It was an unhittable pitch.  You would have either had to say, if you were at the plate, that you were going to take anything up in the zone with the 0-2 count or you would have had to commit to swinging at up in the zone and taking anything down.  All the same, there was so much movement on that ball that it would have been nearly impossible to put it in play.  I did not see the dinger he gave up.  What I did see was the best thrower on the planet.  I can think of only four arms that I've seen that did what he can do.....Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, JR. Richard, and Kerry Wood.  I didn't see Koufax or Bob Feller...they were in that class.  Doc Gooden was close for a bit...He had that same blistering high heat that seemed to defy gravity but I always felt it was his yakker that made him unfair for a bit.  Anyway....Count your blessings that we're going to get to see this.  Now I want to see him when he doesn't have his great stuff.  I suspect he gets you out all the same....and if that is the case..he is, indeed, the best pitcher on the planet.

Oswalt makes sense to me. He's a hot dogger. Rack up a million bottles of beer on the wall as well. IF IF they get within a couple of games. It completely changes the landscape of their team. Chalk up at least a 25% win advantage. There are a few different Dunns out there for next vear. We'll see there's a few ifs involved.

Some of the young guys around here might not remember J.R. Richard.....Wow, they should!!!!!!!
In his last 2.5 years (before he suffered his stroke half way through the '80 season) he pitched 681 innings....and gave up only 477 hits!  Sheesh...over that same time he struck out 735 batters.  He walked a bunc of guys....but when he brought the heater it was someting to watch.  BTW, in a link to Strasburg, he struck out 15 in his '71 debut.
J.R. RIP