kruker wrote:Do you even try to mess with his mechanics, which most likely results in lesser stuff, or do you gamble and see if he can hold up?

... a hot spring day in Miami, Fla. Dalkowski is pitching batting practice for the Baltimore Orioles while Ted Williams watches curiously from behind the batting cage. After a few minutes Williams picks up a bat and steps into the cage. Reporters and players, who had been watching with only casual interest, move quickly around the cage to watch this classic confrontation. Williams takes three level, disciplined practice swings, cocks his bat and then motions with his head for Dalkowski to deliver the ball. Dalkowski goes into his spare pump. His right leg rises a few inches off the ground. His left arm pulls back and then flicks out from the side of his body like an attacking cobra. There is a sharp crack as his wrist snaps the ball toward the plate. Then silence. The ball does not rip through the air like most fastballs, but seems to just reappear silently in the catcher’s glove as if it had somehow decomposed and then recomposed itself without anyone having followed its progress.

The catcher holds the ball for a few seconds. It is just a few inches under Williams’ chin. Williams looks back at the ball, then out at Dalkowski, who is squinting at him. Then he drops the bat and steps out of the cage.

The writers immediately ask Williams how fast Steve Dalkowski really is. Williams, whose eyes were said to be so sharp that he could count the stitches on a baseball as it rotated toward the plate, says that he did not see the pitch, and that Steve Dalkowski is the fastest pitcher he ever faced and probably who ever lived, and that he would be damned if he would ever face him again if he could help it.

td11 wrote:thanks for posting that, smitty. it links to a pretty interesting read about steve dalkowski, whom i'd never heard of before.

... a hot spring day in Miami, Fla. Dalkowski is pitching batting practice for the Baltimore Orioles while Ted Williams watches curiously from behind the batting cage. After a few minutes Williams picks up a bat and steps into the cage. Reporters and players, who had been watching with only casual interest, move quickly around the cage to watch this classic confrontation. Williams takes three level, disciplined practice swings, $#@! his bat and then motions with his head for Dalkowski to deliver the ball. Dalkowski goes into his spare pump. His right leg rises a few inches off the ground. His left arm pulls back and then flicks out from the side of his body like an attacking cobra. There is a sharp crack as his wrist snaps the ball toward the plate. Then silence. The ball does not rip through the air like most fastballs, but seems to just reappear silently in the catcher’s glove as if it had somehow decomposed and then recomposed itself without anyone having followed its progress.

The catcher holds the ball for a few seconds. It is just a few inches under Williams’ chin. Williams looks back at the ball, then out at Dalkowski, who is squinting at him. Then he drops the bat and steps out of the cage.

The writers immediately ask Williams how fast Steve Dalkowski really is. Williams, whose eyes were said to be so sharp that he could count the stitches on a baseball as it rotated toward the plate, says that he did not see the pitch, and that Steve Dalkowski is the fastest pitcher he ever faced and probably who ever lived, and that he would be damned if he would ever face him again if he could help it.

FTN wrote:Boswell is an idiot

If the Nats pass on Strasburg, and in 5 years he's won a Cy Young, they may as well move the team again. If there was a flat out stud position player, that would be one thing, but there isn't. Ackley is a good hitter, but if he can't play CF, his value is greatly diminished, and Grant Green has struggled out of the gate.

Strasburg isn't going to get a $25M deal. 15M. And the Nats would be morons to pass on him

The odds say he's more likely to be Ben McDonald (78-70) than Walter Johnson.

Jonathan (Atlanta): Seems like there is alot of attention on the internet about Strasburg and the "invereted W". Is it a big deal? If it was such a big deal, why would we not hear more about it from scouts?

SportsNation Jim Callis: (2:47 PM ET ) I actually wrote a column about this that should be posted on baseballamerica.com today or tomorrow. One internet site came up with the inverted W and a lot of bloggers seem to have run with it. We've talked to 10-20 scouts about Strasburg, and none of them is worried about his mechanics. I joked with Keith Law that he didn't mention the inverted W (isn't that an M?) in his Strasburg blog on ESPN.com, and Keith's reply was that it didn't exist when he saw him. Could Strasburg get hurt? Sure, but that's true of any pitcher. Scouts don't think his delivery puts him at risk, and yes, that's still no guarantee he'll stay healthy.

Many of the Internet worries seem to originate from a November post at drivelinemechanics.com. The site's webmaster, Kyle Boddy, rated Strasburg's arm action as very bad, his tempo as average to bad, his release as good and his follow-through as very bad. Boddy concluded by predicting a steady decline in Strasburg's velocity early in his career and eventually a significant shoulder injury.

It's unclear what Boddy's credentials are, but several other bloggers have taken that post and run with it. (Don't tell Buzz Bissinger.) If I had $5 for every email or chat question I've received about Strasburg's impending doom, I'd be close to meeting his asking price.

Baseball America has yet to encounter a scout who was terribly worried about Strasburg's mechanics. The closest we've come is when we talked to one scouting director who said he had some trepidation last summer, but that wouldn't have prevented him from taking Strasburg first overall in the 2009 draft.

When he saw Strasburg again early this year, those concerns evaporated.

"He's not picture-perfect clean, but he's not a max-effort guy either," the scouting director said. "His arm works really good out front. When I saw him this year, he was a lot tighter and cleaner than he was last summer. I thought, 'Wow, he's really cleaned it up.' If I'm picking 1-1, he's my guy."

Another scout was more blunt.

"There's nothing that looks like a red flag to me," he said. "That is the newest annoying trend on the Internet to me, with all the mechanics experts. It's kind of a bizarre phenomenon, really. Of course, he's a pitcher, so he has a chance of breaking down and then they can say they are right."

FTN wrote:8 IP -- 2 ER -- 3 H -- 14 K -- 1 BB -- 1 HR

disappointing performance.

FTN wrote:i was just flipping through the channel lineup and stumbled upon a replay of OU v Kansas State. Its 13-0 OU in the top of the first, 2 outs.

FTN wrote:8 IP -- 2 ER -- 3 H -- 14 K -- 1 BB -- 1 HR

disappointing performance.