Stephen Strasburg Out Until 2012 (?)

The news for Stephen Strasburg is obviously bad. If you own him, though, the news is obviously worse for you (at least from your perspective).

If you own him in a keeper league, you own him for one of two reasons:

1) You dumped for him at some point, thinking that he'd be the key to your season in 2011. Chances are good that you paid a pretty penny for him, since his owner was likely reluctant to move him, even if said owner was competing for next year. In my N.L. home league, for example, Strasburg was flipped for Josh Johnson and Chase Utley.

2) You were in contention and decided that either a) Strasburg would be so super wonderful terrific that there was no way in hell you'd move him unless you got an entire team's worth of players in return or b) Strasburg was going to pitch so well that he'd out earn any pitcher you'd get back.

If you own him because of reason #2, shame on you. Beyond the fact that you never know what you're going to get with a rookie pitcher, you should always go for it when you have a chance to grab the brass ring.

If you dumped for him, I can't quite say the same thing.

True, I warned about overestimating Strasburg this past May. At some point, though, you have to start trying to figure out who the best talents are that you can acquire for next year versus their salaries. Strasburg looked like he fit the bill in both cases.

And I don't buy into the idea that Strasburg was an injury waiting to happen. A number of people on Twitter - most notably Ray Flowers of BaseballGuys.com - were promoting the idea that Strasburg was an injury waiting to happen. I call nonsense on this idea.

I don't dispute the idea that throwing a baseball hard isn't something the human body was necessarily designed to do repeatedly. But this doesn't mean that Strasburg was a definite candidate to get hurt. Different bodies handle the stress of pitching differently.

The only thing I could say about Strasburg - or any pitcher - is that you might want to pay a little less for a pitcher in a dump deal going forward. Even without injuries, pitchers are riskier than hitters from season to season and there is great variability in their ERA/WHIP. I wouldn't advise on never acquiring a pitcher in a dump deal again, but try to pay a little less for a Strasburg than you would for, say, Mike Stanton.