Stephen Strasburg perhaps the finest young pitcher in baseball turns 24 today. He is 10-4 on the season. Strasburg had Tommy John surgery towards the end of the 2010 season, came back and pitched a little at the end of last year. The talk all season from the Nationals has been 160 innings and then they will shut him down. The Nationals are in first place. Who knows they could have a team that could go to and win the World Series. The other day they backed down from that stance and said they would shut him down- when they felt the time was right the eye test. Who are they fooling. This team has a chance to win it all- he won’t be shut down. If they were 10 games out of the playoffs you shut him down at 160 innings-not when you have a first place team. I have no memory of any team ever shutting a player down and this won’t go on record as the first occurance.
slicethelife 
i agree. if the team drives off a cliff they shut him down, being in contention – not going to happen.
i read somewhere -before the all-star break- if they had wanted to ease up on him a bit- a great opportunity—skip his last start before the break.. you get that time off at the break and then have him start the 4th or 5th game when they return…..can you imagine answering to your fan base–well yes we could have won it all this year but…. na he’s not going to be shut down.