Is Washington nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg this decades Mark Prior?
Washington Nationals fans’ worst fears — not to mention those of the team’s management — were realized Friday when news broke that pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg needed elbow surgery that will shelve him for at least the next year. The dazzling 22-year-old had been on a strict pitch and inning count, but he still sustained a catastrophic injury, tearing a ligament in his valuable right arm a week ago Saturday. Strasburg, whose 100-mph fastball and devastating curveball were the talk of baseball all summer, likely will undergo Tommy John surgery, a procedure that has a 12- to 18-month rehabilitation process. “There’s no words that I can put in place here that would indicate we could possibly replace Stephen,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “But we have to do it a different way, different names, different staff members who will go out there and fulfill the rotation until Stephen comes back.” If this feels familiar, it should. In 2003, a 23-year-old righty with electric stuff ripped
