A Surprising but Welcomed Contract Extension — Stephen Strasburg to Stay in DC

Everyone assumed that this would be Stephen Strasburg’s last year as a National. I was talking to someone about it a couple weeks back when Strasburg was pitching in the game that lasted 16 innings. We both agreed that Strasburg was really on this year. He looked really good. Probably a banner year for him. Maybe even a 20 win season. But unfortunately his last as a Nat. We reminisce over the great games we saw him pitch in. I talked about the starts I saw him pitch toward the end of last year. He was just amazing.

I was keeping track of last night’s game on my phone. I ended up watching the last few innings on TV. I checked the game tracker to look at the stats for the game. Then all of a sudden this headline of Strasburg signing an extension. I was really surprised and so was everyone else.

From the Post:

This is just an eyes-out-of-the-sockets stunner. In surprising developments at a ballpark on an unsuspecting May evening, this has to outdo Strasburg’s major league debut, that 14-strikeout, hello-world epic from 2010 that still ranks up there in terms of an overhyped event somehow exceeding the hype. Yet in a way, we were prepped for that night. Anyone who claims they saw this coming either hasn’t been paying attention or is uttering a bald-faced lie.

Strasburg declined to comment on the extension, which is likely to be announced at a news conference Tuesday. But he said this much: He is, now, comfortable in Washington, and there was a time in his life when he couldn’t have envisioned uttering such statements.

“Growing up in Southern California — San Diego — all my life and stuff, the East Coast is a little bit of a change,” Strasburg said. “But the city of D.C. has been great to me and my family. It’s really grown on us. We’re very comfortable here.”

That’s what this is about, more than anything: Comfort, on both sides.

It's great that he's going to remain a National. I think we have only started to see just how great a pitcher he will become.