Less than 24 hours from now, the Washington Nationals will take Stephen Strasburg with the number one pick in the MLB draft. But dissenting voices are being heard. Nick Cafardo at The Boston Globe quoted one former baseball scouting director’s cautionary note: “If I were the Nationals I’d think long and hard about taking him,” this former scouting director said. ”I’ve seen the kid pitch and he’s the real deal, but he’s throwing against who he’s throwing against. This idea of having him go right to the majors could really set a poor example. It wouldn’t be a great situation for all of their other young pitchers the Nationals have up there now who have to do their time in the minors. The Nats have no reason to rush this kid to the big leagues other than public relations, exciting the fans and putting people in the seats. Those are all the wrong reasons for doing it.”

Yeah, that’s right. The Nats have no reason to do it other than PR, exciting the fans, and putting people in the seats. I know: let’s do it. Let’s do it now.

I don’t quite understand the reasoning here: the Nats haven’t made their young pitchers “do their time in the minors” because it’s some kind of rite-of-passage, but because they’re not ready for the majors. Who are we kidding? The Nats would pitch a nine-year-old if he was 6-4, threw 100 mph and had a killer hook. If Strasburg is ready now (as any number of scouts have said) what would be the possible reason for keeping him out of the Nats line-up? I can just hear the manager of the Syracuse Chiefs: “You know, Stevie-boy, you’re ready for the big time, but we’ve got to keep you down here because everyone has to pay their dues — you, Sandy Koufax, Logan Kensing, everyone.” 

Last week, Buck Showalter said that he wouldn’t take Strasburg, for the simple reason that he would cost too much money. Think what you could do with $50 million in Latin America or the Caribbean, Showalter said, and the kind of player development program you could establish. Tim Kurkjian added that the addition of Strasburg to the draft and the amount of money being discussed meant that the baseball draft would be changed forever. What did he mean? One of the ideas being batted around (so to speak) was the creation of a “medical combine” where teams could pool their resources to determine the physical quality of draft picks. The idea surfaced in the pages of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, where Brad Grant, the Indians’ director of amateur scouting, noted that MLB is “the only sport right now that doesn’t have one.” He added: ”It’s something that we feel we need. Especially, because right now the College World Series is going on. All these players have played; there’s been recent injuries that you don’t have time to assess.”  

Keith Law over at ESPN weighed in on Strasburg, saying that he believes the Nats will make him an immediate offer, sign him close to the signing deadline and then bring him up from the minors to pitch with the big club in September, perhaps as a reliever. Law says Strasburg will cost the Nats anywhere from 18 to 25 million dollars. The number two pick, Law speculates, will be Dustin Ackley, a centerfielder at UNC and the best hitter and position player in the draft. Ackley will go to Seattle. But word from the Mariners is that, while Ackley is “major league ready” they will keep him in the minors because they don’t want to hurt the feelings of their other great hitters, including Ronny Cedeno (.154). What about Icharo? Did he spend any time in the minors? “We’d rather follow the advice of that moron quoted in the Boston Globe,” a Seattle official told CFG.

For their second pick (number 10 overall), the Nats apparently have their eye on Drew Storen, who worked out for the team two weeks ago, and is one of the draft’s best relievers. While MLB’s mock draft has him going to Seattle lower in the first round (at 27), the Nats liked what they saw. Storen is a 6-2, 185 pound closer with a “devastating slider” and a low-90s fastball. What attracts the Nats is that Storen throws strikes and isn’t afraid to throw his off-speed pitch on high-ball counts. The Baseball Analysts sing Storen’s praises and quote him as saying that he believes the strikeout-to-walk stat is the best measure of his success. “I attack guys a lot,” Storen says. “I throw a hard fastball and two different types of breaking balls. One is what I call a power slurve. It doesn’t have a 12-6 break. It’s more a 2-7:30 break if you’re looking at a clock. It’s 81-83. Then I throw a true slider that’s 87-89. I throw a change, but not in a relief role. I throw a lot of strikes . . . My fastball is in the zone even when I get hit. That’s what happens when you throw strikes. I’m not one of those guys who’s going to be effectively wild. I don’t walk guys. I leave the ball up in the zone sometimes and pay for it. But I always try to jump ahead of guys and make them bite on a ball out of the zone when I get ahead.”

If the Nats take Storen, it would come as a surprise: most mock drafts have the Nats taking Kennesaw State starter Chad Jenkins with the tenth pick. Still, it would make sense, particularly with the way that the Nats have been burned by their bullpen this year. But Jenkins is not Strasburg — he’s likely to spend a couple of years in the minors.

The Natmosphere: kudos to Federal Baseball for their discovery of the Twitter dust-up between MASN commentator Rob Dibble and ESPN senior writer Rob Neyer. The two have been going at it over “Dribs” complaint over a called third strike on Adam Dunn during Randy Johnson’s 300th. Neyer takes on Dibble’s complaint about the call, but for the wrong reason. Which he readily admits: “Really, I just wanted an excuse to write about Rob Dibble. For years, I was less than a fan of his work at various networks. So you can imagine my shock, when I realized that I sort of like him in his current role with the Nationals. Yes, he’s still a blowhard who believes that if you didn’t play the game, you don’t know anything about it. But he’s got a good voice, he’s quite a bit smarter than you probably think, and he’s not been pulling his punches while the Nationals have become the biggest joke in the game” . . .

You know, I hate that kind of crap. If the Nats are “the biggest joke in the game,” it’s only because the commissioner’s office made them that way — by forcing them to sell-off or trade their best players. But I’ll just bet Rob Neyer wouldn’t call Bud Selig “the biggest joke in the game.” What do you think? Do you think Neyer has the spheres to do it? Or do you think he hopes to climb whatever ladder he thinks counts by greasing up to the powerful and well-known. Here’s a clue about Neyer: he’s a name-dropper, a baseball Zelig – an insecure man who will do anything to fit in. His ESPN bio says that he went to school and “fell in love almost immediately” (This is why I live: to know that Rob Neyer is in love) and that “he began his career with the legendary baseball author . . . Bill James.” Pull that bucket over here: time for the five minute vomit. The bio (it’s obviously written by this self-referencing little twit) then notes, proudly: “He attended the University of Kansas the same four years as Danny Manning.”

No. Really? Danny Manning. The Danny Manning? Oh wow.