Per ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5502866 Stephen Strasburg has a ligament tear in his elbow and requires reconstructive surgery.    He'll be out 12 - 18 months. 

As a baseball fan, this is ridiculously bad news.  Strasburg was a great reason to go out and see the Nats play.  And as we watched him pile up Ks and awesome performances, I couldn't help thinking that this is the greatest rookie pitcher performance since... Kerry Wood.  Wood lasted longer, unfortunately, under the tutelage of renowned shoulder/elbow assassin Dusty Baker. 

As a Pirates fan, this is especially troubling.  The Nats are not a small market team.  But the state of their organization is similar to ours - new stadium but bereft of talent.  The Nats have drafted aggressively, albeit relying more on ML ready talent.  Can you imagine if Strasburg had been drafted a Pirate?  It was a very real possibility with our new commitment to drafting the best available talent and our penchant for finiishing with spectularly bad records.  For the Nats this is a terrible, terrible loss.  For a team like the Bucs, with smaller margins for error, this would have been catastrophic.

Best wishes Stephen and I hope that he returns to form sooner than later.