Scott Boras on Stephen Strasburg, and Pete Rose's cork

Thanks to technical difficulties, I'm completing this entry as Stephen Strasburg is officially a big-leaguer. He retired Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Lastings Milledge 1-2-3, with Milledge going down on three pitches, the last one a nasty curveball.

Anyway, prior to the game, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman spoke of how Strasburg won't throw more than 100 pitches, as per the organization's plan. Riggleman sounded relieved by the guidance. He managed Kerry Wood as a rookie in 1998, with the Cubs, and didn't receive similar direction.

Scott Boras, Strasburg's agent, is here, and he echoed the sentiment. Sure, Strasburg might get frustrated by being handcuffed, Boras said, but it's for his own good. In his 11 minor-league starts this season, Strasburg totaled 55 1/3 innings, averaging just over five innings per start.

"As good as Stephen feels, as strong as he feels, I don’t want him to feel any other way," Boras said. "The organization had a plan. There was a science to the plan. There were reasons for the plan. Over the long haul, they wanted him to throw more pitches at this level than if they were preparing at that level. It’s always going to be frustrating to an athlete, because he wants to win wherever he is.

"We’ve all seen the numbers. We all know from the Goodens and the Dierkers, that as you get to 22, 23, if you throw too many innings before that age, you more than likely won’t be throwing any pitches past 30."

--Deadspin reported a very interesting story on Pete Rose allegedly corking his bat, during his final playing days in 1985. It passes my smell test. Not that it would have any tangible impact on anything - he's not making the Hall of Fame, anyway - but it is funny that a guy always whining that what he did wasn't as bas the steroid users' crime, might also have cheated to win games.

--I highly recommend this awesome Mets blog, which captures each game of the 2010 season in pop art form.

How did I learn of these last two items? I confess: It was Twitter.