I know it's early days but if I were a Nats fan, I'd be excited about Stephen Strasburg, a non-fiction Sid Finch of sorts.

Strasburg has thrown 20.1 innings this season, and he has 45 strikeouts. That means that out of the 61 outs he's registered, 45 are by strikeout. "It's like watching someone play one of those baseball video games for the first time -- it's like the hitters are completely guessing where he's going to throw the ball," said the scout. "They're just swinging in a spot and hoping that's where he throws it, because they can't track it."
The way you're describing him, I say to the scout, you're talking about someone who could be in the big leagues this summer?
The scout laughs. "You could put him in a rotation right now, and he could be a No. 2 or No. 3 starter," says the scout. "Right now, he's better than A.J. Burnett."

So good he even makes it into a Padres blog for the box office chaos he created.

*****

In the WBC Team USA was humiliated by Puerto Rico, 11-1, halted because of the "mercy rule". The loss means that in order to avoid early elimination again they will have to beat the surprising Dutch on Sunday. Puerto Rico is undefeated in the tournament so far. (4 games in a row with a somewhat dodgy Venezuela up next - I expect the Team USA will get the opportunity for a little revenge in the final.

One current Met and one potential Met, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Rodriguez combined to go 6-for-7, including two doubles and a home run.

However, perhaps worrisome for the Mets this season, Javier Vazquez, a Braves off season pich up, pitching masterfully in this game; pitched five innings and gave up just one run, improving to 2-0 with a 0.96 ERA in two starts.

*****


Seriously, who needs March Madness when you've got Patriot Cheerleader Try Outs?

*****

Unfortunately those who followed that miraculous six OT thriller the other night and the 1 OT upset the following night will be disappointed to note that the Orangemen were unable to upset Louisville to win the Big East tournament.

If you are going to root for Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament (and they, along with Maryland will be my unofficial teams I rooting for irrespective of my bloody bracket,) maybe this is all for the best - not that it excludes Syracuse from any further games since this was the final but something tells me winning the Big East would have been a stigma for them going in.

I suppose at this point, the favourite Number One seeds should be Louisville, (along with Pitt and U Conn (despite early outs) and Memphis.

I know, Memphis is a bit of a stretch considering North Carolina, and a small handful of others but fuck it, Carolina couldn't beat Florida State and whilst they may have Duke's number, they aren't a shoo-in as far as I'm concerned.

*****

One of my brackets is going to following the logic of 15 ways to pick the winners.

My second bracket is going to be teams I want to root for and the third, a simple coin flip with perhaps a weighted coin in the top against lowest seeds...

I'm sure you're all waiting with baited breath to find out the results of these masterpieces.