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In 'Grease', Rizzo is the school tramp who is not immune to one night stands. She finally finds her soul mate in Kinickie and while we think their relationship will be bumpy with a lot of probable bad choices and most likely winding up in a trailer park, they'll still be together for a long time.

Mike Rizzo, similarly, wants more than a one night stand with Stephen Strasburg....uh, that of course is meant in a baseball sense.
I equate Rizzo and the Nationals with a startup NASCAR company who only has enough money for one car. If that car blows up, NASCAR is done for all involved. So with 450 miles of a 500 mile race done, Rizzo knows he has a car to win, but he's choosing to win with this car another day instead of chancing blowing up his car and his investment.
The difference in this analogy is that while pulling the car after 450 miles on the track in a NASCAR race with no chance of winning, Rizzo, armed with Gio, EJax, and JZim still has a darned good chance of going far this year.
Better with Strasburg?
Probably.
Still a great chance of winning?
Yes.
Can Rizzo be called a wuss and slave to the innings or pitch count?
Again, yes.

Rizzo is showing loyalty and integrity to an employee.
An employee who just may give the Nationals a home town discount when contract time comes. THAT could be worth a lot more in the long run than one more playoff victory.
Rizzo knows that having the best car is exciting for others to see. They have nothing to lose in watching something special. They want to see that something special in action. If the engine blows, they say 'too bad' and go on with their day. Rizzo cannot.

Rizzo has taken a lot of flak for the decision.
In a time where doing the 'easy thing' or 'going for the gold' while having the chance is the easy thing to do, Rizzo made the tough decision. He knows the Nationals cannot make choices like the Dodgers and Yankees and throw money at mistakes.
He's building.
One block at a time and knows he has something special with the young players the Nationals have accumulated.

It is election time. If Rizzo were running for office, I'd vote for him. In a time where politicians are so used to telling us what we want to hear, Rizzo is making a decision and telling the public to flake off if they don't like it.
We've become a win at all costs and win NOW society. Rizzo wants to win and win OFTEN.
I may be alone, but I like his philosophy a lot more than the public seems to.
And, I respect him more for standing by his decision.

i love all your posts and i dont disagree with a lot you write, but I don't buy that by rizzo treating strasburg with kid gloves is ever to going to lead to strasburg giving him and washington a break on his next contract. He will ask for the moon and he should. My guess is the kid is a competitor and he could care less about innings limits. At this moment in time he actually has a chance for him and his team to not only make the playoffs but win the world series. That doesn't happen every year. I'm sure you or some other stats guy can list a whole bunch of Hall of Fame players whose teams never made the playoffs. or a whole bunch of great players who never got to the world series.

The mistake was made 2 years ago when they brought him up, he had arm issues, they shut him down for a short period of time and when there was no reason to pitch him that GM and company pitched him and he blew his arm out. That was foolish and had no rhyme or reason, so if im a washington fan and i know the pain that the orioles have gone through, I'm furious with not only that decision but also the call to shut the kid down. There is no guarantee by shutting him down now that strasburg wont blow his arm out next season. He could be the next prior or wood even though Dusty Baker isnt managing him.

If I'm a washington fan i dont care about rizzo protecting his savior, I want wins, and I want to make the playoffs and know that we are going in full force, not sitting little stevie because his has reached some arbitrary innings limit. The fans pay the salaries of strasburg and rizzo, and yet rizzo is telling his fan base, sorry but we refuse to put the best product on the field.

I want to hear from strasburg. Maybe he thinks at minimum he should pitch in the bullpen. Maybe he wants to be shut down, but maybe he wants to put his team on his shoulders and lead them to the world series.

I cant wait to find out what happens. love your stuff doughboys, please keep it up!

The 400 lb gorilla in this situation is the medical/legal/insurance issues that are likely the latent driving force behind all this. There is ALWAYS more to a scenario that the general public is aware (which is why 99% of the time I stick to numerish) but in this instance, I'll comment because I think RIzzo is getting some heat without everyone being 100% cognizant of all the involved ramifications.

ToddZ wrote:The 400 lb gorilla in this situation is the medical/legal/insurance issues that are likely the latent driving force behind all this. There is ALWAYS more to a scenario that the general public is aware (which is why 99% of the time I stick to numerish) but in this instance, I'll comment because I think RIzzo is getting some heat without everyone being 100% cognizant of all the involved ramifications.

Along these same lines, we're looking at this as a Tug of War between Rizzo and fans with Strasburg as the rope.
It may not be that way.
Behind the scenes, it could be representitives of Strasburg himself, who are helping to pull strings.
While Strasburg remains the guy in white and publicly says he wants to pitch, his reps and Rizzo may have decided a long time ago that this is what is best for both parties.

being a Nats season ticket holder, albeit in a group of about 20 and attending only about 10 games a year, I guess I have an opinion with a bit more "at stake" than most.

First, with Boras as his agent, I find it hard that a home-town discount will happen although in five years who knows.

Second, I agree with what Rizzo is doing. Reading the Washington Post, my feeling is that a majority of the true fan base agrees while the "johnny come lately" fan want the Nats to go all out and the hell with the future. In general, the baseball networks and their analysts want to see Strasburg pitch. Of course, if he develops any type of arm trouble next year they will immediately criticize the Nats. The future is unclear but there seems to be more data [from medical people knowledgeable in baseball] out there saying he should have a reduced workload rather than cross that 200 inning barrier. With a career 92 MLB innings, these writers are saying the Nats should pitch him for over 200.

I am not sure the Nats could make the WS with Strasburg but will but hoping like hell. When we had a "lottery" for the playoff tickets, I ended up with game 2 of the LCS and game 7 of the WS. It's been a long time since a game 7 but, if there is one, I will be there six rows from the field behind the first baseman.

What a seat! Awesome.

I'll go back to what Todd pointed out. We don't know the whole story. For all we know, a deal dependant on Strasburg's innings or use this year could be an under the table deal between Rizzo and Boras.
We don't know.

But, whatever the case, I admire Rizzo for sticking to his guns no matter the reason.
He could have folded under the pressure from media and groups as the Nats get closer and closer to a pennant.
He didn't.