There’s a good discussion at The Book Blog on how best to use Stephen Strasburg’s 160 innings this year. Tom Tango suggests pitching him against contenders for the division and wild card, while the first comment suggests maximizing attendance. It really does depend on what is expected from the team this year. If the Nationals think they can compete for the playoffs, pitching Stephen against contenders would be the better strategy. If the team is just trying to break the .500 barrier, the attendance strategy might yield more money for the real run in 2014.

There is also the issue of regularity. I don’t think the team should fool around too much with his days off between starts. What I would do is start him for five innings for his first 20 starts. That would leave him 60 innings, so he could go six innings in each of his last ten starts. That might really be important if the team is really in contention at that time.