Stephen Strasburg Will Start Opening Day for the Nationals

Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson announced that former number one overall pick Stephen Strasburg will take the mound for his first career opening day start on April 5th. That's big news for Strasburg, who was surpassing all expectations when he had to take a year off to get, and then recover from, Tommy John surgery.

Strasburg will reportedly be limited to around 160 innings for the season. A top starter will usually throw more than 200 innings over the course of a full season, so clearly the Nationals don't want to overwork their young star. Last year, Strasburg began his comeback with 5 starts and had a 1.50 ERA, but was held to just 24 innings total.