DEVELOPING: Strasburg is going to need Tommy John surgery....

Stephen Strasburg/courtesy: watchmojo.com

It looks like Washington Nationals pitcher/savior Stephen Strasburg won't be doing a whole lot of pitching for next year or two. According to reports, he has a "significant" tear in his ulnar collateral ligament (elbow).

Yikes! Strasburg is in his 1st MLB season and yes, has pitched a significant number of innings for a rookie, but this came as a shock to him and to the Nationals.

More from the Washington Post...RIGHT HERE

Strasburg was 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA on the season. He had thrown just over 123 innings this year, split between the Minors and the big club.

This, we think, may set off a wave of panic among pitching coaches and team management. There has been a lot of talk about the workload on young pitchers, but some seem to handle it better than others. We read a report recently that quoted a National League scout as saying with Strasburg's delivery, it was just a matter of time.

The question will be "can he come back"? Most do, heck, some pitchers come back better if they are willing to put in the work. It remains to be seen if Strasburg will be one of those. We hope he doesn't end up like other "Flash in the Pans" such as Mark Prior, but that story is yet to come.

Here's Strasburg addressing his long road back once the shock rolled away, thanks to our friends at CSNWashington...