Stephen Strasburg Is Destined to Bounce Back in the Season's 2nd Half

There's no denying that the first half of the season was a disaster for Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg, but he is primed for a huge second half when he returns from the disabled list.

Although his 2015 season has been marred by two separate stints on the DL and he has only pitched to a 5.16 ERA thus far, Strasburg has the talent to put together a run of starts that will bring his numbers back to respectability. After all, Strasburg's career ERA prior to this season was 3.02.

According to Chase Hughes of CSNWashington.com, Strasburg's return may come sooner than later:

The Nationals, who have been devastated by injuries, can't have Strasburg back soon enough with the New York Mets now trailing them by just three games in the National League East.

Strasburg's return may be the key to the Nationals finally playing to their potential and running away with the division. Although they are still in first place, a case can be made that they have been a disappointment thus far with a 51-42 record.

Additionally, for as great as Strasburg had been in his first five seasons, his 2015 campaign has been a disappointment as well.

The good news is that when Strasburg is healthy, he's as dominant as anyone in the game.

In a career-high 34 starts last season, the 27-year-old right-hander struck out a league-high 242 batters. It was the first time in his career that Strasburg eclipsed 200 innings, 200 strikeouts and finished in the top 10 in Cy Young Award voting.

Here is a highlight reel of his excellent 2014 season:

Coming off his career year, Strasburg was supposed to take the next step. He was supposed to rattle off closer to 20 wins and lead the star-studded Nationals to their first World Series in franchise history. The high-priced free-agent signing of fellow starting pitcher Max Scherzer should have been a smack in the face and motivated Strasburg, especially when Scherzer got the nod on Opening Day.

Thus far, however, the opposite has been true.

In his first return from the disabled list, Strasburg made three starts from June 23 to July 4. The Nationals won all three games and Strasburg looked dominant. According to Baseball-Reference.com, he struck out 18 batters in 15.2 innings, pitched to a 1.15 ERA and held opponents to a meager .161 batting average.

The key, according to Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post, was the effectiveness of Strasburg's changeup:

Strasburg's changeup has always been a key component of his arsenal.

The pitch, which is typically 88 mph, dives down and into right-handed batters, giving them a different look from his hard fastball and sharp curveball. While it was effective over his three-start stint from late June to early July, it has largely been underwhelming this season.

Here's a look at Strasburg escaping a jam by striking out Dustin Ackley on a filthy changeup last August:

Although the velocity of his changeup has stayed consistent with career norms at 88.1 mph, it has a minus-1.5 Pitchf/x value in 2015, per FanGraphs. The statistic, which calculates runs above average, is a good determining factor of the effectiveness of a certain pitch.

Strasburg's Pitchf/x changeup value was plus-13.1 last season, demonstrating a catastrophic drop this year.

John Minchillo/Associated Press

ESPN analyst Curt Schilling has been disappointed by Strasburg's career evolution and sudden drop-off in 2015.

"I just expected him to be a once-in-a-generation talent because he has once-in-a-generation stuff," Schilling said, per the Washington Post's Scott Allen. "Max [Scherzer] is doing what I expected Stephen to be doing pretty consistently.”

While Strasburg hasn't lived up to his potential this season, he can certainly turn things around when he returns from the disabled list. A healthy Strasburg will return to his dominant self, tearing through the National League and making good hitters look silly on a consistent basis.

He hasn't pitched like it in 2015, but his talent is too great to pitch like a pedestrian starter. His arsenal of pitches is too lethal to continue on with average numbers and a .500 record.

Strasburg was destined to be a star ever since he was drafted with the No. 1 pick of the 2009 MLB draft, and even though he has just one All-Star Game appearance in his career, he will pitch like a star for the remainder of 2015.

Strasburg now has a year-and-a-half to convince teams he is worth over $200 million upon his looming 2017 free agency.

He'll kick it into gear, and the Nationals' rotation will show everyone why it was picked as MLB's best prior to the start of this season.