After first winter in D.C., Strasburg hopes he's found key to puzzle

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Stephen Strasburg stayed in Washington this winter for the first time in his career. Yes, as alluring as San Diego may be, Strasburg didn't want to uproot his family for only a few months.

"When you have a family and the kids start to get older, you want to establish roots," said the father of two young girls. "It's kind of hard to be bi-coastal every year, so we stayed on the East Coast this year."

Which was no big deal for Strasburg, provided he had access to a throwing mound and training equipment. Like the kind they have at Nationals Park ... when the doors were unlocked.

"I tried to," he said. "Surprisingly, the park was shut down. I'd go there twice a week just to get out of the house."

Don't worry, folks. Strasburg was still able to do everything he needed to do this winter, either at the ballpark or in his basement gym. And he's been in Florida for a while, beginning the process of building up his arm again after an aggravating season that saw him miss a total of two months with a nagging shoulder injury.

Even when he returned to the mound in late August, Strasburg didn't look quite like his old self. The results were good - he went 4-0 with a 2.66 ERA over his last seven starts - but the stuff wasn't up to his usual standards. Strasburg's fastball velocity, typically 95-96 mph earlier in the season, dropped to 93 mph during that final stretch.

The right-hander expressed optimism at season's end that the velocity would return once he had a full, normal winter of rest and re-strengthening. We'll have to wait until he starts appearing in games later this spring to know for sure, but he expressed continued optimism today when asked if he feels more like his old self right now.

"Old self, I don't really know what that necessarily means. But I think, mechanically, I feel much better than I was at this point last year," he said. "It seemed like for some reason I was having a tough time staying consistent with mechanics and executing. That seemed to come back pretty fast this time."

For all the success he's enjoyed during his nine big league seasons to date - yeah, it's been nine seasons, impossible as that is to believe - Strasburg's career has often been defined more for the games he hasn't pitched vs. the games he actually has pitched.

Things seemed to be heading on the right path following the Nationals' well-publicized and debated shutdown of Strasburg in September 2012. He made 30 starts and totaled 183 innings in 2013, then followed that up with a career-high 34 starts and 215 innings in 2014. He hasn't come close to matching those totals since, instead averaging 24 starts and 145 innings each of the last four seasons.

That underwhelming track record has left Strasburg in something of a constant state of tinkering, especially during the offseason, when he can afford to explore different methods.

"I would say I always try something new," he said. "It seems like I'm still working on trying to figure out the puzzle. But I think this year was really productive. I kind of hit the ground running once we were done in Colorado (the season finale) last year. I started putting the wheels in motion."

Time will tell whether Strasburg is finally able to find the right combination to maximize his abilities and make as many starts as possible.

What are the target numbers? Strasburg tries not to think in those kinds of specific terms. He just wants to answer the bell for his team when it needs him most.

"As a starting pitcher, you want to be one of those horses that can go out there and make every one of your starts and give the team some quality innings," he said. "It kind of throws a wrench in the plans when guys go down and you have to have other guys step up to cover the slack. But we have a lot of depth on this team, too. I'm just going to do my part and trust that all the hard work I put in during the offseason is going to pay off."