An interesting article about the history of coddling vs. abusing pitchers and trying to determine whether coddling prevents injury:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...sburg-too-soon
He basically says that the percentage of young "phenom" type pitchers who burn out fast has dropped in recent years due to pitch counts and other things, and that because of that, Strasburg is already protected against injury risk far better than anyone from 25 years ago was, because the way pitchers are developed now is more friendly to arms. Coddling him even more by shutting him down isn't necessary because he's already coddled.