Why don't the Nats shut down Strasburg NOW

Shut him down for over a month then throw him into playoff games?

Brilliant.

It's impossible to completely shut down a pitcher only to use him a little over a month later.

A SP's routine for preparing for pitching in the majors requires constant throwing whether it's a bullpen in the middle of the week before he pitches on the weekend, casual tossing the day before, or pitching in a game.

You can't just "shut down" Strasburg if you expect him to throw in a little over a month away.

Ok I've been waiting for another Strasburg thread to talk about this.
Here in Dallas they have a Saturday morning sports medicine/therapy radio show hosted where a very well known, accomplished Sports injury doctor (forgot his name but works with a lot of pros and teams). He was talking about the Nats shutting down Strasburg and he said medically there is no reason to limit a pitchers innings after he has fully recovered from Tommy John surgery, as far as protecting an arm for the future. He said pitching 160 innings instead of 210 this year isn't going to make any difference at all in Strasburgs arm health. According to him there are only three reasons the Nationals could be capping his innings
1. They don't know this, or their management doesn't believe this to be true (even though he said it's pretty much medically proven). He says this is unlikely because they have team doctors and trainers ect that surely know all the information he does.

2. They are worried about his mechanics and that he's going to hurt himself again because of poor mechanics or poor arm endurance. As far as the mechanics he and I both agree it's possible this could be true, I mean he got hurt once right? But he makes a good point saying that if they are worried about his mechanics and hurting himself because of that, they are taking a risk letting him pitch at all. He's just as likely to hurt himself in inning 100 than inning 200 if he has a mechanical hitch causing arm strain. And as far as poor arm endurance, He said and I agree that this is hard to believe since he is a professional, elite pitcher and should have his arm in the best shape possible

3. His surgery didn't take like it was supposed to and the more he throws the more risk there is that he is going to re injure that tendon and have to have a second Tommy John. This is possible but again if it were true it would be a huge risk pitching him at all. Also if true that's terrible news for Nats fans.

I know tl;dr but I think it's interesting

short version: there really isn't much for Strasburg to gain health wise by stopping after 160 innings unless his arm hasn't fully healed yet

They won't shut him down Strasburg until they absolutely lock down a playoff spot. I know the Nationals have the best record in baseball, but I'm pretty sure the Braves are behind them and they could make a run in September. But this is tricky because if Strasburg does get close to his limit, they are going to need him in the playoffs, badly.

If he's not going to pitch, what's the point of playing?