Stephen Strasburg

ocess taking the lead in the Wild Card race.  It won’t be easy to edge Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg, but Posey has a legitimate chance to claim the National League Rookie of the Year award.

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The hype over Washington Nationals’ phenom Stephen Strasburg has been followed by terrific pitching from the young right-hander, but the Nats’ front office also deserves a lot of credit.  In his first three starts, Strasburg has faced the Pirates, the Indians, and the White Sox, all of whom rank near the bottom offensively.  While I think Strasburg has a tremendous amount of talent and is going to be a great pitcher for quite some time, I’d like to see how he fares against the heavy-hitting lineups of the Yankees, Reds, and Red Sox.

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training that Jason Heyward had made the big league roster, it made headlines in part because both Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman were being assigned to the minors.  However, after winning the starting right fielder’s job in Atlanta, the 20-year-old phenom wasted no time before impressing the baseball world by launching a three-run home run in his very first major league at-bat.  Batting seventh in the lineup behind Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, and others has limited the pressure on the 14th overall pick in the 2007 draft, but before long, you can expect to see Heyward taking his hacks in the cleanup spot.

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2) The debuts of promising young pitchers Stephen Strasburg (21) and Aroldis Chapman (22), who enter the season as the top NL Rookie of the Year candidates, despite the fact they could both start the season in the minors.  Strasburg played for Tony Gwynn at San Diego State before the Nationals chose him with the first overall pick in the 2009 draft and signed him to a record contract worth $15.1 million.  His college resume includes a 23-strikeout game, a no-hitter, and a 1.32 Earned Run Average in his final (junior) season.  Chapman, a southpaw, defected from Cuba just before signing a huge $30.25 million, six-year deal with the Reds.  He played on the Cuban team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

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