I'll see your rookie and raise you a rookie

In the movie The Dark Knight, The Joker said it best when he told Batman "This is what happens when an unstopabble force meets an unmovable object." Now I don't know who is the unstopabble force and who's the unmovable object, and I'm not sure if any Batman and Joker comparisons can be made here, but I do know that tonight will be the first of many Jason Heyward-Stephen Strasburg showdowns. During the off season, these two young phenoms received more hype than any other players in the game. Let's meet these two prodigies.

Through 9 starts Strasburg is 5-2 with a 2.32 ERA. In his debut on June 8, Nationals park sold out as tens of thousands of fans poured into the usually bleak and empty stadium that had seen nothing but futlity and heartbreak for its first 2 seasons (they played at RFK for the previous 4.) Those eager fans did not leave disapointed by the way. In 7 innings of work Strasburg slowly and methodically dismantled The Pittsburgh Pirates offense. Perhaps the only speed bump (if you can even call it that) of the game came in the third inning when Delwyn Young golfed at a Strasburg pitch and it happened to make its way over the right field fence. If you thought that a little 2 run homer by a below average outfielder would shake the 21 year old phenom, then guess again. Those were the only runs he gave up all game and he set a Nationals record with 14 strike outs and collected his first MLB W. What's most impressive about his performance so far, is that he has never given up more than 4 runs in one start, which oddly enough came against tonight's opponent, The Atlanta Braves. It should come as no surprise that his walk total is only 15, that's less than 1.5 walks per game. Compare that to his 75 strike outs and only 14 ER. Washington's new favourite son did face minor setbacks in two consecutive starts when he faced the Royals on June 23 and gave up 9 hits and still only managed to surrender one run. He was tagged with his first career loss when his teammates failed to provide him any run support (a problem he may continue to have.) Five days later he suffered through his worst start yet, and it still wasn't terrible. In 6 innings of work he gave up 4 runs on 6 hits and walked 2. That mediocre start was too much for the Nats to overcome as Braves ace Tim Hudson hurled a gem of his own. Strasburg bounced back and has pitched fantastic since and there is no reason to believe he is capable of anything less.

That was long. Speaking of long, did you see Jason Heyward's first home run? In case you didn't it was 414 feet. They don't make tape measures that long. From the first swing he ever took as a major leauger, Jason Heyward established himself as an Atlanta sports icon. While his stat line is rather modest at 11 Hr, 48 RBI, .276 avg. and 7 SB, there is little doubt that when we watch Heyward play, we are seeing the birth of a superstar. Like Strasburg, Heyward has had his share adversity as well. After injuring his thumb attempting to slide headfirst into third base, Heyward struggeled to find any consistency at the plate. His nagging injury eventually laned him on the 15 day DL. His thumb and shaky June performance didn't keep him from making the NL All-star team though. Heyward was among the top vote getters for National League outfileders (he couldn't play cause of his thumb.) Since his return from the DL, Heyward looks to be back on track, hitting safely in his last 9 games, and 6 of those games have been multi hit games. Not only does he hit well, but he is an above average defender with a rocket for an arm and has great speed on the base paths. He is a five tool player for sure. While other rookies like Ike Davis and Tyler Colvin certainly have a good shot at snagging the NL rookie of the year award away from either Heyward or Strasburg, the two legends in the making we will see tonight have more potential to be fixtures for their franchises for a long time to come.

-SB