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There was lot of hype the other night over the major league debut of phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg in Washington, and he more than lived up to the hype by pitching 7 strong innings, striking out 14 and not walking a single hitter, and picking up the win. The Nationals then drafted another young player with amazing stats, a player named Bryce Harper, who graduated high school 2 years early at 15, and put up amazing power numbers this season at the College of Southern Nevada. He was a catcher but is being moved to the outfield by the Nats.  There are a lot of amazing young players who are starting to revive the game as it tries to move past the steroid era. The best thing I saw in watching the highlights of Strasburg’s debut was that he appears to be built like a normal human being, not a pumped-up Pillsbury Doughboy like Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire and Roger Clemens did at the end of their careers. The Braves have a bright young prospect also in outfielder Jason Heyward, who homered in his first major league at-bat and has drawn praise from Braves’ legend Hank Aaron and excited the fan base. Some of the other rising rookie stars are Marlins outfielder Mike Stanton, Giants catcher Buster Posey, Reds pitcher Mike Leake, and Mets 1st baseman Ike Davis. Obviously from looking at this list the majority of the rookie stars are in the National League, but there are some game-changers in the AL also, like outfielders Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch of the Tigers, pitcher Mitch Talbot of the Indians ( a 26 year old rookie who was acquired from Tampa Bay), plus the Indians have a rising star in the minors who should be called up sometime soon, a catcher named – Oye Como Va! – Carlos Santana. Rangers closer Neftali Feliz has also been impressive.  There are others waiting in the wings in the minors, and the sooner they get called up the better, since baseball needs the new blood to continue to put the steroid era behind it.