Kids Are Alright: Mike Stanton Crashes Stephen Strasburg's Party

When one of the game's top prospects makes his major league debut, it's a big deal. Fireworks are ordered and standing room only seats go on sale at the ballpark. Think back to opening day when Jason Heyward belted a home run in his first major league at-bat for the Atlanta Braves. The buzz around baseball doesn't get more magical than that.

What happens when two of the top prospects in baseball arrive on the same day?

We'll see on Tuesday night when both Stephen Strasburg and Mike Stanton make their major league debuts for the Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins, respectively.

Strasburg was given the No. 2 ranking on Baseball America's top prospect list back in March of 2010, while Stanton was ranked third. Now all three players from the top of the list will be playing in the big leagues.

After being selected first in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, Strasburg followers counted the days to his impending meeting with the Nationals pitching staff. He made five starts for Double-A Harrisburg and six starts for Triple-A Syracuse this season before the realization that he was overmatching minor league hitters forced his promotion. Through those 11 minor league starts he compiled a 7-2 record with a 1.30 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings.

Strasburg is owned in 87 percent of fantasy leagues, so you aren't going to make some sneaky waiver wire play on him before his start tonight. Whoever drafted him back in March is going to reap the rewards of that speculative play moving forward.

Stanton, on the other hand, is only owned in 40 percent of fantasy leagues. Head to the waiver wire right now and see if he's available. Here's why:

Stanton was selected in the second round on the 2007 First-Year Player Draft and hit 39 home runs in the minors in 2008, then 28 in 2009. But it's been the first few months of the 2010 season that have fantasy owner salivating for Stanton.

Through 190 at-bats at Double-A Jacksonville, Stanton has 21 home runs and 12 doubles while driving in 52 runs. He's sporting a batting average of .311 with a 1.167 OPS. If you're weren't counting, that's a home run in every 9.05 at-bats and an RBI in every 3.65 at-bats. The math actually works well with his RBI numbers. His 52 RBI have come in 52 games, meaning on average, he's driving in a run per game.

What should you expect from Strasburg and Stanton in fantasy terms?

The Nationals have already said that they plan to limit Strasburg's innings to 160 this year between the minors and his time in Washington. That will give him roughly 17 starts or some combination of starts and relief appearances to allow him to keep pitching for the entire season without being shut down.

I'm picturing 103 innings of work with a 3.08 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. Strasburg could win seven games and strike out 99 batters.

With all of Stanton's power comes one big risk. Stanton strikes out enough to make Mark Reynolds blush. That aspect of Stanton's game is going to be picked apart by big league pitchers, which will likely lead to dry spells where he doesn't put up good numbers and time on the bench to avoid the stronger arms in the league.

Stanton will likely get around 275 at-bats and hit 16 home runs. You can expect 47 RBI with 42 runs scored and maybe a stolen base or two.