Expectations

There is never any way of knowing how it will go for the "Can't Miss" players when they start their careers. Starlin Castro is holding up just fine. Ike Davis has had a slump after a fast start, so the jury is still out. Cameron Maybin, Mike Wieters and others have disappointed. So it's hard to predict how Stephen Strasburg and Mike Stanton will do. But it sure will be fun to find out.

On Monday night, the Fan was confused on what day it was. That happens when you work for yourself sometimes. At 7:00 PM ET, the Fan fired up the laptop and got on MLB.TV to watch Strasburg and then laughed at himself for the premature enthusiasm. But that's what this debut is doing to fans all over the country. The Fan can't remember any one player who has created this much of a buzz before ever throwing a pitch.

How will Strasburg do? It's hard to know. A lot will depend on if he throws strikes or not and how many high counts he gets himself into. The Nationals will be protecting his pitch counts so don't expect more than five innings, six tops. But if he has control issues early, he won't even be around that long.

The Nationals were smart to start him against a team like the Pirates. No knock on the team from Pittsburgh, but they do have less of a line up than some of the other teams around the NL. If you're going to learn how to swim, it's always best to do it in the shallow end of the pool.

What can be predicted is that there will be a huge audience as interest is amazingly high. And yeah, this Fan will be one of the ones watching.