Stephen Strasburg named to Topps Rookie All Star Team

Each season for the last 52 years Topps has honored one rookie that they consider to be the premier player at each position for starting pitchers they name one right handed and one left handed pitcher.

Prior to having his season ended early due to an unfortunate injury that required Tommy John Surgery he managed to put up some very impressive numbers and show exactly why the Nats drafted him first overall

12 starts- 5 wins to 3 losses with a 2.91 era and a 1.074 whip

Despite having just turned only 22 years old on July 20th Strasburg showed the command and poise on the mound that is normally only seen in seasoned veterans who have pitched with the spotlight placed directly on them. His games where often nationally televised which is rare for the Nationals and when he played the attendance numbers rose compared to the other games of the series.

Just him being named as the starter increased attendance whether it was on the road

Sunday June 13th at Cleveland 32,876 (next closest game of the series 22,041)
Monday June 28th at Atlanta 42,889 (next closest game of the series 20,091)
Friday July 16th at Florida 27,037 ( next closest game of the series 23,005)
Wednesday July 21st at Cincinnati 37,868 (next closest game of the series 23,115)
Saturday August 21st at Philadelphia 45,266 (next closest game of the series 45,093)

or at home

Tuesday June 8th home 40,315 (next closest game of the series 21,767)
Friday June 18th home 40.325 (next closest game of the series 36, 487)
Wednesday June 23rd home 31,913 (next closest game of the series 21,168)
Saturday July 3rd home 39,214 (next closest game of the series 29,234)
Friday July 9th home 34,723 (next closest game of the series 23,977)
Tuesday July 27th home 40,043  (next closest game of the series 30,263)
Tuesday August 10th home 25,939 (next closest game of the series 16,496)
Sunday August 15th home 21,659 (only game where it did not have the highest attendance)

(quick not I got the attendance numbers from baseball-reference.com.. Now as for the August 15th game I was in attendance at that game and it had been raining for hours even prior to the start of the game so the seriously nasty weather kept a lot of people from coming out)

He showed great control at the mound having thrown 92 strikeouts to just 17 walks over 68 innings pitched. He proved on several occasions he was able to get behind in the count and still battle back which was highly impressive to see for a kid as young as he is. His 12.2 strike outs per 9 innings would have led all starting pitchers had he pitched in enough innings to qualify.

Despite the Tommy John surgery he still played in enough games and showed enough on the mound to where he definitely deserves this honor.  So congratulations to Stephen Strasburg