You have no doubt read about Stephen Strasburg, the supposed once-in-a-generation phenom out of San Diego State, whom the Nationals selected with the first overall pick of the June amateur draft Tuesday.

Fantasy owners have eagerly joined the throng of followers, thinking that Strasburg embodies some sort of remarkable hope for their fantasy teams. Strasburg may well become a great pitcher, or he might be a dud in the mold of too many other can't-miss prospects ahead of him.

One thing is for sure: he will not have a significant impact in the majors this year. For that reason, fantasy owners (unless they are in keeper leagues) need not waste their time with the 20-year-old flamethrower.

Strasburg already has more than 100 innings under his belt this year; for as hard as he throws, he will not be able to handle duplicating that workload throughout the remainder of the summer. Plus, he has to sign a contract, a potentially long and drawn out process because of agent Scott Boras.

Even if he does sign and defy the odds by making it to the majors this year, Strasburg is likely to face difficulties in his initial big-league starts. Tim Lincecum, last year's NL Cy Young winner and a record-setting pitcher for the University of Washington (Washington plays in a much tougher conference than Strasburg's San Diego State), struggled at the outset with the Giants.

Lincecum made it to the majors 10 months after he signed and in his second full year was deemed the best pitcher in the league. However, in his first 10 major-league starts, he was 2-2 with a 5.19 ERA. The learning curve is unlikely to be much different for Strasburg.

Although Strasburg is not a valuable fantasy commodity this season, some other early draft picks from recent years are.

nRick Porcello, Tigers, 27th pick, first round, 2007. Porcello is the youngest man in the majors right now, having turned 20 in December. He picked up his seventh win of the season Friday night in an excellent display in Pittsburgh. He has a 3.71 ERA and a 1.265 WHIP.

Porcello played one year in the Tigers' minor league system and pitched just 125 innings with Lakeland. Therefore, there is a definite chance that he will hit the rookie wall in late summer. Until then, he is available in almost 30 percent of leagues and is worth acquiring where he is a free agent.

nVin Mazzaro, Athletics, 21st pick, third round, 2005. The 22-year-old Mazzaro made his third major-league start on Friday night, a 3-0 defeat to the Giants that moved his record to 2-1. Thus far, Mazzaro has yielded a run in only one of his 19.2 innings pitched this year. His ERA is an impressive 1.37.

Mazzaro was the 2008 Pitcher of the Year in the Double-A Texas League, and he twice earned Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week honors earlier this spring. He has had success at every level and deserves a look from fantasy owners. He is a free agent in roughly two-thirds of all fantasy leagues.

nAndrew McCutchen, Pirates, 11th pick, first round, 2005. McCutchen made his way into the Bucs' starting lineup when they dealt center fielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta. Going into spring training last year, McCutchen was expected to battle McLouth for a starting job. McLouth won the spot and went on to have a breakout season. Even so, the Pirate brass thought that McCutchen had the ability to perform on par with the All-Star McLouth.

In McCutchen's first nine games, he has posted a .310 batting average with six runs scored. He does not have a lot of power, but he should steal a good number of bases. He hit .303 with four homers, 10 steals and 41 runs scored in 49 games with Triple-A Indianapolis before his promotion to the majors.

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Dan Massey's Fantasy Sports appears each Sunday. E-mail him at dmassey@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus