Jason Heyward just may be able to save baseball. What you say, Opening Day is too soon to make such a bold statement? Henry Aaron doesn’t think so and neither do I. Heyward electrified Atlanta Monday in his first at bat in the majors by tattooing a Carlos Zambrano pitch over the Right Field Wall. The twenty year old Rookie announced his presence with authority as Nuke LaLoosh would say.

Now, I’m not just singing Heyward’s praises because I predicted him as the National League Rookie of the year, this guy can flat out play. At 6′5″ and 240 lbs Heyward has a build suited more for a tight end than for Right Field, but Heyward never played football and every Atlanta fan can thank his dad for that. Heyward has already racked up a slew of minor league awards in his short professional career and a mastery of the strike zone that some veterans, think Alfonso Soriano, should have learned years ago.

Heyward has a difficult task ahead. Not too many 20-year-olds stick around in the majors except for a taste. Mickey Mantle was sent down in the middle of his rookie year after he couldn’t live up to the hype and some struggle even longer like the Royals Alex Gordon. So should I put away the anointing oil? No, Bill Parcells. This kid is the real deal.

Consider this, Heyward has already played in 238 professional games working his way through the Braves system. In those games Heyward batted .318 and had an OPS of .899. That is the same average that a young Ken Griffey Jr. compiled after 30 less games, and a comparable OPS, Griffey’s was .890. Outside of the numbers there is just the presence of him as a player. Len Kasper, broadcaster for the Cubs commented that the ball just sounded different coming off his bat, while the Braves playbyplay man Chip Carray joked that he thought Heyward may have “broke the ball”.

All of this aside the one thing that will set Heyward apart from those that have come before him is his maturity. Everyone agrees that he carries himself better than most players his age and he surprises teammates with his major league readiness. The only thing that can slow him down will be injuries. He has all the physical tools and the brains to go with it.

I’m usually very cynical, despite me pretty much announcing my candidacy for President of the Jason Heyward fan club, but I wanted to jump on this train before it left the station. Now lets hope I haven’t cursed the poor guy.