While rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals is hogging all of the attention another rookie pitcher has quietly helped his team to near the top of their division.  Mike Leake (above), pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, just a half a game out of first in the NL Central is right now one of the top contenders for the National League Rookie of the Year award, has a 7-1 Win/Loss record,  73 strikeouts, and a solid 3.45 ERA yet nobody outside of Reds Land seems to be paying him any attention.  Right now everyone is just pressed over Stephen Strasburg, his triple digit fastball, and why he should have, or should not have made the allstar team (I'm happy that he didn't, he hadn't had enough starts).  Now why would people ignore the real phenom here for a flamethrower that hasn't even been in the bigs for two months?  Maybe its because Strasburg's changeup has been clocked faster than Leake's fastball, maybe its that Leake  has two less strikeouts in 60 1/3 more innings, or maybe its because of Strasburg's miniscule 2.32 ERA and 1.07 WHIP?  Right now I don't know, But what I do know is Mike Leak deserves some respect and hopefully he will get it in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year.

-Andrew F, MVP Sports Talk

This article was taken from the archives and edited with updated stats (July 8, 2010)