Sports

MLB’s Draft Class of 2010 has chance to be great

Last week, when the ping-pong balls bounced in favor of the Washington Wizards, it was understood John Wall was coming to town.

Last month, when Mel Kiper Jr. was on TV more than Jay Leno, it felt as if we knew everything about Sam Bradford except boxers or briefs. Baseball does not have the same hype machine because the college game is not as nationally popular and players almost always have minor league apprenticeships before having a chance to impact the majors.

But this season — in Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg — MLB has had players receive advanced notice befitting a summer blockbuster movie.

“And what I find interesting,” an NL executive said, “is that they are living up to it. That is a lot of attention, a lot of hype, a lot or what you would expect from the NBA and NFL. And those guys have handled it.”

It appears the only road block to Heyward winning the NL Rookie of the Year is Strasburg, which is amazing because he is not even in the majors yet. The expected due date is sometime in June. And the calling card at this moment includes three starts at Triple-A in which the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft has allowed no runs in 181⁄3 innings, and the proclamation from Curt Schilling that Strasburg might be the best pitcher in the majors upon his arrival.

With two players of this ilk in the pipeline, are we looking at an historic rookie class? Obviously, we will not know for years. The competition in just the division play era includes:

2006: Matt Cain, Andre Ethier, Prince Fielder, Josh Johnson, Ian Kinsler, Nick Markakis, Russell Martin, Jonathan Papelbon, Hanley Ramirez, Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver and Ryan Zimmerman.

2001: Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Alfonso Soriano, Roy Oswalt, Jimmy Rollins and Adam Dunn.

1982: Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken and Ryne Sandberg (all Hall of Famers) plus Jesse Barfield, Chili Davis, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Willie McGee and Steve Sax.

Will 2010 join the list? Here are some thoughts on the class:

THE GOLDEN CHILDREN

Heyward is on pace for 127 RBIs in his age-20 season. Here is the list of players who have produced than many or more at 20 or younger: Mel Ott and Ted Williams. Strasburg has allowed four hits in three Triple-A starts.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Strasburg is not the only talent on the horizon for this year. Many teams are waiting until June for service time/arbitration reasons. Before long, we could see the promotion of outfielders Mike Stanton (Florida), Domonic Brown (Philadelphia), Jose Tabata (Pittsburgh), Desmond Jennings (Tampa Bay) and Michael Taylor (Oakland), three of the best catching prospects in Buster Posey (San Francisco), Carlos Santana (Cleveland) and Tyler Flowers (White Sox), third basemen Pedro Alvarez (Pittsburgh) and Josh Bell (Baltimore), and pitchers Jeremy Hellickson (Tampa Bay), Kyle Drabek (Toronto), Jake Arrieta (Baltimore) and Tanner Scheppers (Texas).

NO MINOR ACHIEVEMENT

Cincinnati’s Mike Leake is the first player to bypass the minors since Xavier Nady (2000) and the first pitcher since Ariel Prieto (1995). He is 4-0 with a 2.91 ERA, and has drawn a Greg Maddux Lite comparison: A smallish righty without blowaway stuff who thrives with command. Said one scout: “He is not going to overwhelm you with anything, but this guy already has as much pitchability as anyone in the big leagues. He has good sink to both sides of the plate and is a fast worker with a purpose.”

THE FIRST CHOICE

In the 2008 draft, the Rangers took Justin Smoak with the 11th pick and the Mets took Ike Davis at 18 (the Yanks had Davis earmarked if he fell to No. 28). Right now, Davis is outperforming his fellow first baseman. But talent evaluators expect that will change because the switch-hitting Smoak has drawn comparisons with Mark Teixeira and Chipper Jones. Their quick rise, however, accentuates what a strong 2008 draft it was for college players, including the White Sox’s Gordon Beckham, who finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting last year, plus Alvarez, Baltimore’s Brian Matusz, Posey, Toronto’s Brett Wallace, and Detroit’s Ryan Perry and Daniel Schlereth.

TIGERS TANDEM

The Tigers are contenders, in part because two rookie outfielders (Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch) have excelled. Boesch has been such a pleasant surprise that to keep him in the majors, they are planning to have Carlos Guillen play second for the first time since 1999 when he comes off the DL.

ST. LOUIS SURPRISES

The Cardinals began the season with Jamie Garcia as their No. 5 starter and David Freese as their eighth-place hitter. Now Garcia is second in the NL in ERA (1.28) and Freese is batting fifth and has 10 more RBIs (26) than Matt Holliday. Freese, though, is 27, and most scouts are not high on him. The lefty Garcia, however, drew raves, with one scout saying, “If he stays healthy, he is an upper-rotation guy. He has an average fastball, but with late life down, and two plus breaking balls. He has command and deception. He has an arm swing like Steve Avery behind his head, and hitters just don’t see the ball.”

A BABY CUB

At 20, Starlin Castro is the majors’ youngest player and has showed the inconsistency of youth. He had six RBIs in his Cubs debut and three errors in Wrigley debut. There have been some comparisons with Hanley Ramirez. For now, he is hitting .375 and trying to outperform fellow NL rookie shortstops Alcides Escobar (Milwaukee) and Ian Desmond (Washington).

joel.sherman@nypost.com