For the second part of my series of Articles on the future super stars of the NL East I will be focusing on Atlanta Braves Outfielder Jason Heyward. Heyward has had a lot of pressure put on him in his career already despite only being 20 years old, Joe Morgan went as far as to say during a nationally televised game that he predicted he would be the Rookie of the Year before even seeing him swing a bat.

Despite all of the preseason hype and added pressure that was put on the Braves young slugger, he has been everything they have hoped for thus far and then some. Through the first two months of the season Heyward is hitting .269 with 10 home runs and 40 RBI, He ranks 5^th in the NL in walks and 7^th in both RBI and OBP. He also ranks above the league leaders in outfield assist, not a bad start for a rookie.

The Braves have been known for grooming homegrown talent such as Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, and Brian McCann and now Jason Heyward seems poised to be the future of the Braves organization. It didn’t take long for Heyward to make his presence felt as he hit a home run in his much anticipated first career at bat. He has also been named National League Rookie of the Month in both April and May.

It is no surprise that Heyward is off to such a fast start as everyone knew this young man was talented coming out of the minor leagues. In 2009 while playing at both the AA and AAA level he was named minor league player of the year by Baseball America and USA Today. It didn’t take long for the young star to make a name for himself in spring training, during a batting practice session he hit two balls that helped his legend grow, one off of a coca cola truck in the parking lot of right center field and another that broke the sun roof of the Braves Assistant GM.

With the help the young “Phenom” is providing at the plate and in the field the Braves are on top of the NL East right now with a 34-26 record. With the combination of their starting pitching and timely hitting the Braves are trying to make the postseason for the first time since 2005 and Heyward might be just the spark they need to lead them there at a young age.

Heyward is the early on favorite to win Rookie of The Year honors and look for him to continue to make improvements as this year goes on.

Next week I will be writing on the New York Mets young First Baseman, Ike Davis.